Shave Sticks Review Project

[Badger in the Sun]

I ordered the Orange Vanilla. I had a hard time trying to decide between it and the Lime. Next time I think I will try the Lime. Glad to hear you like it. Once you get the hang of sticks it is the easiest way to make lather.

Can you describe how you use the MW stick? Do you start with a fairly dry brush and add water gradually or start with a wet brush?

I have a Mystic Waters stick (Jeff's Lavender) from which I have a hard time getting stable lather. I can create a decent amount of lather, but it seems to disappear quickly. Love the scent though.

It's kind of frustrating because I've never had this issue before and I know that MW has many fans, so I'm assuming user error on my part. My water is pretty much middle of the road as far as mineral content.

 

[shave/brush]

Can you describe how you use the MW stick? Do you start with a fairly dry brush and add water gradually or start with a wet brush?

I have a Mystic Waters stick (Jeff's Lavender) from which I have a hard time getting stable lather. I can create a decent amount of lather, but it seems to disappear quickly. Love the scent though.

It's kind of frustrating because I've never had this issue before and I know that MW has many fans, so I'm assuming user error on my part. My water is pretty much middle of the road as far as mineral content.

I recently changed the way I make lather with a shave stick and I find it works best with all the sticks I use. Even the ones I couldn't get to work before. The main thing I do is start with a wet brush. Here is how I make lather using a stick.

1. Wet your face.
2. If the soap has a wrapper, peel off about a ½ inch of it.
3. Rub the soap all over your beard area. Put it on heavy so that you can see a white paste on your face.
4. Then take a wet brush and give it one good snap of the wrist and a couple of downward thrust to shake off excess water. Then start using circular motions on your face to make lather. (I find a wet brush works better than a damp one.)
5. Add water to the brush as needed by dipping the tips of your brush into some water, about a ¼ inch, or let some water drip into the center of the brush off your other hand.
6. Just keep doing this until you have fantastic lather. You should have enough lather built in the brush to do 3 more applications.

 

[Luc]

This puck of monsavon has been in the den for a few years now. I haven't used it that much (30 shaves only) and I simply took the puck, fold it on itself and wrapped it in foil. That easy. Looking at what the puck looks like after 30 shaves. I am unsure if I will make it to 60 shaves (total).

I've been now using the puck-stick for almost 15 shaves. The hard water is affecting the lather. I did not have any issues with soft water but right now, I have to load more product to get a usable lather.

 

[captaincaveman]

I recently changed the way I make lather with a shave stick and I find it works best with all the sticks I use. Even the ones I couldn't get to work before. The main thing I do is start with a wet brush. Here is how I make lather using a stick.

1. Wet your face.
2. If the soap has a wrapper, peel off about a ½ inch of it.
3. Rub the soap all over your beard area. Put it on heavy so that you can see a white paste on your face.
4. Then take a wet brush and give it one good snap of the wrist and a couple of downward thrust to shake off excess water. Then start using circular motions on your face to make lather. (I find a wet brush works better than a damp one.)
5. Add water to the brush as needed by dipping the tips of your brush into some water, about a ¼ inch, or let some water drip into the center of the brush off your other hand.
6. Just keep doing this until you have fantastic lather. You should have enough lather built in the brush to do 3 more applications.

That is pretty much how I do it, including the wetness level of the brush. I start on one cheek and it's too wet, but by the time I get to the other cheek it's good, and after I've hit everywhere I go back to the first cheek which fixes the too-wet lather there.

 

[ackvil]

I recently changed the way I make lather with a shave stick and I find it works best with all the sticks I use. Even the ones I couldn't get to work before. The main thing I do is start with a wet brush. Here is how I make lather using a stick.

1. Wet your face.
2. If the soap has a wrapper, peel off about a ½ inch of it.
3. Rub the soap all over your beard area. Put it on heavy so that you can see a white paste on your face.
4. Then take a wet brush and give it one good snap of the wrist and a couple of downward thrust to shake off excess water. Then start using circular motions on your face to make lather. (I find a wet brush works better than a damp one.)
5. Add water to the brush as needed by dipping the tips of your brush into some water, about a ¼ inch, or let some water drip into the center of the brush off your other hand.
6. Just keep doing this until you have fantastic lather. You should have enough lather built in the brush to do 3 more applications.

