Thread: How do you use soap?

This may seem like a bizarre question...but follow me here. How do you use your shaving soap?

When I first took this up, i started with a tub of Castle Forbes and would glop some on the brush and lather on my face.

About the time I was running out of that, I had been messing around in the pottery shop and made myself a ribbed bowl that could scuttle either cream or soap chips (I suppose). When I ran out of cream, I put a puck of Tabac into the bowl, and nuked it until it melted into place (and oh what a horrific stench that made ). But, once in place, I just lather right on top of the solidified glop of 'it used to be a puck'.

But I gather this is not normal...the hole nuking it into a ceramic bowl thing.

I also know that you don't want to expose wooden bowls to month and months of daily wetness, or else they start to rot, and surely we don't want "spalting" mold on our fresh cuts.

So...what do the rest of you do? Do you carve off chips with your razor into a bowl? Go ahead and lather in the wood bowl and damn the torpedoes? Enlighten me!

Depends on the soap.

Arko stick I use straight on my face or it can be pressed into a mug as its so pliable, both work. Some slice a bit off into a mug and use it that way.

Glycerine soaps like Col.Conk can be microwaved, tallow soaps can be grated then pressed into a mug/bowl (MWF, Tabac etc).

I'm a face latherer so I usually apply the soap either straight to my face or I load my brush then apply straight to my face. I don't like using a scuttle or a bowl to make lather in. Seems like wasted effort when you can be building a great lather on your face.

Okay, so I'm not too far off base.

I think I'll get to work on my next concept. Ceramic bowl with built in heating element.

Originally Posted by jgjgjg

Okay, so I'm not too far off base.

I think I'll get to work on my next concept. Ceramic bowl with built in heating element.

Have you tried cold shaving? I love it, great for the skin…..

Originally Posted by kevinred

Have you tried cold shaving? I love it, great for the skin…..

I have, and it works fine. I just like really really make-you-look-like-a-lobster hot shaving. But it's tough to achieve....

I keep my soap in an 8 ounce pyrex bowl with the lid on when not in use. I lather in a separate bowl. Face lathering works fine too, but I make too big of a mess. When the pucks are new, I put a thin layer of water in the bottom of the pyrex bowl and place the puck in and let it dry overnight...the puck is now held tight in the bowl. The only time I don't use this set-up is when I use SRD's soaps, they already come in a container.

I lather out of the container on soaps, my brush has been soaking in hot water for a few minutes.
If it is a puck without container, then I put the puck in a Pyrex bowl & later out of it, meaning I work the lather on top & around the puck in the bowl. I will let the lid on the bowl stay cracked for a day to dry some, as I rotate soaps & creams.

I do not melt soaps, if I want a softer puck to lather or want my brush to pick up more soap, then I use a cheese grater & shread some of the puck in the bowl, then you can work it(mold it) back together with your finger & a little water, this gives me a softer puck to work with.

Or;

Just get Cella, it's soft , cheap & a great soap.

some of the things I was wondering about also.

I pretty much do the same as John (Hirlau). Except I try to find better looking containers than Pyrex! LOL!

You should see some of the crystal bowls they sell at the Salvation Army, perfect for a puck of soap to sit on it and probably at the price of a Pyrex bowl!

Yeah dude, don't nuke tabac lol unless it's a glycerin soap (they're usually translucent-ish) just shred and press, otherwise you're compromising the performance of the soap (IIRC) and killing the fragrance.