Thread: TGQ, Colleen's soap

I have many soaps/creams in my rotation. Colleens, (TGQ) Mama Bear's, MWF, Vintage blades triple milled stuff, (which is great by the way) some Goat's milk soap from the Soap shed, Some old Williams, Tabac, etc...For creams, I have CF, T&H, Nancy Boy, Proraso, Tabac, etc...Needless to say I have a bunch. AT least a dozen in rotation, I'm probably forgetting a few...
The thing is, and I want to be fair here, Colleen's soap doesn't lather worth a darn for me. Now, I have no trouble with anything else, at all. I have good brushes, Silver tip badger. I know how to work a lather, etc...
I read so many good reviews about her soaps and most of the time you guys are right on with your reviews.

Now, to be fair, I purchased the sample pack of 5 soaps and 2 creams. The creams were good, but my hand starts to hurt from trying to work a lather on her soaps. What I eventually do is, Uber them, that is a shot of "Kiss my face" and a couple of drops of glycerin. As I said, I want to be fair. Should I purchase a larger puck and give it a shot? I mean, if it get's all these good reviews, there must be something to it, right. Maybe I got a bad batch. The fragrance is great, but lather leaves something to be desired, it's just flat. I even have a water softner, so it makes extra lather, sort of...Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Rich

Hmm. I got crap results from MWF, but great lather from my TGQ samples. Strange how it varies sink to sink.

WoW, that is wierd. When I got MWF, I was a little skeptical myself, but really surprised my the thick lather I got, plus it stayed while I stropped. That's another one of my tests, How long it takes a soap to disapate on my face. I have this Goat's milk stuff from the Soap Shed, Their Bath Soaps are awesome, I'm hooked on it, It got me off body wash, now I use those bars on the poofy...But their shave soaps are horrible...
Your correct, I read everyone raving about Colleen's soaps, and I'm thinking, What happened? I thought of emailing her, but there's really no point.

I get good lather from everything, I was a little worried about MWF but it ended up lathering great for me, only problem is it dried to fast on my face and my skin felt dry.

I just recently tried Colleens soap and it is the best I have tried so far. Im gonna use all my other soaps up in the shower and only use Colleens soaps. I plan on ordering at least half her soap line this week with the custom wood bowls that she carries. On my next paycheck I will order the other half of her soap line with bowls. Then I will just sit back and wait for her to come out with a new one and I will only have to buy the one. My skin never felt so good , lather is great, the scent makes my mouth water , I was almost tempted to put my tongue on the soap.

Rich go for the bigger bar and see what happens. I'll buy it from you if you dont like it.

Mike,

This is what I mean, I didn't get that. Now, Mama Bear's soaps were awesome...
BTW, What are you putting her soaps in to use. They don't look like they would fit in a mug...I'll give a bigger puck a shot and see what happens.
It has to be the sample sizes, If your willing to make it your one and only soap, there must be something to it. I'm really looking for someone to chime in and say, Yes, it's the samples, They suck, Get the big puck. I hear the Cavendish Black is quite good...?

Take it for what its worth from a newbie to straight razor (but I had been using williams soaps for the last 13 years, until I found this site and decided to try others out). I found that the soap samples did not yield near as good results as her full size. I put the samples into a coffee mug to try them out.

I think the poor results where because I had really hard time getting the brush loaded properly. I get really good results with the full size versions. And yes Cavindish black is really nice I"m hoping she'll come out with an AB/AS in it so the scent will last longer.

Almost forgot, I melted the full size into sugar bowls from the dollar store using the double boiler method.

P.S.
you guys are hard on the wallet, I still to try SRD soaps, Mama Bear, and CF........

Rich, Im using the bowl that the Dr Harris soap came in, but Colleen has a bowl that is custom made for her soaps that I will buy as soon as she gets them back in stock. They are really nice bowls. Hopefully she will chime in and tell you more. Now I used mama bear and it was great but I like the slickness of Colleens soap.

I think I have a couple n00b issues with my lather, but Colleen's soaps are working well for me overall. I also got the sampler and just starting out, I'm loading my brush with the soap and adding a speck of cream to do a sort of mini-uber.
Here's a "Pro Tip" I sort of picked up from Jockeys - I zapped the soap puck in a small bowl to melt it in there. I use that to load the brush and then a separate "shaving mug" from Burt's bees as my lathering scuttle.
I've said it before, but I think I need to go with another Jockeys trick and do the redneck scuttle so my lather stays warm.

All that said, though, I'm pretty sold on Colleen's soaps.

I have the same problem with Castle Forbes creams. I have varied the proprtions but still get lousy lather. I don't have any problems at all with TGQ soaps.