That's how I do it. B&B's Joel has an excellent tutorial on how to use a shave stick.

 

[Badger in the Sun]

The method above is pretty much what I do with all the sticks I have (Arko, LaToja, Palmolive, Wilkinson Sword, Speick, Mike's, Cella and others), and I get great results. In fact, I use sticks exclusively. But I've had no luck with MW Jeff's Lavender stick.

Tried again last night and again got unstable, fast-disappearing lather. I've used so many different techniques with MW -- using different amounts of product and water, varying the time I work the lather, badger, boar, etc -- I'm now convinced it's either my water or could I have gotten a bad batch?

I hate to report a bad experience with this product because it obviously works great for many others. I do like the scent.

BTW, I have MW shampoo bars and like them a lot.

 

[shave/brush]

I know a lot of guys like boar brushes for face lathering but I had no luck with them. I find for face lathering you can't beat a synthetic brush. Try that.

 

[vtmax]

It's odd because Mystic Water in stick form is one of, if not the, best preps I use. I load heavy on the wet beard, spread out any clumps/exfoliate with my hand evenly on the face followed by a damp brush primarily a Plisson or STF XL Synthetic. I work the brush longer than I think I should adding drops of water along the way finishing up with paint strokes. This results in that slick yogurt like sheen. Wonderful lather. Hope it eventually works and keep trying!

 

[Badger in the Sun]

Mystic mystery solved!

There's nothing worse than being a lather dunce. The fact that I couldn't lather my Mystic Waters stick was driving me crazy. As I mentioned above, I had tried every which way to get it to work, using up at least a third of the stick getting nothing but unstable, thin, fast-disappearing lather. I diligently applied the advice given here, but to no avail. Very frustrating!

Finally, I figured it out. The problem is my water.

Tonight I used reverse osmosis water that I keep on hand to top off my saltwater aquarium. I followed my usual stick routine, but instead of using tap water to soak my brush and wet my face and the stick, I used RO water. I got a superb, thick, yogurty, and completely stable lather.

Our South Florida water is fairly hard, I believe. I'm going to try to get the ppm number. Water hardness must be the issue. And, most importantly, I no longer have to feel like a lather lunkhead!

I thank you guys for encouraging me to keep trying. And I apologize for the momentary hijack of Luc's extremely awesome thread.

 

[captaincaveman]

Our South Florida water is fairly hard, I believe. I'm going to try to get the ppm number.

Best thing to do is just get a test strip. Morton Salt and I think another salt company will send you one for free, but it takes forever. You can probably buy them for a buck at Home Depot or something.

 

[shave/brush]

I just sent an e-mail to my water dept. and they replied the next day. My water is 45 mg/L. Soft water.

 

[Luc]

The only thing that I can add to this conversation is that water plays a big role in the lather.

When I was in the soft water land, I honestly did not understand that well why someone would have issues lathering soap X. It lathers well for me. When you have soft water, scent is pretty much the only thing that matters.

With hard water, you can still get the same lather but we are talking use a lot more product and work the lather a lot more to achieve that.

Once you got a product or two that work really well in hard water (i.e. the lather is done as if I had soft water) then, regardless what Fred might say, I rather work with what's easier.

If you can, try that soap anyways, it might work well for you even if you have hard water and someone else said that they had an issue.

That's when samples are handy!

If I go back to monsavon, it worked awesome in soft water. To the point where I did not understand why monsavon was not higher up in the chain in France. I mean, I tried Monsavon and Martin de Candre (to compare something with a similar, not the same, but similar scent). For me, they worked really well, both of them. I am now working with monsavon in hard water, complete different story. I have a piece of Martin de Candre that I will compare with Monsavon (even if not used as a stick) as those two have a very different price point. With soft water, the price can confuse you, with hard water, different story.

I'm almost up to 15 shaves with monsavon anyways.

 

[shave/brush]

Luc, just out of curiosity and for the people who have hard water, could you name a couple of soaps that you know work well in hard water?

