Thread: Problematic lathering

Hey guys maybe someone has a tip for me before I throw this stuff away. So I bought a couple pucks of different shave soap from a woman that makes both natural oil and also tallow based shave soaps. They look and smell awesome. The composition ( unless she lied to me) is pretty much the same as other top names, however, I can't for the life of me get it to lather up well at all. I mean there's large bubbles, it's takes forever to get any type of a cream like base going and once it gets relatively close and I think it could be there....It colapses. I tried the Badger with little water and building it slow, I tried bowl lather, face lathering. I tried synthetic brush w both methods as well.....any ideas?

I had some artisan soaps that took me some time to figure out. If your not going to take it back you could try running it through a cheese grate and pressing it back in the bowl. It sure makes some soap come alive, I know that.

That was actually the very first thing I Did to both, as my shave bowls are pretty large. I formed them to the bowls and let them sit to harden back up.

One is lanolin and shea with other natural oils and lye saponified, the other tallow. Both cold process....idk if that makes a difference or what but looking at the pucks they feel and look like a lot of other soaps I have, only when I lather up say....idk grim blades and get really creamy and cushiony lather I can do it blind folded. The feel and look of this soap is basically the same. But the lather is thin and bubbly.

Check with her to see if she adds any amount of glycerin to her formulations. I find that two or three (at the most) drops of glycerin improves the lather building process. If nothing else helps you have shower soap for awhile. I've tried artisan soaps in the past and have moved on the the big producers who can control ingredients more effectively.

You might be right about the glycerin. I don't recall her mentioning it when she was listing the ingredients. Shame too, because I wanted to like the brand. I mean is super moisturizing, and the scents are awesome and long lasting. .. But it all comes down to the lather and if it isn't there then it isn't there. I should have stuck with caties bubbles or grim.

I put mine away for a year and then took them out for the grate trick. I remember all the symptoms your talking about. Now I put water on the soap and let it sit for 5 minutes at least. Mines fairly flat so it covers the whole surface about 1/8" deep. I shake the water out of my brush and pick up what's on the soap when I go to load up.

No way to contact the person and ask I assume

In the cold process glycerin is a by product.

Stolen off the web :<0)
In the most simplest terms: you make soap out of fats and lye. The fats already contain glycerin as part of their chemical makeup (both animal and vegetable fats contain from 7% – 13% glycerine). When the fats and lye interact, soap is formed, and the glycerin is left out as a “byproduct”. But, while it’s chemically separate, it’s still blended into the soap mix.

In the cold process it's left in the mix. Commercial guys take it out.

Just what I read.

I can ask her. I'll try the long bloom u mentioned. If that doesn't work I can only assume it's a very olive oil based soap with very little stearic property. Any time there are dominant bases of the types of oils and not the good fats like castor or shea, there's a problem. Bottom line is that ppl that make hand soap and try to convert to shave soap with the same recipe, are doomed to be latherless. It's all about the base oil and salt content. Certain fats are rich in the right kind of stearic and salt but ppl don't wanna sacrifice the ability to say things like " olive oil and safflower rich" on their ingredients list....Oh well

Maybe try soaking the soap in water the night/day before you shave. Some guys were posting that it helped alot with Williams mug soap, perhaps it could be just what yours needs. Let it soak and see if that doesn't ease the process.

Your water might be too hard, and/or too warm. This seems to affect my tallow based soaps.