Thread: My scuttle killed the Cella!

I am a little disappointed that I cannot get my Cella cream to lather in the scuttle, even with lesser hot water. It's either too dry and nothing to the lather, or watery foam that will not firm up a bit even after several arm numbing minutes of swirling. There is no in between, the lather even starts to dry during the lathering process itself. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I lathered my Haslinger soap in the scuttle with the hottest tap water we get, and it exploded with wonderful creaminess as usual. By the second pass, I took the lid off the scuttle and most of the lather had dried. A dab of water and 20 sec of swirling and the Haslinger soap was good and creamy again. Too bad the Cella won't take... I will settle for room temp shaves with it because I love it too much to give it up. Has anyone successfully lathered Cella or a similar cream and have it survive well in a hot scuttle?

Jeremy,

The anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that over-fatted soaps containing tallow or lanolin seem to give their best at room temperature.

This is not an absolute, and there are probably many exceptions !

I use Cella & P160 at room temperature; I find these days, having been a 'cold water' shaver for ca 1 year now, that I don't miss warm lather at all !

I suppose it helps living in an old Victorian house with leaky sash windows and no central heating; I must admit it is rather 'bracing' in the bathroom in winter

Have fun !

Best regards

Russ

Russ, thanks for your insight. I am not overly keen on "hot" lather myself, I do prefer a warm lather over cold personally though. I enjoy the sensation of hot water on my face when shaving so cold water shaves are not my cup of tea. I am surprised at just how many wet shavers such as yourself have switched to the cold shaves. Good for you, it's important to enjoy the shave regardless of the prep, temp, etc. Happy shaves!

i use p160 in my hot scuttle with no problems (i have been told it is similar to cella) i do have an order of cella in the mail that i ordered weeks ago but has not arrived yet. i will see if i have any problems with that when it comes in

-dan-

I have had a bit or an issue with the Cella also. I found the right combination of warm water and Cella cream gets the lather going. Your going to need to experiment since the ability of the cream to lather also depends on how hard/soft your water is.

Keep working on it, you'll get it to lather properly.

The recommend for Cella is face lathering rather than bowl lathering. Don't know why but it does give better results that way.

I have also successfully lathered cella in a scuttle, however, like yourself I have found it to dry out very quickly, thus the need to add a bit more water each pass. This seems to work and I haven't had a problem since. Try different water to cream ratios and you should nail it on the head!

In my opinion, water during lathering is everything. I never see Cella to dry out in case you properly use the right quantity of water.
According to my experience, Cella needs more water than other soaps, and I can say the same for all the other tallow based creams, not to mention soaps, which needs even more water (such as green Vitos or "hard" P.160).

Remember that the ultimate test is how it lathers on your face not necessarily how it lathers in the bowl. I have many soaps and claims that do not lather well in a bowl but once they hit my face they are excellent.