Second Edition Available Now

The Soap Making Companion includes the 15 recipes found in lessons 1 - 3. This book is complimentary material to correspond to the video tutorials found in lessons 1 - 3. It is a full soap making course for beginners.

Lessons 4 - 10 contain 12 additional books for download filled with 100s of recipes for soap, cosmetics, and bath products.

Click the button above to open the pdf file of this book. This page will stay open when you click this button.

Welcome to the Thermal Mermaid Soap Maker's Course in the Learning Library. You have just signed up for access to the Member's Dashboard in the Crafter's Community, as either a Kelpie, Mermaid, or Siren level member.

Thermal Mermaid is broken into two parts. One part is for shoppers and artisan sellers to connect in the market place, and the other part is just for artists or those who want to learn the craft of soap and cosmetic making to come together here in the Crafter's Community. The member's dashboard and all the content inside is a part of the Crafter's Community.

I am Jennifer, the creator of Thermal Mermaid, and I will be the voice of all the tutorials that you view here. Everything that you'll discover inside this membership is a collection of my hand crafted soap and body cosmetics.

If you have come to this course through my free beginner soap making book, The Soap Making Companion you may have signed up for the Kelpie level membership, which will give you access to modules one – three. These modules are the video tutorials that correspond to the chapters and recipes in the book.

Lessons one through three will give you all the information you need from beginning to end in an organized format on how to make hand made soap. You will learn how to get started, careful chemical instructions, how to work with caustic lye, and basic first aid for treating chemical burns if an emergency should arise. It then continues with both cold process and hot process soap making techniques with over a dozen recipes in those two lessons.

Kelpies only have access to these modules, and if you want to unlock modules 4 – 11 you will have to sign up to be a Mermaid or Siren level. You'll find buttons for this directly on your dashboard when you are ready to do that.

Each module will have an introductory video that will break down the content of every lesson in the module, so before you start the module you will get a quick summary of what it contains. If you are a Kelpie member you have access to the first introduction video to every lesson including those in 4 - 11 to see if there is content you would like to sign up for.

If you have joined as either a Mermaid or Siren then you will have unrestricted access to all the content in the course. This includes all the lessons and the recipe directory. There is no difference in access to material between the Siren or the Mermaid. If you came here, and did not get a copy of the beginner soap making book, you can download a copy below this video.

You may be a beginner just learning a new craft, or you may be a seasoned soap and lotion maker and you are here just to access the recipes. Either way, the recipes you find here are free to use, copy, tweak, and label as your own if you are working on a small business or just want to put your branding on them. You do not need my permission to to make any of these recipes and sell them as your own.

So, let's take a quick glance at your personalized members dashboard and look at what is in front of us. The learning library is broken down into three parts. The first part includes all of the course tutorials. Lessons one through three are for beginners,

Lesson four describes how to use colorants both artificial and natural. The natural colorants have descriptions of herbs and plants broken down with an explanation of their perceived benefits, so you can use this section to review the herbs that you may also want to put into your body creams and face masks.

Lesson 5 is about fragrances both artificial and natural.

Lessons 6 and 7 are different types of soap products and additional techniques for more intermediate and advanced recipes.

Then when we get into Lesson 8 we shift gears and discuss packaging and storing your products. This is helpful if you want to think about turning your hobby into a business.

In Lesson 9 you will find resources on where to sell your product in both the real world and online. This includes a directory of flea markets, farmers markets, and a discussion of modern online sales.

Lesson 10 is a huge collection of additional resources that will get you started on more in depth business details if you are serious about developing a small business. There is also a downloadable collection of a dozen Thermal Mermaid recipe books that have been published on Amazon over the years.

In lesson 11, I have created an entire market place platform that mermaid and siren level members can use to to sell their items online. This is built similar to Etsy, and as a member you do not pay listing fees or final value fees when you use this plat form. I built this to help those of you out there who are tinkering with the idea of of starting your business, but are hindered by too many little fees to move forward. This is a good place to get your feet web with online sales, and get more experience before you start to grow. You can learn more about that in lesson 11.

