Thread: Soap Mug Dilemma

I'm just starting out with my Dovo Shavette and really loving it. I find myself spending far too much time on the classifieds waiting for the perfect deal so I can get going like a big boy!
Until then a quick question that I didn't see the answer to on Lynn's awesome video or in my quick perusal of the forums: what do I do with my soap and mug after the shave? I see a lot of mugs out there with lids which would imply leaving it, but have seen some posts about soap getting slimy or drying out.
What do you experienced guys do? Wash out the mug, leave the soap out to dry? Leave it all in there for tomorrow and re-lather?
Seems like a silly question to ask, but this is quickly turning in to an expensive new hobby and I'd like to reduce how often I'm replacing soap.
Thanks gents!

Oh, and anyone have advice on the classifieds. Seems like business was slow during the week, then a TON of great deals went up early Saturday and were all gone before I got home. Makes sense and all, but is that the norm? Am I better off waiting until the weekend?

People use anything for bowls. They range from ones you get at the Dollar Store to nice silver ones. I keep mine in inexpensive wooden bowls on got on ebay ($6.95 each). They happen to have a lid. I don't know if they are necessarily required. Find something that works for you that you like and you will be fine. If you haven't already discovered, you will soon find out that most all of shaving is personal. You will acquire many things (brushes, bowls, soap, creams, and even razors), some you will want to keep others you will toss or sell. You will get to the point where you will have what you like and need.

My soap bowls are tuperware and therefor have a lid, mostly because they must be stacked to fit in their cupboard and they don't get rinsed off. My lather mug gets rinsed out every day, mostly because I use a different soap every shave. When I used only one soap, and didn't use a seperate lather mug, it just sat on the counter, all the time, I only rinsed it clean between cakes of soap. If every soap was in a seperate, open, mug other than taking up to much room on my counter they ould be just fine.

i have a plain mug its like an oversized cofee cup after i get done i will dump out any excess water then put the mug up and by the way welcome to srp

Just about anything you can think of has been used, and probably successfully, as a shaving bowl. Just make sure it is not too deep so your brush can’t reach the soap, or to shallow so there is no place for the lather to build or just slosh out when you get it made. Has to be wide enough that you have some room to swirl around, maybe get some finger action in there. About 31/2 inches deep by 5 inches wide is about right for me. I prefer ceramic stuff. Nice heft and feel, and you can plop it in a container of hot water to get hot lather. Mine all have handles because it is easy to lose hold of a slippery vessel while in the midst of battle (shaving). My opinion is get a cover. I’ve never had a sliming problem (except when attempting to contain violent paranormal ectoplasmic entities, but that’s a different subject). Your soap will lather up quicker and smoother if it does not dry out. I get these kinds of containers in the kitchen ware section at Wal Mart or one of the outlet mall kind of kitchen stores. Generally in the $2 a pop range, they stack nice and it is not too expensive to have one for every soap.

Buy/Sell/Trade makes little rhyme or reason, it flows hot and cold. Sometimes it just don’t flow. I know there are guys that check it a few times an hour all day long from work. There can be screaming deals and when they pop up they go very fast. If there is something you want you must know what it is, and shoot quick when you see it.

I have a generic ceramic kitchen bowl that I make lather in plus a mug that I keep my soap in. When I go to build lather, I have a damp brush and swirl it on top of the puck to load up the brush. Once it's loaded, I don't look at the soap again until my next shave. In other words, you can just let it dry out, no biggie. If you're actually putting water in the mug though, it's a good idea to dump the excess. You don't have to clean the mug out unless you want to- it's just soap

Ok, so next question: Do you use a different brush for each soap? I see in the SotD posts that people change up their setups on a near daily basis. Do you feel like brushes are like pipes, where you have a different pipe for each tobacco?

I use a big Harley coffee mug usually for soaps and after I am done shaving, I just rinse out the suds, dry the mug and put it up for next time. I am liking the bulb shaped brushes more these days as they really seem to work well for both creams and soaps. I have found a stiffer brush better for generating suds with cake soap, but something like a Rooney's finest, which is an awesome brush can be expensive. Stephen's brushes and Shavemac's work well for everything at decent prices. There are other brushes out there both more and less expensive.

On the classified's, they are running very different the last month or so. There are a lot of really good razors back a few pages that probably aren't even getting seen. It comes and goes. There will always be another nice one that comes up though, so stay tuned.

Lynn

After I'm done shaving I just dump out any excess water and leave them until I'm ready to leave the area and then cover them up. All my mugs have covers. I found out some time ago if you rotate soaps and have several and you use soaps with scent they will lose their scent over time if not covered. Most of my mugs are a collection of stone and pottery vessels I've gotten here and there.