Jan, maybe you need to use more soap, as you say it hardly covers the skin. I load my brush for 30 seconds with most soaps...45 seconds with Mitchell's Wool Fat. As for the lather drying too quickly, that is a common problem when you first start wet-shaving. It's probably a combination of not enough water in the lather, and the fact that it takes you a long time to shave when you're a rookie. Try putting 5 drops of glycerin in the mix, that should help make the lather richer and last longer. Good luck.