I had difficulties building a good lather from soaps at first too. Then I read the wiki and started adding a layer of hot water to the top of the puck and soaking it like everything else. The other thing that helped was adding a little bit of water at a time as I was building the lather. 8-10 drops at a time maybe. No problems from then on. I know this has all been suggested already. I just wanted to reiterate.