The second part of the Members Dashboard is the recipe directory. This is where you can skip all of the course material and browse a whole collection of recipes that include lotions, soaps, and other cosmetics, broken down into about 12 categories. Every one of these recipes I have made and created over the years, and as I improve and develop more of these recipes, I post them and add them to the collection.

You will find these pages all have printable instructions, and recipes in .pdf format that you can download to keep for your own collection along with photos and in many cases exclusive video tutorials. Be aware that not all of the recipes will have a video because there are hundreds and videos take a lot of work and time, but when you see a video inside the members dashboard these are edited exclusively for you and are not the same as the free video collection nor anything that is posted on Facebook or YouTube.

Exclusive videos include the full recipe and are often longer because they aren't just for entertainment. You may find yourself using the video to watch the product morph and change while its being born and this takes a little more time to watch than just a quick YouTube video on how something is made. I am adding content to this section so don't be surprised if you see multiple pages being worked on all at the same time. Just check back and the content you want to view will continue to grow.

Finally, the third part of your members dashboard is a collection of tools and connections that will help you formulate and create your unique products and reach out and connect to other crafters.

Below the recipe collection there is a section that says more information.

Here, you have access to little programs that I have written over the years including soap calculators , essential oil calculators, and batch record calculators. You can find easy links to these here, and you also have access to the exclusive label creator. When you click on the label creator this will take you to an entire portal with hundreds of customizable labels that you can create in high resolution and print for your own products. The labels here are exclusive designs. Each one of them I have hand designed, and you can choose from the pre-formated sizes. There are also full tutorials on how to use the label creator.

Next, we have the our community connections. There are two ways to reach out to me or other members in the community. The first is by posting in the forum. The link to the forum discussion is directly on your dash board and you can find any topic you want. I prefer that questions direct to me are posted publicly rather than through customer service email, because this way if you are trying to trouble shoot something technical, most commonly a log in issue, then everyone can see what the solutions are and often these can be remedied faster than it takes for me to answer.

The forum is also for questions and comments on specific recipes as you are working on them, and each recipe has a thread dedicated to it, so you can click the forum link directly on any recipe page to see if there are people discussing that recipe, or if you want to leave your comments.

Next, there are 2 Facebook groups associated with Thermal Mermaid. This is one is for reaching other members, joining our group events like the quarterly soap swap, and just generally socializing. The second group is dedicated to just business talk and technical questions about the market place and for those who become involved in selling on the market place platform. I welcome you to join either of those and participate or if you just want to quietly watch, you are welcome to do that as well.

I also encourage you to contact me through the Direct Message in the Facebook group if you need customer service support, as I will typically see this faster than any email. So if you have a question that you don't want to post for the whole world to see.... then please message me there.

Finally, on the very bottom of your page you will see a link to your account control. If you ever want to close your membership you have complete control over this. You do not need my permission. You do not need a reason and there are no secret fees to be charged. You can follow the cancellation link any time you choose.

Just be aware that clicking the cancel button will take you to the PayPal page where you have to sign in and cancel with PayPal. I do not hold, see, or control any of your billing details, so I do not control this feature. It is done through PayPal exclusively. So, if you have tried to cancel and you quit part way through and don't read the directions, it is not me secretly billing you after you think you canceled, but if you have trouble navigating this please contact me and I will help you.

Also when you cancel, your subscription is canceled immediately. This is all automated, so if you sign up for a month, and cancel a day later you will be charged but the account will automatically close the moment you cancel. And finally, you have 30 days to ask for any money back. Sometimes people forget their subscriptions, especially if it is an annual subscription. When you sign up, your subscription is set to automatically renew and you agreed to this when you signed up, but don't let this worry you. If you discover a subscription renewal and you forgot to cancel, just contact me within 30 days and you will be refunded. Any charges that you incur up to 30 days can be returned to you at your request for any reason. You can send me a message if you are having any difficulty and I will help you.

And that concludes the introductory video for lesson one..... So lets start making home made soap.