Thread: Soaps vs. Creams

Originally Posted by jhenry

Paul,

Believe me, once you experience uberlather you'll never want to go back to ordinary shaving lather.

+1 on this! It's all that I use nowdays. It may be a bit more bother, but it's more than worth it.

I'm on a cream kick.

Proraso and musgo real are on the top of my list. They seem to work well for me.


I havent tried too many hard soaps.

The ones I've tried left a smart chemical burning sensation that I can live without.

There are some creams that are not designed for use
with a brush. Do any of these rise to the top of the
shelf for any of you. Not the goo in a can ones... but
some of the fancy pants ones.

I prefer cream for a reason somewhat unrelated to the quality of foam it produces. I'm addicted to hot foam, so I use a scuttle with a water chamber that wraps around the mixing bowl. I used a Moss Scuttle at first, but I came across an Italian job that's simply huge and that's what I use now.

I nuke the water-filled scuttle -- I turn the microwave on just before I get in the shower, then run it for a minute afterward. Obviously, you can't do that with a mug with a cake of soap in the bottom. That means I can either throw a daub of cream in the scuttle to whip up my burning-hot foam, or I can mix lather in a separate mug and feed it into the scuttle.

My favorite commercial cream is Vulfix, since price as well as quality is an object. I've come up with my own creations, though, which I actually like better because I add bentonite and lanolin. Musgo has lanolin, of course, but I don't know any commercial cream that has bentonite. It took months to get the recipe right and it cost a bit, too, but now I shave in absolute luxury on the cheap.

For all around comfort, either Musgo or Vufix in the scuttle after you've tuned it up in the microwave for about 90 seconds is some of my favorites.
Thus far, the only stuff I've tried with bentonite clay is Classic shaving's pucks for mugs or scuttles. It's not bad, but doesn't compare to Vulfix. Where do you find the bentonite clay as I too would like to add some to make my own home brew.? Always looking for that perfect blend. I'm sure it's probably in the SRD Wiki or forums some where, I just haven't run across it yet.

Originally Posted by muleskynr

For all around comfort, either Musgo or Vufix in the scuttle after you've tuned it up in the microwave for about 90 seconds is some of my favorites.
Thus far, the only stuff I've tried with bentonite clay is Classic shaving's pucks for mugs or scuttles. It's not bad, but doesn't compare to Vulfix. Where do you find the bentonite clay as I too would like to add some to make my own home brew.? Always looking for that perfect blend. I'm sure it's probably in the SRD Wiki or forums some where, I just haven't run across it yet.

There are multiple types of clay....

Bentonite clay is available from a lot of place.
You only need a little bit and that is the hard part.

Since you are in the midwest you might find a water
well, oil shot hole, drilling company that has a broken
sack of it. That would be industrial grade and you might
need to classify and clean it up. Toss some in a big bucket of
water and blend it like you might thin set. Then let
it settle and use the top thin layer when it settles out
and the water gets clear.

It is also available from soap making and cosmetic supply sources,
Cosmetic grade is recomended:

Clays and Muds - FNWL

French Green Clay | Bentonite Clay | Soap Making Clays | Red Clay

Soapmaking Botanicals, Fruit & Vegetable Pulp Powders, Cosmetic Clays


You should be able to grate common soaps, dust with clay
then toss the grated bits like a salad, mist with water
and press into a tub/ mold/ container. Perhaps a mist
of glycerin as well.

Just be sure to measure well so you can reproduce the
winner.

Originally Posted by The_Pastor

I really dont care much for soaps at all.
Maybe I need to practise more on making lather from a soap.
I have 4 TAOS soaps, and I also have some mamma bear soap.
Neither makes good lather for me.
The lather is way to light and fluffy, and I breaks down after sitting on my face for a few minutes.
I truly enjoy the heavy thickness, and the whipped cream like feeling of a cream, and the lather will not break down on my face.
I will sometimes use soap in my uberlathers, but more often I will simply make lather from a cream + glycerin, and leave out the soap entirely.

I seem to have that same problem with my Dr. Harris, if it's on the face too long it seems to dry out but the lather seems moist enough? Any suggestions or is it the soap? or not enough water or what?

Originally Posted by james2

I seem to have that same problem with my Dr. Harris, if it's on the face too long it seems to dry out but the lather seems moist enough? Any suggestions or is it the soap? or not enough water or what?

IME, problems such as what you're describing comes from not using enough soap. You really need to load your brush with soap (don't count swirls, just load for 30-45 seconds)... Then, a quality soap will provide more than adequate lather. In fact, very few creams perform as well for me as soaps. Many appear to have as good a lather, but Castle Forbes is the only cream I've tried that really performs as well as a soap

MWF, Dr Harris, uberlather. Never tried quality creams exclusively but will now from reading this thread to get a comparison.

Originally Posted by richmondesi

IME, problems such as what you're describing comes from not using enough soap. You really need to load your brush with soap (don't count swirls, just load for 30-45 seconds)... Then, a quality soap will provide more than adequate lather. In fact, very few creams perform as well for me as soaps. Many appear to have as good a lather, but Castle Forbes is the only cream I've tried that really performs as well as a soap

+1 on not enough hard soap.

None of us pickup an "almond" sized bit of hard soap
with our brush. A cream makes it easy to get an abundant
amount of product into the lathering process.

The good news is that less hard soap is needed to
make a great lather. Still the point is that too little
AND too much is a problem.

One solution is to splash some water on the puck
prior to shaving so the surface can soften for a couple
of mimutes. Another is to use a boar brush...
Or just know that this might be an issue and take a
measure of time to pickup enough soap.