stearic spots or TD?

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Jaxee

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Hey guys, I'm sure you've probably answered this question many times but I can't seem to find a answer. New to soap making and my last 3-4 batches have had the same issue, I'm unsure if this is stearic spots or TD ? Or both?

My recipe is:

43% olive oil
32% coconut oil
15% shea butter
10% castor oil
Superfatting 6%
Lye concentration 34.2%

I mix my lye and oils around 85-90f, but have also tried around 100f with no improvement.
I have also done the lye zap test and paper towel test. Not zappy at all and no brown paper.
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Any help would be super appreciated!
 
Oh, that's probably it then! Would you say i needed to have a even higher lye concentration to eliminate them? Or stop them going through gel phase by freezer/fridge method?

Here is another one of my soaps where I thought it was undissolved TD but I had sifted the TD twice and blended really well. Good to finally get a cause to the problem, thank you :)
 

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Here's some examples of glycerin rives from my archives:
Less water will help. Since i started using less water I don't get as many. I used to use 28% lye concentration, now I use 30 - 33%. I prefer gelled soap, so I will take glycerin rivers over ungelled soap.
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"...I mix my lye and oils around 85-90f, but have also tried around 100f with no improvement. ..."

I wouldn't soap that cool with a recipe that has solid fats in it, especially fats high in stearic and palmitic acids like the shea. You're increasing the risk of some of the fats solidifying in the soap pot due to the batter being too cool

Do you warm the fats so they are fully melted and clear before starting to make soap? If not, you might want to try soaping just a few degrees warmer -- say 102-105 F might be helpful.

I suppose this could be "glycerin" rivers, but at 34% lye concentration, I think the risk of rivers is fairly small unless you're adding colorants mixed with water that would raise the water content higher than calculated. But if that's the case, normally the rivers are concentrated in the higher water portion of the soap. Your soap has a fairly even distribution of spots throughout.
 
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