The wonderful properties of natural handmade soap amaze and thrill beginners and veterans alike. Once you learn the process of making soap using the recipes in this book, you may find that you will be creatively driven to experiment with other ingredients. There are hundreds of possible combinations of oils and butters, fragrances, and botanical additives that make each bar unique. The different ingredients you can use in handmade soaps fulfill specific purposes, such as moisturizing, exfoliating, taming oily skin, or simply cleaning. In the past, people made their own soap out of necessity. Today, inexpensive, mass-produced soap may be found on the shelves of every grocery store and pharmacy. But you can still easily transform natural ingredients into luxurious skin-care bars that are incomparable to the factory-made ones. This book's step-by-step instructions and detailed photographs will enable you to experience the rewards of making your own soaps for hands, face, and body. Expect some happy surprises and some disappointments as you experiment with different combinations of ingredients. Soap making is part science, part art. Making notes on what worked and what didn't will improve your skills and knowledge and result in many more hits than misses. Chances are that once you make your own soap, you'll never go back to store bought. Enjoy!