We have hard water here too, and a dry climate. It presents its own challenges and face lathering was never consistent enough for me. The scuttle answered most of the issues. To be honest though, consider the shipping. Ceramic/porcelain is a challenge to ship, and heavy. I have seen the UK scuttles you mentioned on ebay, and they look very nice, and considered buying one - but the shipping cost and risk wasn't worth it to me. You also have the black/white/ceramic scuttles (porcelain) from Germany close by, and they are pretty much universally praised - though not cheap. One thing you didn't mention is the shape of the lather bowl. The DB is perfect. A major flaw, to me, with most scuttles and lather bowls is having a near vertical bowl wall instead of a sloped wall. I didn't buy a DB lather bowl because it has straight sides. This means that your brush handle is clanging against the wall as you whip up the lather. Do this in the morning and you'll wake the household - though if you have teenagers, it may be a good thing. The webbed sides and dribble hole are interesting, but not enough for me to upgrade. If you have larger hands, or if you like making a nice pile of lather, I wouldn't get anything smaller than the 1.5