Smart Soapmaking: The Simple Guide to Making Traditional Handmade Soap Quickly, Safely, and Reliably Paperback - 2007

From the publisher

Maybe you've made melt-and-pour soap and want to move on to something more challenging and rewarding. Maybe traditional soapmaking appeals to you, but you figure that working with lye is too difficult or dangerous. Or maybe you're already doing it, but outmoded ideas and methods are complicating the process and slowing you down.

No matter which of these fits you, you'll find "Smart Soapmaking" practical, helpful, and refreshing. Written by a former professional soapmaker, this book explodes the myths about soapmaking and shows you how to make luxurious soap with the least fuss and bother.

With both customary and metric measurements, plus a list of suppliers in five countries, "Smart Soapmaking" is the first truly international book on the craft!

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Anne L. Watson is the author of the wildly popular and widely acclaimed beginners book "Smart Soapmaking" and its companions, "Milk Soapmaking" and "Smart Lotionmaking." She has made soap professionally under the company name Soap Tree, and before her retirement was a historic preservation architecture consultant. Anne's other published books include "Baking with Cookie Molds" and several novels. Anne, her husband, Aaron, and their cat, Skeeter, live in Friday Harbor, Washington.

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"Should become THE book for soapmaking. . . . It's about time someone wrote a book like this. Most are idealistic and inaccurate. This book has a wonderful common sense approach that is SO long overdue. . . . I can recommend it with 100% confidence." -- Susan Kennedy, Oregon Trail Soaps, Rogue River, Oregon

"Smart it is . . . . A simple, no-nonsense book that cuts through the curmudgery of stifling soap bibles like no other." -- Shellie Humphries, Harstine Island, Washington

"Way overdue. . . . A gift of common sense caution, proven methods, tried-and-true shortcuts, and some excellent recipes as well, for both the professional/experienced soapmaker and the eager beginner." -- Deb Petersen, Shepherd's Soap Co., Shelton, Washington

"A great book for beginners, with clear and easy instructions." -- Anne-Marie Faiola, Bramble Berry Inc., Bellingham, Washington

"I learned more from Smart Soapmaking than from any other soaping book, and I have read quite a few. . . . It's written with the average person in mind, not a chemistry major. Directions are very simple and easy to understand. It really takes the mystery out of making soap." -- Jackie Pack, Stuart, Virginia

"Groundbreaking . . . . Anne L. Watson [is the] universally respected and loved author/crafter/curator of this lost art for thousands of aspiring soapers . . . . Unquestionably the best book with which to begin. To be precise, it's probably the most accessible, most reader-friendly, and most immediately useful container of information a first-time soapmaker could hope to find." -- Wishing Willow (blog)

"'Smart Soapmaking' finally got me over the hump [of fearing lye]. . . . I think Anne Watson is the Elizabeth Zimmermann of the soap world -- a frugal, common sense gal, who says, 'Don't overcomplicate things. Just make soap.'" -- Amanda Blake Soule, author, "The Creative Family" and "Handmade Home," Soule Mama (blog), Feb. 7, 2012