no soap luck!

well i have been using van der hagen but ive also been using some glyserine soap with cinnimon oil i added to it. with the soap i made i dont get lather at all just suds. and with the van der hagen soap i get a lather but nothing great. is it me or is it the soap? and if the soap what are a couple you could suggest. i dont want to end up with a bow of unused soap i just wanna find one and use it up and try something new. just in case in might help my brush is a cheap boar brush. looking forward to what ya fellas come up with.

First off, Welcome to SRP!

VDH is good soap, I've used it with no complaints. Like any soap it takes some time experimenting to get the right amount of water. Try adding just a few more drops of water and mix well, you might get a surprise.

As far as other good soaps go there are plenty, depending on what you want to spend........

On the inexpensive side I recently tried Ray's of Colorado (Ray's of Colorado natural soaps, lotions and herbal cosmetics.) Sandlewood scent made with goats milk and am very happy with it. He carries several scents and offers single and multiple cake deals. Bald Frog is good and you can buy it by the cake or by the once. I got my samples from Whipped Dog Straight Razor Shaving Equipment but you can Google 'bald frog' to go straight to the maker and buy it. Col. Conk is another good, very slick soap that is decently priced.

On the more expensive side there is Mitchell's Wool Fat (very nice soap) & Taylor's Old Bond Street to mention a couple of excellent soaps that I have tried. Being retired and on a fixed income I don't get to try the more expensive soaps unless it is a gift.

Another member will have to chime in on more of the more expensive brands. Hope this helps.

If you add to much water try letting it sit for a min or so to dry out some and then try. Seems to work for me. I like the VDH soap. The smell isn't over powering and it seemed to lather up nicely. If you looking for a thick lather I find creams seem to lather alot creamer than soaps, but I really haven't tried alot of soaps and creams yet either and there are alot of them out there.

Hmmm glad I stumbled upon this thread! I just bought a puck of Vn Der Hagen soap form the PX and it was just under $1.50! If this is good soap and I like it (not that I would know any different yet) I can keep buying it for cheap! Unless it is normally cheap to begin with and not just military cheap.....

wvoifvet,

That is around the normal price of a puck of VDH. So, one can enjoy decent shaves on the cheap.

If you're just getting suds that makes me think theres too much water. Try loading your brush with more soap and adding a few drops of water as you go. Hope this helps :)

Try Prorasso. Relatively cheap, readily available and easy to lather.

+1 on the too much water / not enough soap. If the suds slide down the side of your mug instead of sticking it also indicates too much water.

soak your brush, then shake out /all/ the water.. load /lots/ of soap.. start lathering, add drops of water slowly.. this might help. too much water and too little soap makes big airy suds/bubbles.. adding water too quickly will do the same, i think.

Plenty of good advice here already, but I'm thinking you'd have better luck with some qualiy soap. Shaving soaps are specially formulated for latherability, glide and cushion, so not any regular ol' soap will do. VDH is reputable, but isn't much higher than Williams in the scheme of things. I recommend Tabac, which is tallow based, very user friendly and is an incredible soap all around. Your face will thank you for it, too.

MWF online can be found for around $13 a puck delivered. by far one of the best and luxiourious soaps out there imo.

ok ill check them out , i just dont want to get a collection of unused soaps. thats not going to help me save money by not buying mach 3 blades. lol

Ok good soaps that are worth the money and last a while
1) Mitchell's wool fat 13$ lasts a year plus and easily my favorite soap
2) Mamma bears 8-13$ easy to lather slick good scent selection
3) Cella 9$ smells like sweet almonds and very sturdy slick lather
4) Proraso green 10$ phenomenal on a hot day tub lasts quite a while, idiot proof lather

So those are my top four readily available soaps that are worth every penny IMHO :)
Hope you find one you like!

yea it seems like that mitchells wool fat sounds really good. seems silly to some but heres my layout for straight razor shaving, besides saving me money i love the old skool side of it. its almost lost art that is coming back . but i still love the very traditional smelling soaps and aftershaves. deff wont want any wierd fruity kinda soaps. i know mama bears stuff comes highly recomended but she only makes like 150 diff kinds so not exactly easy to know which are good and which are not. i think i need to get some of the mwf i think i would like it alot. the vdb that im using smells good and does ok i just think im lacking in the experiance department for building a really good lather which i dont get. hell after 7 shaves you would think i would be an old pro! lol jk thanks for all the great advice.

Go here: Turkish Music, Turkish Food, Evil Eye Jewelry, Movies, Grocery Shopping & Books - Tulumba.com and do a site search for Arko. The shave stick is under $2 and is one of the better soaps out there,IMO. The Arko creams are nice as well with the regular having a classic talc scent and the others having more modern, aquatic scents. The Arko AS creams are good as well.

so i just got done shaving and my vdb lathers up good for me but it almost seems to get really dry like powder on my face and razor sticks really bad. is my lather to dry , cold, or what make it really tricky to not cut my self when razor wont glide over my skin smoothly. i want to order some mwf but until then gotta figure this out.

This is what I have found threw trial and error not only for myself but for my boys too. soak the brush in warm water if 5 min. are not doing for you try 10, then remove the excess water so that the brush is just left damp, mix brush on soap till it is loaded and starts to foam. then move to the bowl and add water as needed, to me vdb seams to use more water then others. it is fairly cheep and if you have spare time you could just mix it up for practice, that's what I did. I found it to be a good soap and gave a fine shave.

IMO a good soap lathers nice and thick with almost no added water, then doesn't dry out too easily.

Try adding no more water than whats in the brush after a light shake. Load on the soap until a thick, low volume lather forms. Then face lather on a damp face. If you still wind up w foamy, sudsy, fast drying; then it's time to try a new soap or brush.

Michael