Interesting... I must have just been lucky. I used a brush for the first time ever this morning, and had no problems building loads of lather. (I'm using Florena as well.) I just poured the water out of the mug, leaving it wet inside, shook the brush once, dabbed a half inch of cream onto the end of it and whipped things up for about 2 minutes. I had more than enough for three passes, I probably could have done five if I'd wanted.