Thread: Soap vs Cream Lather

I seem to be able to work up a good lather much easier with cream vs soap. In fact, my soap efforts have ben rather poor. Very runny.

I have an AOS best badger brush, and my cream is AOS unscented. I have tried Proraso and Classic shavings lime soap. I've watched numerous YouTube videos but just haven't gotten there yet. Any tips or more trial and error? Even with my poor soap attempts, I'm still getting great shaves from my merkur DE.

Veto

Biggest thing IMO is to wring out the brush and add water as you build instead of trying to guess how much is already in the brush. Load your brush, build lather, and keep an eyes out on te visual cues. Big airy bubbles are not what you want. I began practicing with VDH, it's cheap and works well for a beginner. However, some people just prefer cream to soap, as there is a larger shaving community than you would think, there is a wide variety of smells from both soap and creams, so the sky's the limit. Hope it helped.

If you get thin runny lather you might not have enough soap loaded on your brush. I prefer soaps to creams, altho they can be a little harder to lather. Here's a tip that works especially well if your soap is hard: Add a little water to your soap (I just sprinkle a teaspoon or two on top of it), that will soften it a little and make it easier to load. Also, I find that stiffer brushes work better for soaps. I use boar. Best of luck, and have fun.

Making a good soap lather is a matter of loading up enough soap and having the right mixture of water and soap and depending on the soap that mixture ratio changes. You need to experiment with that and then depending on if you build your lather on your face or use a mug or scuttle play with your technique. Another consideration is the hardness of your water. Hard water can make it hard to get a good lather. Some soaps do pretty good with hard water and some are terrible.

What I like to do is load some soap on the brush and then put a dab of cream in the bowl and mix the two - adding water a bit at a time by dipping my fingers in the sink and letting a few drops fall from the tips into the bowl. I get a great lather by combining.

Hello, Veto:

This is the way I perform the routine:

On the way to the shower I submerge the brush into the scuttle bowl filled with hot tap water (never boiling water). I fill the sink with hot tap water and place the soap mug in it to soak up the heat. At the same time, I pour some hot tap water over the soap in the mug to soften it.

After the shower, I empty the scuttle and refill the tank only with hot tap water. I then pour about a teaspoon of the water from the soap mug into the scuttle bowl and dump the rest. Then I give the brush several gentle shakes and a little squeeze to eliminate as much water as possible.

Following a 30-second swirl of the slightly damp brush over the softened soap, then I proceed to make lather in the scuttle, adding more water if necessary. If face lathering, after the 30-second swirl of the brush over the soap, I proceed to make lather onto my Hollywood face, dipping the tip of the brush in warm water to add more moisture to the lather on my face until the lather looks ready.

With cream, I just put in a small dollop of it in the scuttle bowl, add about a teaspoon of water and begin to lather, monitoring the water content and adding more if necessary.

As a rule, I prefer my lather a touch runny. Whether using Mitchell's Wool Fat, known for its reluctant lather, or Martin de Candre, known for its luxurious lather, I consider making lather one of the many highlights in my shaving ritual.

Regards,

Obie

Awesome suggestions. Thank you Gentlemen. Obie, I was reading your blog. Very interesting. I am an amateur classical guitarist. I plan on reading your books soon.

Veto

I learned that using a boar brush, as well as the suggestions above, helped me to perfect my soap lathering. The stiffer bristles seemed to shorten the learning curve for me. Once I figured it out I was able to get great lather with both the boar and badger brushes.

Originally Posted by Coloradoveto

Awesome suggestions. Thank you Gentlemen. Obie, I was reading your blog. Very interesting. I am an amateur classical guitarist. I plan on reading your books soon.

Veto

Veto,

Thank you for the kind words. Please send me a personal message regarding the books. Thank you for your interest

Regards,

Obie

I'm very new here, and while my experience is limited here are some observations i have made. When i switched from a "cheap" brush (AOS Pure Badger) to a Good Brush (Silver Tip) my lather was more runny due to the extra water that the brush holds. Once i cut back on the water by shaking off as much as possible i was able to work up a much better lather with the good brush. I also travel alot and i have found that in each hotel i have to use a different amount of water which i would assume is due to how the water is treated R/O or filtered and ultimately how hard it is. I read somewhere that you can use glycerine in the soap to to make the lather more lubricative and i did try it and it did make a different but not a hugely noticeable one. In any event i think there is more art to working up a good lather than there is science, and the trick for me was adjusting only one variable at a time until i have found that "just right" combination that works for me. I don't fire on all cylinders every day, but now, more often than not I get the combination just right. I always err on the side of less water because i can always add more if i need to.