@peachymoon Beautiful soap.
When I get that ashy, crystallized look on soap it’s usually because the soap at emulsion is a little shy of where it needs to be relative to the temperature inside or outside of the mold. That’s for my small batches, which tend to want to lose heat too fast relative to the rate of internal heat generation. It’s the biggest issue for me when I use a slab mold to make a single layer (4 bars) of soap. I usually put the mold on a heating pad and, if it gels within two hours, the soap won’t get that ashy look. With a loaf mold, you may only need to take the emulsion a tiny bit closer to trace before your pour, or you could try starting a little warmer, adding a little bit more coconut oil to the recipe, covering the mold with a heavy towel or sticking a covered mold on a heating pad. With small batches of 400-1000 g of oil, all of those strategies have worked for me. I usually stick with the heating pad because it’s easiest for me. Recently I got backed up and moved one soap to a styrofoam box after I felt it was warmed up enough from being on the heating pad. I guess it was almost warm enough. I ended up with a just a bit of that crystallized looking ash on the top surface.
When I get that ashy, crystallized look on soap it’s usually because the soap at emulsion is a little shy of where it needs to be relative to the temperature inside or outside of the mold. That’s for my small batches, which tend to want to lose heat too fast relative to the rate of internal heat generation. It’s the biggest issue for me when I use a slab mold to make a single layer (4 bars) of soap. I usually put the mold on a heating pad and, if it gels within two hours, the soap won’t get that ashy look. With a loaf mold, you may only need to take the emulsion a tiny bit closer to trace before your pour, or you could try starting a little warmer, adding a little bit more coconut oil to the recipe, covering the mold with a heavy towel or sticking a covered mold on a heating pad. With small batches of 400-1000 g of oil, all of those strategies have worked for me. I usually stick with the heating pad because it’s easiest for me. Recently I got backed up and moved one soap to a styrofoam box after I felt it was warmed up enough from being on the heating pad. I guess it was almost warm enough. I ended up with a just a bit of that crystallized looking ash on the top surface.
& to whiten I used White kaolin clay’ Pink kaolin clay for sand color along w/ lite brown mica.
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…)
seriously, I'd love to be less messy as I suspect my micas end up half in the soap and half on the spoon/container/microfiber cloth, it's such a shame.
& a Finger Cover, it kept finger & band-aid secure & clean, I was shocked how well it work‘ed, each box has different sizes to choose from which is handy. I found mine at Walmart. 
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. I look forward to seeing everybodys creations though!
