Stearic spots in half batch?

[Green Mountain Farm]

Hello all!
So, when I make soap I make a 16.5 pound batch and split it in two, making three loaves of one kind of soap and three of another kind (my recipe is VERY slow moving so I’m able to do this)
Recently I’ve been having stearic spots show up in my soap, but they will often only appear in one of the two halves of my recipe. Like yesterday I made my big batch and split it in half, one was lavender mint and the other was a fall blend. When I cut them, the fall blend had super bad stearic spots but the lavender mint has none!
I soap at around 80 because I use goat milk. I’ve never had this problem!
I will note that when I made this last batch, my lye/goat milk mixture was 20 degrees cooler than my oils. My oils were 90 and my lye was 70. When I mixed it all together, it was 80.

 

[Jersey Girl]

Soaping cool can cause stearic spots. Maybe the spots showed up in the batches you made last as the oils had cooled more?

 

[DeeAnna]

Is your recipe high in stearic and palmitic acids?

Is a batter temp of 80 F cooler than the batter temp you've had in the past when stearic spots weren't an issue?

Is the Fall fragrance a new one to you?

 

[Green Mountain Farm]

Soaping cool can cause stearic spots. Maybe the spots showed up in the batches you made last as the oils had cooled more?

I made the fall one first

Is your recipe high in stearic and palmitic acids?

Is a batter temp of 80 F cooler than the batter temp you've had in the past when stearic spots weren't an issue?

Is the Fall fragrance a new one to you?

It’s high I’m coconut oil, olive oil, and Shea butter. It also includes castor oil, cocoa butter, and avocado oil.

I usually soap around 80 degrees.

It’s a blend of essential oils that I have used before individually. I haven’t used the blend though. But the stearic spots have appeared in other batches.

 

[DeeAnna]

I personally wouldn't soap that cool, since 3 of your fats would prefer to be solid at that temp. I think this choice makes it more likely you'll see stearic spots because the solid fats aren't 100% fully melted.

edit: I gently heat the fats enough until they're visually clear. I can't say that 100% prevents stearic spots, but I do think it helps. It's possible to let the fats cool somewhat after they're fully melted to keep the starting batter temperature as low as is reasonable, but even so, 80 F is still cooler than I normally go. Speaking off the top of my head, I think 90-105 F is the range my batter usually starts at.

 

[Green Mountain Farm]

I personally wouldn't soap that cool, since 3 of your fats would prefer to be solid at that temp. I think this choice makes it more likely you'll see stearic spots because the solid fats aren't 100% fully melted.

edit: I gently heat the fats enough until they're visually clear. I can't say that 100% prevents stearic spots, but I do think it helps. It's possible to let the fats cool somewhat after they're fully melted to keep the starting batter temperature as low as is reasonable, but even so, 80 F is still cooler than I normally go. Speaking off the top of my head, I think 90-105 F is the range my batter usually starts at.

how do I keep my batter white if it gets that hot? When I go above 85-90 the milk turns a yellow color.

 

[DeeAnna]

I suppose you're going to have to find a reasonable compromise that is tolerable to you -- I don't know that you can have that cake and eat it too.