Thread: Sticky Castle Forbes

Hello, I got a tub of the lime Castle Forbes last year and I have been holding out on posting this question until I could get more time with it. A lot of people here tout Forbes as an example of what shave soap/cream should be.

Every so often I will break it out and give it a go and I get the same issue every time. It gets sticky! No matter how I lather, a lot of water to very little, my razor just skips and sticks along my face. No problems with my first pass but as soon as I start X the grain it loses all slickness.

I know this is not any way to measure slickness but I can snap my fingers (loudly) with the lather. I can’t do that with any of my other shave soaps to include Nuavia, Martin de Candre, Barrister and Mann, Mitchell’s. I did have the same issue a number of years ago with a puck of Evylen & Crabtree but I just chalked that up to a lower end soap. Anyone else have these same issues with Forbes?

Is this a straight, or safety razor.?

I know you said you tried lots of water but I find I need to add water a few times to get good lather for the first pass (I face lather). Then, I need to add water again to rehydrate the brush and lather for the second pass. It's like the soap absorbs all the water while I'm shaving the first pass. If I dont add water it's too sticky, like I just loaded the brush from the jar. So try adding more water before the second pass.

Do you face or bowl lather?

I've had that experience with a few other soaps, but never with Castle Forbes. There are some soaps with scents that I really like but aren't slick enough, and for those I'll use a pre-shave, and Castle Forbes has one of the best. Slickness has much to do with hydration, as others have mentioned. However, if too much water is added too quickly, you'll just get large bubbles and no slickness. I'd start with a barely damp brush and very slowly add water, building up the lather slowly, incorporating as much water as the lather will hold. Too much soap can also make for a sticky lather, as the soap to water ratio is too large. It only takes a small amount of CF to produce an abundance of lather. Each soap or cream is a little different, and it sometimes takes awhile to learn how to dial each one in. Keep at it with CF as you'll be well rewarded.

Can't recall how my CF cream acted, but I do remember I didn't like it one bit.

I heard people rave about CF, I found their lavender cream not to my liking, performance wise.

One of the worser quality creams I have tried. Never gave CF a second look since.

I still have almost a full tub of the cream, every time I try it out, I immediately remember why I don't use it.

To me CF is the soap to judge all others by. You might not like the scent on some varieties but performance wise for me it's perfect. If you have issues with it check you water quality and then how much water you use with it.

add more water and whip it up, your just not doing it in the right proportions, its one of the easiest best performong soaps ever

Thanks for all of the feedback fellas. To hit some of the questions, I am using a straight razor in a scuttle and my water has changed (from Apt hard water to softer well water) but the Forbes performs the same. I will try again with the amount of water but none of my other soaps are this finicky.

My only other thought was that I purchased this last year when that shop in CA went out of business. The tub I bought could have been old stock sitting around for awhile. I am not sure if that could affect its slickness?

I didn’t have much time so I forgot like was said before “a lot less” soap. And then get the water to it. Few drops at a time. It’s sticky cause it’s just soap not lather

And no the time for. Shelf means little my line is 5 years old and is still great. I just don’t like line. My lavender lasts a couple of years