Thread: Question about mug soap

OK, I'll toss in the way I do it, just for grins.
I lather in a bowl (actually a violet planter or "redneck scuttle"). I use one of those little cheese spreader "knives" (sort of like a little butter knife about 4 inches long, wooden handle and a metal spatula-shape blade with a few coarse serrations around the end curve). You can also use the fingernail cleaner blade that is on your nail clippers, or anything similar. You rake this tool lightly over the face of the dry puck, and produce very thin shavings of soap, about 1-2 mm wide and 10 mm long, but only about 0.1 mm thick. Put these in the bottom of your lather bowl, and start with your soaked but shaken brush. Add hot water to the base of the brush with a small spoon a little at a time until your lather is right.
This not only saves soap, but the puck stays dry and clean. You will learn by experience about how much soap you need. If too wet, add a little soap shaving; if too dry, add a little water. Out of lather, just add some more soap and a little water and make more.

This is very methodical and basically the same. Glad to see I'm not the only one concerned about saving soap!

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Exactly. I just work the soap into my brush on the puck, lather in a separate bowl and put the container with the puck away right then. with some soaps I've used there might be a couple of shaves worth of soap stuck to the container even when the puck appears completely gone.

I see, this is very helpful. So what im guessing eventually happens is as the puck is worn down...leaving the lather leftover on it will all settle to the bottom to kindof make a form fitting chunk of soap that sits in the bowl.

I like all the input given so far guys much appreciated. Today i used Col conks and just left the lather on the puck. Then i actually squeezed the remaining lather from my brush on it too. Kindof swirled it all around so it layed flat and put it back.

I kindof feel like theres gonna be like a soap scum issue doing this...but we will see. I dont want to waste any

I have not had problems with scum it dries pretty quickly and I've done this for a few months now. Don't even worry about swirling... what happens with mine is the initial loading dissolves some down around the edges to "glue" the soap in place. I just squeeze the lather on top and let it dry. Then when I go to load the brush next time the old lather which is very dry and powdery now (but dried in foam looking formation) easily easily loads the brush.

Originally Posted by khaos

I have not had problems with scum it dries pretty quickly and I've done this for a few months now. Don't even worry about swirling... what happens with mine is the initial loading dissolves some down around the edges to "glue" the soap in place. I just squeeze the lather on top and let it dry. Then when I go to load the brush next time the old lather which is very dry and powdery now (but dried in foam looking formation) easily easily loads the brush.

Interesting. Thanks for that, the walmart soap i got when i first started was gone very quickly. I made the mistake of cleaning the puck off after every shave, but ill just leave all the rest in the bowl now. Seems like it will save alot of soap in the long run

Which walmart soap did you have? If its VDH I can understand that lol. The stuff dissolved very quickly so even rinsing it may have lost some soap. my experience so far with other soap shows it seems to be longer lasting.

Originally Posted by khaos

Which walmart soap did you have? If its VDH I can understand that lol. The stuff dissolved very quickly so even rinsing it may have lost some soap. my experience so far with other soap shows it seems to be longer lasting.

Yeah i think it was the VDH. It was a three piece set with horrible boar brush, cheap soap and a pretty cool little soap bowl that i think i will continue using.

Originally Posted by shorynot

Yeah i think it was the VDH. It was a three piece set with horrible boar brush, cheap soap and a pretty cool little soap bowl that i think i will continue using.

LOL. That is everyone's sentiment on that. The brush is not *that* crappy. JK it is. But I promise you, after I learned to lather with that brush and soap, when I got my Rivivage soap (and any soap or cream so far) and Vulfix badger brush, lathering was so easy. My only problem was the lather was drying too fast, but I found out I wasn't using enough water/I was spending too much time on the puck. I'm guessing this was because I was used to the VDH brush but wasn't hard to fix. If you can make 3 passes of lather using that brush and cream, you can make more than you ever need using anything else. I still have the bowl lol.

Originally Posted by khaos

LOL. That is everyone's sentiment on that. The brush is not *that* crappy. JK it is. But I promise you, after I learned to lather with that brush and soap, when I got my Rivivage soap (and any soap or cream so far) and Vulfix badger brush, lathering was so easy. My only problem was the lather was drying too fast, but I found out I wasn't using enough water/I was spending too much time on the puck. I'm guessing this was because I was used to the VDH brush but wasn't hard to fix. If you can make 3 passes of lather using that brush and cream, you can make more than you ever need using anything else. I still have the bowl lol.

Yeah, the bowl is pretty nice. Perfect size for mug soap. The brush makes lather, which was fine at the beginning. But even my cheap Tweezerman feels 10x softer than that. Maybe some guys prefer a stiff boar brush like that...not me though. Not to mention that boar brush shed all over the place the first 5 times i used it...it really was out of control. I will still keep it, and maybe use it down the line for fun...but im not a big fan of it lol.

Cant wait to get my shavemac brush though...heard nothing but good things about them.