Lathering soap not going well.

I have a horse hair brush 50/50, a plastic bowl that i put sandpaper to, and Taylor's sandelwood soap. I could not get no lather to build i tried loading the brush w/soap. i tried putting more water in the bowl. I swirl that brush until the cows came home. Everytime i started to get anything going as soon as i would stop it would just disappear. So i just gave up and lathered it straight to the face. Any ideas, I figured i would try a different soap and then a different bowl and if that fails then i quess i will try a different brush.....

Wow, Taylors (of Old Bond Street, is that the one?) is my very favorite cream. I use a small scoop (pictured) in about a dessert-spoonful of water, and lather with a damp brush (I soak it and shake the water out quite hard.) I just use an old coffee cup for making the lather in.

I'd bet you have too much water or too little soap if you aren't getting a proper lather at all. Unless you're using seawater or something. :)

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Try another bowl, I'm suspecting the sand paper or the glue for the sand paper, or the interaction with the sand paper and the soap. Just a guess! Or you have brackish water off your sink. Double O

Horse is a little different to lather with, it requires less vigorous lather making than, say boar. you will want to work mostly with the tips. If it isn't that, then you may have hard water. I am afflicted with that burden myself, and when using a hard soap, I have to load the brush, transfer to the bowl, build lather a bit, and reload to get enough soap for a good lather. It can be done, though, you just have to work them harder. I get great lathers from MWF and DR Harris soaps, but I do have to take my time doing it.

Soft soaps and creams ( like the TOBS cream pictured above) are a lot easier to work with. Now, if you are having no luck with, say, proraso then I'm not sure...

er.. sandpaper in your bowl... I suspect that you may be damaging your brushes with that. I would suggest trying a different bowl or a coffee mug.

I was having the same problem when I first started, I just couldn't build a decent lather. Try loading "too much" soap and see if that helps, it worked for me.

Do you mean you sandpapered the bottom of the bowl to scuff it up?...Anyway, I don't know much about horsehair brushes, but TOBS Sandalwood is good stuff. I love the fragrance. I have the shave cream, and bath soap...and the After shave gel...Check out the lather building video's on youtube, especially Mantic59, he has some good ones. There's a ton of them on there, you should be able to pick up something useful.
It's kind of hard to visualize your problem.

If your using the actual soap puck, make sure it's stuck to the bottom, and not spinning around. Wet it, and sort of rub/smash it around until you get good adhesion, let it sit overnight if you have to. Either that, or try a mug, that should work. They work better when the puck sticks....Wet the brush, wet the puck, flick out the extra water from the brush, same with the puck, don't leave standing water on it. With both parts damp, you really should be able to build some lasting lather...

That's a tallow based soap, you can actually grate it with a cheese grater, and form it to the vessel your using, like a mug. A lot of guys grate MWF, and reform it...

Hope this helps...

yep good old bond street but in soap form.

I did mean i scuffed the bowl with sandpaper. Thanks everybody for the tips i'll have to wait a couple more days do to the fact of being at the fire house.