I have not played around with soaps and creams to much and it has always been on my list of things to do. I don't use pre anything or alum or witch whatever. I am a simple guy and so far Momma bears and Al's is about the extent of my soap experience and it has served me well. The lather from cream is more work to me and so I have reserved it's use for evenings when I have time. Most of my shaves are in the morning however and I still have to decide which of Al's scents I prefer the most. 2 got given away after first try. Some kind of nutmeg/clove or what ever spice scent did not agree with my nose at all. I haven't given much thought to even experimenting with all the other possible joys I could be missing. Well...until last night. I was trying to make up my mind .....soap or cream. I started to lather up with the puck of Momma bears' patchouli and grabbed a bowl to see if it built lather better in there. Not so much more than on the face so I added some of Al's Saigon cream and ooops lots of water. (more than usual) and started whipping again. I knew that Al's would take a minute but then all of a sudden here it comes. Holy >@%$ here it comes. Oh oh what did I do ???? It was like a flood in a fizzy factory. Lather going over the edge, all down the sides , the floor the counter,and it kept coming. When I couln't see my finger tips anymore and just the top of the brush I put an end to it and stopped whipping. Can I save this for the rest of the week? Nope I think not. So I just started applying this lather to my face and OMG was it thick and slippery. After the first 2 passes I could see my brush again and I rinsed it off just to feel normal. After the 5th pass I had to stop. There was no more stubble to find and I was afraid I was taking layers of skin without even knowing it. Now I am not big on shaving anything else so I had to wash away a lot of great lather.
It's 24 hours later and I don't feel like I need a shave yet, it was that close. Of course I have never gone 5 passes, but these are just re-lather counts really. So now I am thinking I might have the adventurous attitude about oils glycerin and all that other stuff some of you seem to love so much. I now know I must be missing something even though I will probably come back to the simple routine as I am mostly a morning kind of guy!