I would not recommend this book for beginners. I've had this book for many years and have never used it. If you've never made soap before, I recommend finding someone who can give you a hands-on lesson. If that isn't an option, seek out on-line discussion forum for advice. There is usable information in this book, but some of the author's methods are questionable, at best, and a lot of the information is outdated. A more experienced soap maker can wade through the misinformation to get the good stuff in this book. For example, the recipes are large and super-fatted. I recommend scaling down the recipes and using a trusted lye calculator to figure the amount of lye needed.

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About eleven years ago, a soapmaker acquaintance taught me to make soap, and brought this book along with her as a reference. It's a great book with step by step procedures, recipes, cautions, advice, troubleshooting, ingredient & equipment lists/sources, etc. This acquaintance then bought me my own copy to help in my new soapmaking hobby. It's been invaluable through the years. There are questions that I didn't have right away, but came up later that this book answered.
I have in turn taught several folks to make soap. When I teach a new soapmaker, I bring this book along, let the person borrow it (if they're local), and encourage them to buy their own.

I strongly recommend anyone thinking about learning soapmaking to try to find this in your local library. If you like it, buy your own! Or better yet, get it here from a PBS member :)

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