Are there books or instructions that describe how to make soap?

Yes, there are books out there. There are so many websites online that have instructions and information on how they do it. I have got it on my website, in fact. I took a class. I went to Denver and took a class and then I have a health food store. So I ended up with a bunch of soap bars and I gave them out to customers. They came back and said "this is the most incredible thing you have done. Are you going to sell them?" I got involved in teaching it because it is hard to find the ingredients. We have to go online or, being in the health industry, I can buy them. I had to buy enough palm oil for 35 lbs of soap. So it's not consumer friendly to buy and that's why I have started the "make your own soap kit." There are more and more places that are making it available online.

I get ideas from just playing around. As you get more comfortable making it, you can get kind of brave. One day you might want to do some different and make a prettier bar. I suggest people get comfortable with making the soap before you start adding a bunch of stuff to it like coloring because you are working with a chemical process. You want to get more comfortable before you start putting things in it. You don't know what you are doing and you might end up with a product that didn't turn out right and be discouraged.