The Obie Memorial First Tier Soaps and Creams Thread.

[GreenRipper]

Great write up Ripper. I'm going to have to try some stirling now...you are worse on my wallet than Obie.

You are another OP to rave about Harris, which keeps me coming back to it with the same crappy results. You tease in your post above, when talking about lathering the Harris, "more on this in a sentence or two" but you never come back to it. How are you lathering? In particular, does your brush have a stiff backbone? I find that the only variable change that shows promising results is when I break out the boar brush. Problem is that I don't like the feel of the boar on my face and I find it silly to use two brushes.

I'll apologize for not giving you the detail you were looking for but I'm going to wear being compared to Obie with a ridiculous amount of pride.

I probably should have been a bit clearer in that the change in bowl helped a bit but I didn't have any real issues in the original wood bowl. I've used both of my "art brushes" on this soap at this point. The Tuxedo synthetic has relatively stiff backbone with very soft tips, the Cashmere synthetic is ridiculously soft with extremely plush tips and minimal backbone. If you haven't figured it out yet I've learned that I'm pretty scritch adverse and tend towards brushes with rather soft tips.

Since you're having problems I'll detail my slightly unorthodox routine. I start by covering the puck in water and allowing the soap to bloom while I shower (I'm an early riser so the razor for the day gets stropped the night before). I have a water softener so I don't have hard water issues and cold to lukewarm water is what I aim for out of the tap. Once out I pour off the bloom water and reserve it as I kinda hate dumping off water that is saturated with soap. The brush is dipped in the reserve and the knot is given a couple of gentle squeezes to remove the bulk of the water. Keep in mind that I'm using synthetic brushes here so they don't hold onto water like a badger knot does, which is why I generally don't shake my brush.

This is where things get a little unorthodox as you might call me a "double bowl" latherer. Most of my soaps currently reside in some cheap, Chinese, stainless steel bowls I procured from Ebay (I can link if anyone is interested). These bowls are just a bit taller than the pucks and have a circumference that leaves about a quarter to a half inch gap between the puck and the rim of the bowl (trying to be as clear as I can here). When I start my laps I'm not trying for the perfect lather, I'm merely looking to begin generating a decent quantity of lather that may be dryer that I'm looking to shave with. If the brush is too dry I dip my tips back in the reserve until I start generating a reasonable amount of suds. Keep in mind that during this process the lather tends to run off the puck and into that trough between the soap and the rim of the bowl, I'm essentially collecting a thick lather around the puck and loading the brush. I also like that this tends to keep my fingers relatively clean and I'm not dumping lather down the drain.

Phase two takes place in a mug, my daily go-to is a small-ish, slightly short mug I obtained from IKEA for about 70 cents U.S. I know that this mug is taller and narrower than most guys like but I prefer its shape for developing my lather into the consistency I'm looking for. The lather I built up in the original bowl is now scooped out with my brush and transferred to the mug and I begin developing the rather thick, pasty lather into what I want to apply to my face. Hydration comes from dipping brush tips back into the reserve water and I tend to be careful to add that water slowly. It is a very rare occurrence that I add too much but when I do it usually isn't a disaster of sudsy water but more often just a lather that is a bit on the runny side.

During my shave I generally don't have to go back to the puck and if more water is needed the reserve bloom water is still sitting on the sink. I started using the reserve water trick a while back and my preference for this method has become threefold. The first is that this water is saturated with soap so while I'm adding water I'm also reinforcing the lather with some additional soap. The second is that dipping tips tends to offer me more control than water added from the tap, I rarely go too far and wind up with a sloppy mess. At worst I generally can do some laps on the puck and bring the lather back to where I want it rather rapidly. Last but not least I hate to dump perfectly good soapy water down the drain when I can put it to use building a lather. This last one has gone so far that I've actually considered using my reserve to bloom the soap on the following day but I've resisted going that far down the rabbit hole as of yet.

Travel is a bit different and is still a work in progress for me as I don't travel terribly often. At this point I have had good results using a sample puck in a full-sized plastic tub (I bought a few from Maggards but the plastic bowls Stirling and other producers use are essentially the same). I bloom my soap as usual, pour off the water and then build my lather right on the puck. In this case I also tend to some face lathering techniques but, as I said, I'm still figuring out this variation of my shave routine.

One final tip if you still have issues building a lather. On soaps that give me difficulty I use a trick that I picked up from some random member around here (and I wish I could give that gentleman the credit) and that's to reserve your lather. Seriously, at the end of your shave scoop up any lather left in your mug, bowl or scuttle and gently squeeze it and the lather in your brush back onto the puck. This might not be the most hygienic approach but I don't (or rarely, at least) share my soaps and I generally finish with both witch hazel and a splash. What it does do is give me a bit of soap that is essentially greater saturation for my reserve and provides the initial base for my lather.

