Thread: Soap with best lather

Get some Cella and post me back!! And in 2nd place is a puck of Ogalla Bay Rum soap at West Coast Shaving for 4.75.Both of these are in my rotation and when they run out ,i will reorder them.

Originally Posted by JohnG10

I've been using SRD soap, and like how it's slicker than the Bigelow cream, but wish the lather was a little thicker and stayed wetter longer. Are the Tabac, Harris, Trumpers or MWF soaps any better than the SRD soaps in terms of their lather's cushion, glide, and "stays wet" times ? (ie: Is the extra cost versus the SRD soap because it's imported ?)

ps: Scent is not important to me, and I don't have hard water.

One important point is that "lathering" can take practice.

So tinker with it.

You can take a poor mans soap like Williams and with
practice make a lather that is better than the lather
many beginners generate.

You can use hot water cold water, lots of water
a small amount of water. A little bit of work a lot
of brush time... You can abuse a $7 boar brush
seven ways to saturday night if you like.

If you have Bigelow cream try adding a pea size bit on
a hard soap like Williams.

I never toss a soap unless it makes me sneeze.
I tinker with the ones that seem unsatisfactory until
I figure them out or they are gone down the drain.

It is possible to make a lather a dozen times a day.
Shaving a dozen times will turn your face into hamburger.

Soaps like razors, strops, and even brushes all have pros and cons. If you want a soap with great fluffy lather then you sacrifice moisturizing properties, the reason for this is the best all around bubbly lather comes from coconut oil.. but with that it pulls more oils out of the skin and causes your skin to dry... Now a creamy lather is properties of a moisturizing oil.. like Olive oil and castor oils will give a creamy lather BUT because it doesn't "Cleanse" as much the lather isn't thick.. There most definitely is an in between but it is hard to obtain because creating the perfect mixture is hard to do because even though you get close there are also other factors... Like how pure the oils are, what type of water.. you name it..

Now many people do several things.. Milling is one, and it does improve on the soap performance for several reasons.. the inside of a soap puck never really cures all the way and retains a portion of the water.. so milling it down and pressing it into a mold.. increases the surface area and exposes the inside of the puck to the air thus allowing the water inside (yes I know its minute but it actually makes a difference) to evaporate. Now if you do this three times then it's triple milled... The reasoning is the less moisture in a cold processed soap will increase surface area and allow the entire puck of soap to Mellow, and the true properties of the soap can shine.. The other thing is to mix the soaps to get an Uber lather.. it's just taking the high properties of one soap and mixing them with another.. so you have two performing to desired lather.

Just like Niftyshaving said.. tinker with it.. you will find the combination you want eventually, or look on here to people who have already combined many soaps for this purpose. Another thing that will help is adding glycerine it helps with hydrogen bonding on ANY lather...

I should also note that some folk have issues
with their water.

It is easy to test lathering with purified water.
Most markets have jugs of deionized
or distilled water for use in cloth irons. Compare
and contrast your water with mineral water.
Water softeners will often exchange one ion
for another Na for Ca and the result still has a lot
of dissolved solids (TDS) but the result is a water
that does not react "badly" with some soaps.

Distilled near 0 TDS
Deionized near 0 TDS

Pierre 475 TDS
San Pellegrino 960 TDS.

Local tap will range from 5-500

Dissolved solids are often desired as
they can much improve the taste of
water. The wrong dissolved solids
can hurt the taste.

Filters like the Brita filter help some tap
water.

I think "the soap with the worst lather" would be an easier question to deal with. There are far too many great performers out there to nail it down to a few top contenders, let alone #1.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

I should also note that some folk have issues
with their water.

It is easy to test lathering with purified water.
Most markets have jugs of deionized
or distilled water for use in cloth irons. Compare
and contrast your water with mineral water.
Water softeners will often exchange one ion
for another Na for Ca and the result still has a lot
of dissolved solids (TDS) but the result is a water
that does not react "badly" with some soaps.

Distilled near 0 TDS
Deionized near 0 TDS

Pierre 475 TDS
San Pellegrino 960 TDS.

Local tap will range from 5-500

Dissolved solids are often desired as
they can much improve the taste of
water. The wrong dissolved solids
can hurt the taste.

Filters like the Brita filter help some tap
water.

Nifty is absolutely correct. I have a water softener here and I never have an issue with lathering at all. At the house before I had a 5 stage RO filter at the kitchen sink and the rest was just standard tap and if I used the tap water my soaps didn't usually lather very well, but if I used the water from the filter system then it lathered great.. My MWF was the telltale on water quality at the other house... And Ryan82 is right as well.. too many factors to figure out which is the best.. Generally most do a great job...

I've been using TOBS lavender soap for a while with good results, but just picked up some Mitchell's Wool Fat after hearing so many others talk about it. I find the MWF gives me significantly better lather in terms of volume, and seems to stay 'wetter' for longer on my face. The only downside is that the MWF doesn't have the nice smell, so I may start adding a small amount of TOBS cream to solve that problem.

I also concur with all the others that suggest adding a bit of glycerin - works wonders for any soap.

Originally Posted by SFshaver

...snip....
The only downside is that the MWF doesn't have the nice smell,
...snip...

Smoker?

MWF is light and subtle...

Originally Posted by Birnando

The SRD soaps are very good IMO.
I would actually rate it higher than Tabac and on par with the others you mention.
Only a few soaps have performed better than the SRD soaps for me, Martin de Candre and Czech and Speak's 88 are two of them.

That said, there are lots of variables affecting the outcome though.
Water quality, hardness and temperature seems to change performance on most products I've used.

The suggestion Joe makes is a good one.
Überlather is fun to play around with

Good luck finding your own favorite soap

+1 to this. MDC is probably the best soap I've used to date. It's almost like shaving cream. C&S 88 is awesome to. You can get the traveler's size 3 pack, here:
Cambridge Chemists - Czech & Speake No 88 Travellers Shave Soap Refills) This is a good deal, as C&S 88 is expesnsive.

I've always been impressed with SRD's soaps, the performance as well as the fragrance. My favorite remains the Bulgarin Rose Otto. It seems that expensive oil, not only smells intoxicating, but also helps out the lather....Maybe they'll bring it back one day....
I also agree with Obie, Using Shave soaps and creams can be very subjective.