This recipes is based on my favorite sleepy-time tea.

Ingredient 2lb/900g Batch 30% Coconut Oil* 266 g 30% Vegetable Shortening* 270 g 30% Olive Oil (Pomace)* 270 g 10% Peanut Oil 94 g Lye 125.68 g Water 342 g Additional Liquid: Honey 171 g Additional Liquid: Yogurt 171 g Additives Color Indigo w/ Glycerin 1/8 tsp E.O. Lavender 0.7 oz E.O. Eucalyptus 0.3 oz F.O. Peach 0.4 oz

*Oils Infused with: Calendula & Chamomile

I envisioned a lovely light, relaxing scent in a lovely light blue.

I just bought some indigo colorant and wanted to give it a try. My Chamomile plant was producing more than I could drink. I put the freshly harvested Chamomile in the oven as the lowest setting I could (200 degrees in my oven) for an hour. I turned the oven off and left the Chamomile in the oven for another hour, (until completely dry).

Since I drink my Chamomile tea with honey I thought this would be a good recipe to try adding honey to. This is where things started to veer off from my vision…

We have this lovely (read: expensive) jar of local honey, and as I was measuring out the amount called for I got some cold feet. I quickly decided to split the difference and add yogurt as well as honey to make up the rest of the liquid.

Of course any soaper should know a couple of things, which is sugars will darker soap.

I poured most of the soap into the mold then mixed more indigo until it turned more bluish than brownish to make a nice top layer. Still not pretty and the top layer is more mottled because I didn’t add the glycerine with the indigo. I was rushing around a bit then, worried the soap would seize up completely if I mixed it any more. Instead of a lovely light blue, I got an interesting brownish-orange.

This is just completed soap, versus cured for 24 hours.