Product Review

Soap and cosmetic recipes have been around for thousands of years. Before the discovery of synthetic scents and colors (ca 1890) and detergents (ca 1930's) nearly all the ingredients used to create soap, cosmetics and perfumes were "natural" (not necessarily SAFE, but certainly derived from natural sources). This book contains over 500 recipes for many different categories of soap and cosmetic products, including soap, creams and lotions, balms and salves, oils, bath fizzies and bombs, salts and soaks, powders, exfoliants and scrubs, clays and masks, perfumes, and products for the hair, teeth and household. There is also a short chapter on the strange and bizarre (not recommended for actual use). The recipes were compiled from antique and vintage books and several websites, focusing on those that made using safe, natural ingredients (recipes containing arsenic, mercury, lead and other toxic materials were not included). The focus of the soap recipes are pre-1930 (before detergents) and a large percentage of the cosmetic recipes are pre-1900. Also included is an extensive glossary of the ingredients used in the recipes provided, along with possible alternative ingredients when the original is exhorbitantly expensive or generally unavailable. These recipes can be used as-is (although not all of them have been tested), or can be used as a starting point for developing unique natural soap and cosmetics formulations of your own.