Thread: What additives do you add to your scuttle/lathering bowl?

Originally Posted by Gasman

Water.

You see, Jerry-This is why you're a Mentor. No wonder my lather is so crappy!

All kidding aside, sometimes I'll add a few drops of menthol or maybe vetiver EO to an unscented soap just for giggles. And because I get bored easily, sometimes I just like to experiment: just this morning I made an uber-lather from the remnants of the MDC Agrumes and Klar Seifen soap samples sent to me by Tom and Jerry (of cartoon fame lol!) along with a few drops of menthol to liven things up. The result was uber-slick cold lemony heaven, just as I expected.

I don't add anything.

Pete <:-}

(Good one Jerry!)

I have had to add a little Cremo or Kiss My Face to some soaps to develop a super-lather if the soap won't lather by itself. However, if I can't figure out how to lather it without the additives, it does not stay in my den.

Most soaps do contain oleic acid (the primary fatty acid in olive oil), but if you add too much, it can kill the lather. I make up a preshave oil once using olive oil, grapeseed oil, sunflower seed oil, but I could never get a great lather using my hard water, so I stopped using it.

I really good soap or cream will stand alone and produce a very good shave as long as your technique is good.

With that being said there is no such thing as the perfect soap or cream if there was we would all be using it.

So yes if I am trying s soap or cream I try by itself, how does it perform. If it meets my expectations then I will add it to my "rotation". Right now my rotation is castle Forbes and Stirling soap so yes my expectations are high.

As i said above there is no such thing as perfect so i will experiment with adding some thing to it to make it better, why not its fun.

Right now what do i add, some maco root cream to my Stirling works great we used to call it super lather, maybe I'll try mixing Stirling with castle Forbes next.

My original post was missing information. I have been wet shaving for over 40 years, started with an Old Spice kit; mug, puck, after shave and brush. About 20 years ago I started to add about 3 drops of olive oil to the lather to make my face slicker. I started with the straight razor a couple of years ago and that has opened up a whole new world for me.

The only soap I have had problems lathering was a puck from Armani, I grated it together with some Arko and made a very nice soap, wish I could get more Armani.

This discussion has caused me to rethink the necessity of adding the olive oil but I will definitely not forget the Aqua.
Thanks for all the suggestions and advice.
Al