Thread: Can't Keep It Warm

I use Col Conk. bay rum glycerin soap in a mug with an Omega boar brush. I've used a few different soaps before, specifically lanolin and tallow. With those soaps I could just put fantastically hot water onto the pucks and lather up and their mugs would hold the heat. However, since I decided to try some fancy glycerin soap I cannot do this anymore - because it just melts. I was wondering if anyone had some tips on how to keep the lather hot with glycerin based soaps.

I would just switch back to the others, but I was conned into purchasing a triple pack sampler of each scent and plan to include one with a mug and brush as a gift for someone.

Sounds like you might be in the market for a scuttle.

Check out the Brushes, Mugs and Stuff section of the forums, as there are many varieties to choose from.

Here is a pretty good thread that discusses the pros and cons of mugs vs scuttles.

Hope this helps get you started.

Hi,
I use Col Conk bay rum and a mug as well. I've moved from generating lather in the mug to generating lather on my face-- I did it for 2 reasons-- first, the massage with the brush feels great and I get a nice face prep, and second, I can keep the lather warm easier. Here's my routine:

-Soak brush in hot tap water in a second mug
-Put about 1/4 teaspoon of hot water on the puck in other mug to soften up the very top of the puck
(note, you can use boiling hot water for these steps, just don't put too much on the puck or it will melt it too much as you have discovered)
-Strop, prep face
-Remove the brush, dump the water, refill with hot water, put the brush back in for just a few seconds
-Squeeze out 90% of the water from the brush (you will be adding back water, so you are better off with too little water than too much!)
-Load the brush with soap. Press it in the puck to get soap deep into the brush. Takes me about 30 circles. Don't try to whip up any lather, just get soap into the brush
-Build lather on the face with the brush. Drizzle a little bit of hot water into the *base* of the brush (this is the method I use to reheat the lather-- I put the hot water in the base of the brush, and it warms the lather as it works its way to the tips), and continue to build lather. Keep adding a bit of water into the base of the brush until you hit the right soap/water ratio. When you get it right, it will burst into a bunch of rich creamy lather on your face (takes me about a minute these days).
-Shave 1st pass all areas
-Relather by drizzling a little bit of hot water into the base of the brush again. This will reheat the lather for your second pass
-Repeat for 3rd pass. Sometimes I need to reload the brush with more soap depending on how much I started with.

The key on this techinique is the combination of face lathering and drizzling hot water into the base of the brush-- the action of regenerating lather allows the hot water to reheat the lather. If the lather is already made, adding water to the brush just breaks the lather down and gets runny.

If you don't want to face lather, then the scuttle is the way to go.

Good luck!
-Chief

Chief,

That's exactly the same as I do.
I was preparing to share it here, but then I read your post, and noticed you saved me from writing a long explanation.

The one thing I can add, is that I use the hottest water from my tap to add to the heart of the brush. With my index finger, I push a little pocket in the middle of the brush and then I fill that pocket with hot water from the slow running tap. A few swirls over the cake again, and my brush is filled once more with *hot* lather. (my tap water is about 60°C)

Best regards,
Bart.