I've had some difficulties in my first dozen shaves that I'm not sure how to tackle. The first is that my face and lather seem to dry a bit during my shave. I can usually get to about 1/2 to 3/4 of my face before I need to re-lather. ATM I'm using the Col. Conk soap my fiancee bought for me. I've left my face dripping, added more water to the lather, tried hot water, warmish water, and cold water. Is it possible that I'm just shaving slowly and the lather is drying up or am I missing something?

Secondly, I've gotten my cheeks (mostly) smooth and my upper lip is passable...but my lower lip and my chin are underwhelming. My lower lip angles in to where it meets my chin, and my chin then comes back out, leaving a pretty tough angle. The very bottom of my chin bone is lacking a decent shave as well. I've tried going with the grain and across the grain, I've varied my angles but it still leaves the hairs a bit too long for my liking. To be honest, more often than not, I have gone over this area far too many times, which results in some irritation.

I don't want to blame the blade (though it has no manufacturers imprint, nor a place of origin stamped on it), but I am curious as to its quality because of the above mentioned difficulties with my chin, but also because while it doesn't take a lot of pressure, I'm also not just letting the razor slide over my face. In other words, hair on my arm isn't popping when the blade touches it. I'm open to the possibility that my technique just sucks or that I've screwed up the edge because I'm a noob, but is there any possibility that my no imprint blade may just be a POS?