Lathering Soap - Mama Bear's

[Mryanwalker]

I have a question about how to lather with shaving soaps, more specifically Mama Bear's. Do most people put a little water on the soap first? Won't that ruin the soap?

[kingfisher]

It won't ruin it, but it's not necessary, either. Read the sticky about how to lather soap.

In brief: soak your brush. Let the water drain out, then shake once or twice, then give it a squeeze. Then take your brush to the soap and began to load soap onto the brush by moving the brush around on top of the soap. Keep doing this until the bristles are clumped together with lots of soap. Then move the loaded brush either to your wet face or to a bowl and began to lather. Add water as necessary until you get the consistency of lather you want.

that's pretty much it. But read the sticky, 'cause it has photographs that show what I just explained.

[82R100]

It shouldn't ruin the soap but, on the other hand, shouldn't be necessary if you're patient enough to spend the time to load your brush properly. Too much moisture in the brush during loading translates to lather production when you want to be loading instead. Mama Bear soaps aren't all that hard, so pre-soaking the puck shouldn't be necessary.

- Chris

[xivex]

I have a question about how to lather with shaving soaps, more specifically Mama Bear's. Do most people put a little water on the soap first? Won't that ruin the soap?

I put a dab of hot water on the soap and let it sit while I'm prepping my face and getting everything ready. I don't think it really hurts the soap...in my opinion, it just helps you get lather started a bit easier. Probably more placebo effect than anything else though given how little water I actually use to do this ( like a teaspoon's worth).

[wimbouman]

I have a question about how to lather with shaving soaps, more specifically Mama Bear's. Do most people put a little water on the soap first? Won't that ruin the soap?

Hello,

+1 on all the posts above.

Yet, I like to add just a teaspoon of water to any soap that has not been used for a while.

I have like 17 soaps in the Den (http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/index.php/User:Wimbouman) at the moment, and I think the bit of water adds something to the ease and the quality of the lather if you start using a puck of soap again after some time.

As always, YMMV.

W

[jkh]

The point of "soaking" a puck of soap is to soften the surface to make loading the brush easier/quicker. As the others have mentioned this is not necessary to make great lather.

[njpaddy]

Have you watched the Mama Bear video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDsptQLRA00&feature=PlayList&p=67B992BD56B06E19&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1)? It's quite entertaining. Excessive, but still entertaining.

[jkh]

Also, it is my opinion that soaking is even less necessary with melt-and-pour (i.e., glycerin) soaps such as Mama Bears because the soap is already reasonably "soft". Yes, soaking will make loading your brush easier/faster, but it will also use up the puck quicker.