Teach Soap

Okay, so for christmas i recieved a soap making book and i just had a few questions.

It says that you can use fresh fruits and vegetables, like carrots, apples and everything. However, when I asked that same question here i was told that is a no-no.. so im confused whether to not to use fruits and veg.
It also says that the fruit and veg can be used as the preservatives, is this right?

Just for example it says you can use allof these things: cornmeal, carrots, the contents of a tea bag, barley, leaves from trees, lettuce, stems from flowers and fruits, dried up fruits (oranges), fruit rind/peel..
Are these things really safe to be put into soap? I just wondered before I actually tried any of these recipies.

Thank you!

Any fresh material that has any water content is not safe for MP soap. It's ok for CP soap.

No fruits or vegetables have preservative properties.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Brambleberry has a book by Marie Browning about M/P soaping and alot of the soaps are artsy. I love the decoupaged soaps.

I have 2 of Marie Browning's books that I received as gifts. She has some beautiful M&P soaps and shows different techniques for each one. I had several problems with her books, but otherwise was very happy for all the different soaps I could make (over 300!).
My main problems were:
1. She insists that you don't need to spray your soap with alcohol to remove bubbles or to attach different soap inserts or layer soap. I found that I got a lot of tiny bubbles and my soap would fall apart the moment I popped them out of the mold when I didn't spray alcohol on my soaps.
2. She suggests making a paste of Vaseline and mineral oil as a mold release. Yuck! It made a mess, my soaps were sticky and lacked definition, plus I had the hardest time cleaning my soap molds after each use.
If you just want ideas though, Marie Browning's books are a good place to start.

Soapylove has a new M&P soaping E-zine out called "Let's get Soapy!" you can get through her blog . It has 3 full soap projects, product reviews, supplies sources AND coupons, including one for Brambleberry!! Besides "Let's get Soapy!", Soapylove also provides links to her different tutorials, some of which are free (which are always a big plus!). Another good online source for tutorials is our Soap Queen Anne-Marie's blog . She also provides advice on the different aspects of soapmaking including the business side. I find that their blogs are great resources because if you post a question to a project, they can always clarify things better than just reading it in a book and trying to figure things out on your own. HTH!

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Armi