Okay, this post is long and a bit off-topic. Obie, seeing as you're the mod in these here parts, please feel free to move this post to its own thread if warranted.

[Obie]

Gentlemen,

For years I have used the same method lathering with the D. R. Harris soaps in their wooden bowls and it has worked well for me.

I start by blooming the soap before heading for the shower. When lathering, I squeeze the excess water from the brush, leave a little bit of the bloom water on the puck, and then load the brush heavily over my Schwarzweisskeramik scuttle. The scuttle catches all the drippings. From there I work on the lather in the scuttle, finishing by face lathering.

I have discovered that the D. R. Harris soaps do not make a heavy blanket of lather on the face, nothing like, say, Tabac; rather, I find their lather on the light side. The cushion they provide is good enough to put them in the First Tier of soaps, but their moisture and slickness are exceptional.

Arlington is still my favorite of the Harris soaps. The lavender has a weak fragrance. I also like Marlborough and Windsor. Either way, you won't go wrong with any Harris soap.

[niftyshaving]

Gentlemen,

For years I have used the same method lathering with
...
I start by blooming the soap
....

Lathering one of my favorite topics...
One discovery I should share is my favorite lathering bowl.
I stumbled on these a year ago or so.

The local big box grocery had these inexpensive plastic guacamole bowls. They make the
best lathering bowl I have found. They are plastic and do not break. Smooth on
the inside slightly pebbled. Fits my hand so I do not drop it.

The bowl lets me build and adjust a nice lather no mater what soap or cream I start with.

Using a lathering bowl can minimize the amount of water that sits and soaks into
the puck. This has extended the life of my shave soaps and creams by a lot. A tube of Proraso
could last a year. A puck of a nice hard shave soap like D.R. Harris, Truefitt & Hill,
Mitchell's Wool Fat all seem to last forever.

Face lathering, even applying soap from a stick to wet stubble is improved with a lathering bowl.
The bowl allows adding gentle additions of water to the lather to build a well hydrated lather.
The bowl is wide enough that all my brushes and brush shapes fit, even my monster brushes.

The brushes and the box of Speick are for scale.

I mention this because with a lathering bowl my second tier shave soaps have moved out of second
place and are now first class soaps. Yes even Williams shave soap is improved.

[GreenRipper]

Just to be clear, I didn't have any issues lathering the D.R. Harris in the wood bowl. The problem is that I tend to make a mess without extra room to work!

[Phrank]

Another go with the PannaCrema Blu....I finally put my finger on what the scent reminds me of, at least to me - a very nice perfumed, subtle talcum powder.

Light, flowery, notes of the some earth tones associated with the garden, and for me, obviously some Nettles or Poison Ivy...Obie must be wearing off on me!

Is a 1st Tier soap but for my reaction to it, and the scent, while awesome, wouldn't compel me to pull the trigger on it - the PC Verde still is in first place for me (and on the way!!).

Next, the PC Rossa.....

[markbignosekelly]

Chaps.

I apologise if this has been covered before but has anyone tried the tallow versions of PannaCrema?
They come in two flavours; Vetiver and Dame Fine Shave.
PURE2O Vetiver - PannaCrema
Hell of a lot cheaper albeit fancy container and 140ml instead of 200ml...

[Augustagj]

"Long"?

I didn't notice.

[Phrank]

So the Panna Crema Rossa didn't burn or irritate my face like the Blu did, very nice scent, but I couldn't help but notice that the Rossa almost smells like a mix of the Verde and Blu IMO.

Love both the soaps, Blu and Rossa, but personally, not one's I'd spring for, the Verde on the other hand, still stands strong for me as a really unique scent, a superb shaving soap in all areas, be glad to get a jar of this stuff.

My opinion only...glad for the samples....

[ultrasoundguy2003]

Ok went to a meet. What you see here stays here.

My take from the haul. The rest got sent to other wet shavers.

[Phrank]

So, I've had a good try of the three PannaCrema Nuàvia - Blue, Rossa, and Verde.

For me, I'd rate them:

1. Verde
2. Rossa
3. Blu

For my likes, the Rossa and Blu, although first class all the way, for my taste, they'd be Tier 2 only because the scent isn't something that whacks me on the side of the head. Performs perfectly, nice scent, but for the coin - I'll pass.

The Nuàvia - Verde on the other hand, has a wide ranging, light, earthy and citrus range of smells, with some wood, rose, vetyver, and what I can't place my finger on, whether it's the white musk, or goldmoss, is the nice hint of eucalyptus, or even a menthol, that really hits you right in the nose, very subtle, but is like a flute playing high above the orchestra. You can hear it, it's not the main part, but really adds to the overall experience. Just fantastic as far as I'm concerned, and certainly for me one of those unique scents, like Alvarez Gomez, MdC Rose or some of the other classics that belong in Tier 1.

So the PannaCrema Nuàvia - Verde is the winner for me, my opinion only....