 

[Luc]

Luc, just out of curiosity and for the people who have hard water, could you name a couple of soaps that you know work well in hard water?

Yes, see post 1, if you take the list that's there. I do not have any major issues making lather out of those until you reach the line that says :

----------This is where I draw a line on what I would buy again and would not. Everything below is a no I'm afraid-----------


They are ranked on their performance mainly and scent. So, if you take the #1, that is my easiest soap to work with and the scent is really nice for me. #2 is Tabac and I know that the scent is not for everyone but it just works really well.

 

[ackvil]

Mystic mystery solved!

There's nothing worse than being a lather dunce. The fact that I couldn't lather my Mystic Waters stick was driving me crazy. As I mentioned above, I had tried every which way to get it to work, using up at least a third of the stick getting nothing but unstable, thin, fast-disappearing lather. I diligently applied the advice given here, but to no avail. Very frustrating!

Finally, I figured it out. The problem is my water.

Tonight I used reverse osmosis water that I keep on hand to top off my saltwater aquarium. I followed my usual stick routine, but instead of using tap water to soak my brush and wet my face and the stick, I used RO water. I got a superb, thick, yogurty, and completely stable lather.

Our South Florida water is fairly hard, I believe. I'm going to try to get the ppm number. Water hardness must be the issue. And, most importantly, I no longer have to feel like a lather lunkhead!

I thank you guys for encouraging me to keep trying. And I apologize for the momentary hijack of Luc's extremely awesome thread.

I lived in Delray Beach for five years. The first year I was there I had a softener installed and the difference was amazing.

 

[StuMcB]

Bought a reformulated Erasmic stick today. Hmmmm, nice classic Erasmic scent and way better than the candle wax, crumble stick that was out. More like the pre formulated Black tub soap.

 

[Badger in the Sun]

The only thing that I can add to this conversation is that water plays a big role in the lather.

When I was in the soft water land, I honestly did not understand that well why someone would have issues lathering soap X. It lathers well for me. When you have soft water, scent is pretty much the only thing that matters.

With hard water, you can still get the same lather but we are talking use a lot more product and work the lather a lot more to achieve that.

Once you got a product or two that work really well in hard water (i.e. the lather is done as if I had soft water) then, regardless what Fred might say, I rather work with what's easier.

If you can, try that soap anyways, it might work well for you even if you have hard water and someone else said that they had an issue.

That's when samples are handy!

If I go back to monsavon, it worked awesome in soft water. To the point where I did not understand why monsavon was not higher up in the chain in France. I mean, I tried Monsavon and Martin de Candre (to compare something with a similar, not the same, but similar scent). For me, they worked really well, both of them. I am now working with monsavon in hard water, complete different story. I have a piece of Martin de Candre that I will compare with Monsavon (even if not used as a stick) as those two have a very different price point. With soft water, the price can confuse you, with hard water, different story.

I'm almost up to 15 shaves with monsavon anyways.

Interesting, Luc. I had never even thought of my hard water in regard to shaving soaps until my recent frustration with Mystic Waters. In fact, two soaps that you list below your line of satisfaction -- ones you would not purchase again because of poor performance -- work fine for me, LaToja and EU Palmolive.

Now I want to try all my soaps with reverse osmosis water to see how much better they get. Maybe I'll collect rainwater and shave with that!

 

[Badger in the Sun]

I lived in Delray Beach for five years. The first year I was there I had a softener installed and the difference was amazing.

I think my wife would have me committed if I told her I was installing a water softener so that I could get my Mystic Waters shave stick to work!

 

[mrb7]

I think my wife would have me committed if I told her I was installing a water softener so that I could get my Mystic Waters shave stick to work!

Yeah, and I'd agree. But surly you're more creative than that.

Do your sheets and Tee-Shirts pill in the wash? Bad water.

Does your toilet bowl stain? Bad water.

Do you get excessive calcium deposits on your coffee maker? Bad water.

You get the idea.

 

[ackvil]

I think my wife would have me committed if I told her I was installing a water softener so that I could get my Mystic Waters shave stick to work!

Tell her it will work wonders on her hair and skin! My wife is the one who asked me to install it.