@Michele50 
thank you for those very clear photos. It never even occurred to me to use the colored micas instead of gold.
I’ve been putting the mica in water rather than oil or glycerin, which may be part of the problem. I also rushed to cut the soap. It was my first recipe with tallow and when the top got very hard within 4 hours of putting the soap in the mold I was afraid that I would be trying to cut a rock if I waited until the next day. I am always learning
You're quite welcome. My soap took longer to be able to unmold, definitely
NOT within 1-4 hours as I've read from others. I checked it often and I think it was 7 hours. It was firm(ish) at the 4-hour mark but when peaking between the mold's side and the soap it was tacky and wanted to cling to the sides so I gave it time.
An idea I had and it seemed to work for this one and the 2nd salt soap I made was to put the bars
back into my mold
as soon as I cut them. In removing them while the loaf was still warm and exposing it to air I figured for sure my bars would end up with soda ash--nope
. I placed plastic wrap back onto the mold just as it was when I put my soap to bed. Since it didn't take long to unmold and cut all 11 bars with my newly purchased 12-bar slicer my hope was to avert the ash--none whatsoever.
@Michele50You managed to get impressive swirls in your salt bar, which are notorious for being difficult to swirl....."
I looked at other people's recipes b/4 making my first salt bars and I noticed a couple chose 3:1 water to lye and soaped at 90 F. The bit of extra water I figured would provide a little more time to do a swirl. Soaping at 90 F, something I was only beginning to do, I knew would also afford more time for swirling. I believe both together allowed for the ability to have the time after adding the salt to accomplish the swirls.
I took almost a year off from soap (health issues) so when I began again (August) I wanted to tackle soaping cooler than my usual 120-130F. I wanted to be able to do things that require a very fluid batter, one that'd give more time to do fancy stuff, like Aug, Sep, and Oct's challenges needed. Funny, those were all techniques I wanted to begin after getting the hang of soaping cooler, lol; I had to just jump right into it so I'm still learning to stop at emulsion......sometimes I don't trust myself and go over into light trace
@Michele50With the cure of my first salt bars now at the 5 month mark, a tester soap made with powdery salt seems to be lathering a little less than a tester soap made with granular salt. I’m wondering if the difference could be due to the texture of the bars, with the “rougher” soap lathering better. My next step is to pull out some full size bars to compare.
I think you're on the right track with that thought--the 'texture.' The texture is different between the two; I figure because there is a larger surface area of coconut oil soap surrounding the grains the soap will lather more. With the powdered salt, the salt is more evenly dispursed withing the coconut oil soap so it'd be mixed in with it and less likely to be as bubbly. I hope I explained what was in my head properly enough for comprehension.
I need to make another loaf with 50% salt and use granules rather than the powder so I can compare. The 2nd was with just .33% so much less than the 1st. It had no issues lathering, lol, oh my goodness.........even right away. I just had to try out a tiny scape of soap after a few days.
Thanks
@Kiti Williams 
