I made my first recipe out of a book. I did no research before hand. I think that if I had researched, I probably would have scared myself! I found Red Devil lye at the hardware store and I bought crisco and olive oil at the grocery store. It was UGLY but it was a good soap. (Pro tip - camillia buds do NOT make an attractive additive to CP soap.)
Seriously - it's not that hard. I think my first recipe used volume measurements - either that or I used a cheapo not-digital food scale.
If you are nervous, I also recommend a soap that is 100% olive oil, or some combo of olive oil and shortening. KISS - Keep It Simple, Soapers! (Much nicer that Keep It Simple, Stupid, I think.) This will make a soap that is well behaved and traces slowly, so you don't have to do any fancy footwork.
Do you have any lye? If you don't, you may be able to find it at a hardware store. Red Devil no longer makes straight lye, but other companies do.
Simple tips -
A) allow yourself 3-4 hours. You won't be working constantly, but once you add the lye to the water, it takes a while to cool. And if your oils get too hot, they take a while to cool also. Yes, you can speed up the cooling with an ice water bath or by taking them outside - but IMO, that's just asking for a cat to trip you and splash lye water everywhere!
B) Lay out all of your materials. I lay out molds, mineral oil to grease the molds with, silicone spatulas, dishwashing gloves, etc.
C) have a plan. Where will you put your soap while it is in the mold hardening? I lay out several old towels, put the mold on the towels, then gentle lay more towels over the top of the molds. I usually put several tall cups inside the towel to form a tent over the mold so the towel doesn't touch the soap.
D) Have a roll of paper towels handy.
E) Be sure your pot is stainless steel or glass. If you don't have one, you can usually pick up a cheapo stainless steel stockpot at Walmart, Big Lots or Fred's. These pots have very thin bottoms which means they are useless for anything besides boiling pasta or making soap.
F) For your first soap, don't try to both color AND scent. If you scent, use a well-behaved FO or EO. Lavender or mint are good choices.
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and this is just prepping to make the soap! It's much more work (props to the masters!) and it seems like anyone who hasn't made it before could easily screw it up! I have this paranoid fear that if I did make CP soap I would either cause harm to myself or anyone who would buy my product! 
I'm probably blowing it a teeny bit out of proportion but I don't know if I could ever feel comfortable enough to try CP soap. Is this a normal thing to think about? I feel like maybe I'm a bit too paranoid but considering some of the horror stories (that kid with the lye burns, lye volcanos, if you don't mix goats milk and lye properly, etc.) it makes me retreat safely into the arms of not so scary sounding MP soap.
). It was right after this first batch that I started doing the reading I maybe should have done first but better late than never. And now I can't stop reading and gathering info on soap making - that's the addiction. But the end results once you get the hang of it is amazing. 
