Thread: No wonder I dumped Trumper soap

Waste not...Want not
or
A Journey to Naught

Before I decided to chuck the puck one more attempt (well 2) was made.

1. Nuked the bowl for ten seconds and popped the puck into my hand.
2. Let the puck rest for a few minutes and then grated.
3. Pressed the gratings into a wide mouth mug.

BTW, we have softened water.

Day One

Did my normal face prep and loaded a silvertip brush. As I started to face lather I noticed pieces of soap in the brush and on my face. Note to self, repress the soap before trying again. I got a good bit of lather but it was light and burned my face. I think I had overloaded the soap even thought I repeatedly dipped the brush in water. I managed to shave but without much cushion. My face burned all day even after repeated lotion applications.

I added water and repressed the gratings.

Day Two

Decided to do a test face lather. I got tons of lather. However, the lather was light and airy. After a lot of swirling and water additions, the lather looked good. Rinsed this off and proceeded to bowl lather.

Reloaded the brush and started whipping up the lather. After, IMO, an extended amount of time I had a lather that looked good and did not dry. I now hoped for the best and started to shave.

Well, there was no cushion whatsoever. Reminded me of some Hunslinger (?sp) soap I have used.

I shaved with very poor results. My beard looked like I had not shaved for about 12 hours. Bummer.

So, I am done with the Trump.

I will try to melt the remains into a bar and let the Swiss Miss use it on her legs. Should our members in S.E. Wisconsin read of my murder you will know how that worked for me.

As Mr. Keillor writes of the Norwegian bachelor farmers in Minnesota. "T'ell wid it"

Jumping on this thread very late, but have to say this has been my experience too and it is indeed a disappointment.

I began wet shaving in 2005-6 with Trumper's Rose cream, then shortly afterwards went with the Rose soap and stuck to it for years. It has become worse and worse over time and eventually I stopped buying from them back in 2010.

The Coral Skin Food was great to pair with that soap. Furthermore, they had some good accessories in their stores over here in London.

Many have commented how they ditched Creightons to manufacture their soaps and went with another company, albeit inferior. A real shame as I said, that means another one bites the dust in the wet shaving world...

Originally Posted by rum

Many have commented how they ditched Creightons to manufacture their soaps and went with another company, albeit inferior.

Aha, now it all makes sense. They should have stuck with Creightons, I've never had a bad product made by them. YMMV of course.

I recently bought the Coconut Soap in a Bowl and have had the same experiences as all of you here: Thin bubbly lather that quickly dries to a rubber like film in the face.

I've tried everything and got the better results after soaking the bowl in warm water for up to 10 minutes. My Muhle Silvertip Fibre brush scraped off quite a bit of soap but it still didn't lather right. A trick would be to wet the tips of the brush and then take up some more soap and lather on several times. The slightest bit of too much water is critical though. After all, time in the morning is too precious to deal with bad performing soap.

So, I did write to Trumpers this morning and asked for the correct lathering procedure, before I dump the soap in the bin and pledge to never buy a Trumpers product again. Let' see what happens. I'll let yall know.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

Originally Posted by OldSalt

I recently bought the Coconut Soap in a Bowl and have had the same experiences as all of you here: Thin bubbly lather that quickly dries to a rubber like film in the face.

I've tried everything and got the better results after soaking the bowl in warm water for up to 10 minutes. My Muhle Silvertip Fibre brush scraped off quite a bit of soap but it still didn't lather right. A trick would be to wet the tips of the brush and then take up some more soap and lather on several times. The slightest bit of too much water is critical though. After all, time in the morning is too precious to deal with bad performing soap.

So, I did write to Trumpers this morning and asked for the correct lathering procedure, before I dump the soap in the bin and pledge to never buy a Trumpers product again. Let' see what happens. I'll let yall know.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

Their reply should be very interesting. I wonder if they are aware of the total trashing their products have taken in this forum.

As a followup to an earlier post the wife trashed the puck after one try on her legs.

Dave

Trumper did answer pretty quick. This is an extract of the email:

„Sometimes it is difficult to get a good, usable lather from a shaving soap or shaving cream, depending on the hardness of the water, floppiness of the brush, and properties of the product. However, you may find the following suggestion helpful:

For difficult-to-lather soaps and creams, break the process down to two steps: (1) load brush then (2) add water. First soak the brush thoroughly and shake out most of the water. This leaves the brush damp, but not loaded with water. Work the brush on the soap to get it loaded with product, even though you won't start to see creamy lather yet. At this point it will be a bit dry looking and sticky on the end of the bristles, but this allows the soap to break down into the brush. Once you've gotten a good bit of soap loaded up, dip the end of the brush tips in hot water to hydrate it more, then proceed to try to create a lather. Depending on your brush grade and the hardness of your water you may have to experiment by lightly dipping the brush into the water a few more times. However, you'll notice that the soap will quickly build into the creamy lather that you are looking for.

I do hope this helps.
Kind Regards,

Miss B.
Geo. F. Trumper (P&P) Ltd“

I’ve already tried a similar technique and wasn’t successful. I gave it another go according to their instructions.
I use a Muhle synthetic brush, which might be critical as well, but then again it doesn’t hold water, so maybe it is better in the end. The first try I loosly shook out the brush and loaded it for about a minute. Water dripped out as I loaded. Then I lathered in my hand, as my face swells and turns red if I lather the Trumpers twice in my face within a few hours! The results were as before. The lather, spread thickly in my hand, disappeared within a few seconds. You could see small holes from popping bubbles develop in the lather and then it would disappear to leave my hand completly visible. I didn’t even add any more water while lathering.

A second go with an almost dry brush gave the same results, even without adding any water. In both cases I would stand and lather for several minutes, keeping the soap as dry as possible.
Oh, the hardness of the water in Hamburg is considered „medium“, so I wouldn’t expect hardness to be the problem. My brush is known for its backbone, which also should not be the problem.

Conclusions: I’ll dump the soap. We have nice soaps by Muhle here in Germany for one third of the price of Trumper‘s soap. I didn’t bother to write any further to Trumper. The forums speak for themselves and warn future customers. Trumper will hopefully realise that they have some homework to do.

Happy Lathering!
OldSalt

I don't want to push this thread, but I gave it one last try this morning. Today I used "distilled water" to lather the soap with, to eliminate the possibility of a problem with any water hardness. I mean the water you can buy to put in your car battery.

I just dipped the brush in the water and lathered. I got alittle foam and made half a pass before it collapsed and dried (died ). Frustrated I washed my face imediately and lathered with some Speick Cream to finish the shave.

This time the soap is out for good. I pried it out of its bowl and threw the Trumpster in the Dumpster.

Now I have a new project waiting for me: Hone a Gold Dollar 66 with lapping film as an absolute beginner.

Best wishes,
OldSalt

If it makes anyone feel any better, I shaved with a soap even more useless than Teumpers today - Kells. The lather was foamy, stingy, un protective, and not the least bit slick. It was much like the garbage from a can. I was sold on the scent which I really liked (Arabian spice). But after using it, the lather was terrible. With all of the great soaps and creams I already have, this one is headed for the trash.

What a shame. This once iconic English soap was the benchmark for many of us. I remember posting about how I used the rose soap along with the coral skin food.

Oh well, I guess we can expect more of this to happen in the years ahead with reformulation and so on...

The funny thing is, I bought their Eucris shaving soap as my first soap a year ago and thought for a couple days that I had seriously underestimated the skill involved in lathering soap. Like a sick joke played on a new wet shaver...