Thread: When a soap/cream has a good "cushion", what does that mean?

I'm about 15 shaves into my new life as a straight razor devotee and have figured out a lot in those shaves. I'm a lifer for sure. But, I'm still confused
about a soap's "cushion". Does this refer to how well it supports the razor? It's weight or thickness? Would love some feedback.

Cushion is protection, glide is slickness. Creams tend to be better with cushion. Lather is thick and adds as protection against your razor. Soaps are slick helping the razor move across your skin. Creams have glide and soaps have cushion but they tend toward on or the other.

If you are happy with what your using, keep at it. It's more important to learn to build good lather. If you want to experiment, pick up a cream and a soap. You will have to be able to build consistent lather with both for a good comparison and to find which you prefer.

Cushion is bollocks. It may be of interest for beginner double edge ("DE") users, but is otherwise unnecessary. What you see in most shave of the day ("SOTD") pictures is lather that has a meringue like texture. What I actually use is much closer to yoghurt (the runny version). Good lather provides little friction (aka "lots of glide") without getting your fingers too slimy to enable you to properly stretch your skin. While I used to appreciate creams for their ability to produce "Father Christmas" lather (cf "meringue" above) initially, I would encourage beginners to buy high quality soaps instead. Baume.be, Esbjerg, Meißner Tremonia, or Savonnerie du bon Berger come to mind. After shave skin care is the key factor here, and the aforementioned products deliver that.

I think I agree with Robin, except for the "bollocks" part.

I used to whip my lather into a mug full that had "standing peaks" (a meringue cooking term). It looked and felt great going on, but seemed to dry quickly, and I still (after 2 years) don't shave quickly with a SR. So I began to stop "whipping" short of that, and in fact now mostly face lather...straight from soap/cream to brush to face. I've found generally that I get better shaves with that wetter lather, which is not runny, but is creamier.

It gives me a better shave. I use quality, but not truly expensive soaps and creams (from Arko, Proraso to DR Harris and Mitchell's Wool Fat, Pre de Provence and the like). I get great shaves if I work the lather to a good creamy consistency, and it is wet enough, sometimes time by re-dipping the brush under the faucet toward the end, to get a two or 2 1/2 pass shave.

All are give me glide or I know I've messed up and go back to the product and some drops of water to redo, but generally what looks like yogurt (never thought of that) works better than what looks like whipped cream.

Cushion?!? I don't know. Maybe sometimes we overthink

+2 to wetter lather for me.

I hate to admit 2 things. The first being I always wondered what "cushion" was in regards to a lather and the second being I agree with RobinK for once. I face lather and like a wetter lather but it must be slick to give good glide to the blade above all else.

When I first took up shaving with a SR I tried bowl lathering and going for that lather that would produce peaks like a meringue. That was after a lifetime of face lathering. It did not really work out well for me and I am back to face lathering and a wetter lather. When you think about it a meringue is very airy/dry which I don't want as a characteristic of my lather.

Bob

Originally Posted by RobinK

Cushion is bollocks. .

Well, I think so too. One tried to explain the concept to me several times, but the concept just doesn't make sense to me.
Protection from the blade? I don't buy it.

Ease of producing lather, glide, aftershave care and scent, those are my parameters.

I enjoy a variety of creams. I will not call them slick. If you water them too much you do not get more slickness, you get a runny mess. When the mixture is right, the lather explodes into thick rich cream. This thick lather provides for a very nice comfortable shave with great skin feel after the shave. You don’t have to call it cushion but when the lather is abundant and seems to suspend the razor while you shave, is something other than slickness. The OP, I believe, was looking for a definition.

I'm not sure I will agree that the idea of cushion is rubbish. However, the more wet lather I agree with. But for me, more wet is not runny. Its short of the whipped meringue stage. Its dense, creamy, a little heavy. I could give you more food/cooking comparisons but that wouldn't help. And I'm convinced that different soaps perform differently on in different people. I try soaps now and then recommended to me by people I know and trust yet we have different opinions on them. What I will say is that if you take two soaps (one good, one not) and lather either side of your face, use the same razor and technique, one side will feel better than the other. At least this has been my experience. I find that the soaps that offer the most cushion have a tendency to load the skin thoroughly. It will take me a little extra water to rinse my face after using it vs a more stingy one. When I was new to this, I was a sucker for the lather and how it whipped up. Its why I was as gung ho on MDC as I was when I first tried it. Now I have several soaps that I prefer much more than MDC. And the two jars of it that I have (barely any soap used) will probably be all of it that I ever own. There's no point in turning this into a soap thread. There are plenty of those. But if you are comfortable with your technique, you'll find that some soaps simply have you feeling better than others. Call it what you want.

The term is an esoteric misnomer in my view and seems to be confused with glide or slickness. This one for example has Triple Cushion® technology, allowing the razor to glide close to the skin while offering a cushion of protection against razor burn, irritation, nicks and cuts. Whatever that means!