Why is my soap eroding so quickly?

I have been using a single puck of Williams since 4/22 and it appears that at least half (possibly 2/3) is gone already. This has been in rotation with a puck of Col Conk Bay Rum (which I have only had for only 2 weeks and is almost completely gone).

Am I doing something wrong that is accelerating the erosion of my pucks?

Typically I lather right on top of the soap in the mug. After I am done I wash out the spent lather and store it my cupboard...uncovered. I used to use boiling hot water to get warm lather...but abandoned that practice.

Brushes used are Chubby 2 and Omega Pro 49.

I feel like maybe I am being too aggressive with the brush while building up lather. Is that possible?

Anyway, based on what I have read in the forums here at B&B it seems that I am burning through my Williams and Conk way too fast. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Lathering on the puck uses significantly more soap than loading the brush and lathering elsewhere.

Building a usable lather on the puck is going to use more soap. A drier brush used to pick up soap and then build lather elsewhere will use less. Cleaning the soap after you are done uses more soap also.

Williams is actually a very small puck. I think it is just 1.25 ounces or so. But, are you taking into consideration the quantity vs. the Conk puck size?

Well, that is fast.

Did you ever count your swirls?
It should I think not exceed around 20.

If you spend a lot of time of swirling around you may be doing something wrong.

Also, washing of your soap might not be necessary.

Did you check the tutorials on B&B already?
Maybe you notice something that looks different from your routine.

And from the bright side of life: you now have room for some Mama Bear's.
Or the three T's.
Or Prairie Creations.
Or...

Wim

The only thing that seems glaringly likely is that you wash out the lather. I leave the lather sitting there to break down, I don't wash the soap. You may be taking off a lot doing this. Other than that everything else seems normal. I load my soaps generously and don't get the kind of mileage you are getting. It all depends on how frequently you shave and the number of passes as well, though I agree, you are using your soaps up quite quickly.

Aaron

I shave daily. I really pound and swirl at the Williams to get nice lather. I have never really counted the number of swirls and plunges I make.
I am going to try picking up soap and lathering off of the puck (face, bowl, etc) and see how that goes.

arghblech said:

Lathering on the puck uses significantly more soap than loading the brush and lathering elsewhere.

Click to expand...

Yep

Pretty much your entire routine is a soap-eating recipe; you could make a "How-to" book about how to use soap up quickly.

To preserve soap, do the exact opposite of what you're doing. For MAXIMUM preservation, I recommend the following:

1) Don't put water on the puck or soap the puck during shave preparation.
2) After soaking your brush, let the water drip out of it. Then shake water out of it. Then squeeze the brush with your hand to get water out of it.
3) Load soap into the brush by swirling the relatively dry brush on the puck for as long as it takes to get the bristles heavily clumped with soap.
4) Remove the brush from the soap and build lather in a bowl or on your face, adding water as needed to get a robust lather.
5) Allow the puck to air dry while you shave, apply after shave, and clean up your shaving space.
6) Put the cover back over your puck and put it away.

The puck will last a very long time if you do it this way.

I agree that lathering on the puck erodes the soap so much faster.

I prefer to just put enough hot water on top of the puck to lightly cover the top, let it sit a minute or two while my brush is soaking, shake out the brush to almost dry, just damp, then swirl the brush on the top of the puck, picking up the little bit of water along with a fairly dense coating of soap. I then paint my face with equal distribution of the dense layer and add some water by dipping the brush tip into a mug of hot water and apply. A puck of Williams lasts me almost 6 months this way.

Oh the horror of having to buy more soaps. Maybe I'll try your method for awhile.

well the Conk is glycerine, so it would go much faster than the Williams.

Yeah I use WAY more than I need, just because I want to finish one of my pucks, just once!

Williams pucks are like the lather they produce:



They dissappear quickly!

Royall Lyme said:

I have been using a single puck of Williams since 4/22 and it appears that at least half (possibly 2/3) is gone already. This has been in rotation with a puck of Col Conk Bay Rum (which I have only had for only 2 weeks and is almost completely gone).

Am I doing something wrong that is accelerating the erosion of my pucks?

Typically I lather right on top of the soap in the mug. After I am done I wash out the spent lather and store it my cupboard...uncovered. I used to use boiling hot water to get warm lather...but abandoned that practice.

Brushes used are Chubby 2 and Omega Pro 49.

I feel like maybe I am being too aggressive with the brush while building up lather. Is that possible?

Anyway, based on what I have read in the forums here at B&B it seems that I am burning through my Williams and Conk way too fast. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Been there. Done that. Like you, when I first started making my own lather using soap, I lathered directly on the soap. I'd go through a puck of glycerin soap in a couple of weeks. It's not that you can't do that (a lot of old timers did it that way), but if you don't watch it, you'll generate a lot more lather than you need. If you're washing a lot of lather down the drain, you're wasting soap. As suggested, you can leave the excess lather on top of the soap, but be careful not to let the soap become too soft from wet lather. It is possible for soap to become so soft it makes loading your brush difficult. I've done it.

As far as putting water on your soap goes, it's only necessary if your soap is so hard your brush won't pick it up. However, you don't want your soap to become so soft your brush won't pick it up.

The number of swirls on the soap your brush requires depends upon several things. 1) The quality of your water, 2) The kind of lather you like, dense or thin, and 3) How much lather you need. Personally, a few swirls on my soaps only gets me a small amount of good lather or a lot of very thin lather that does not lubricate.

Building lather is not difficult, but it does take practice to get it the way you like it.

-Clarke

kingfisher said:

Pretty much your entire routine is a soap-eating recipe; you could make a "How-to" book about how to use soap up quickly.

To preserve soap, do the exact opposite of what you're doing. For MAXIMUM preservation, I recommend the following:

1) Don't put water on the puck or soap the puck during shave preparation.
2) After soaking your brush, let the water drip out of it. Then shake water out of it. Then squeeze the brush with your hand to get water out of it.
3) Load soap into the brush by swirling the relatively dry brush on the puck for as long as it takes to get the bristles heavily clumped with soap.
4) Remove the brush from the soap and build lather in a bowl or on your face, adding water as needed to get a robust lather.
5) Allow the puck to air dry while you shave, apply after shave, and clean up your shaving space.
6) Put the cover back over your puck and put it away.

The puck will last a very long time if you do it this way.

Click to expand...

Do what Kingfisher said, above.

-- John Gehman

I think the lion's share of the reason must be that you are lathering on top of the puck, because I've done all of the other things you describe with my Proraso, which is a softer soap, and have not observed much wear at all. I have a puck of Williams here I'll get around to trying eventually. I am *very* vigorous with my Omega boar brush when loading it up. You will note that kingfisher's list does not include "use a light touch with your brush when loading".

Do consider that given Williams' hardness, many members here advocate taking some of these measures which erode a puck faster in order to get a good lather in a reasonable period of time. I would try using a separate lather bowl first, and if that isn't helping, heap your unused lather back on the puck to dry out.

I was just going to ask this.....same problem here, using too much water to load the brush and loading for too long.

BCP said:

I was just going to ask this.....same problem here, using too much water to load the brush and loading for too long.

Click to expand...

That's really one single problem. The wetter your brush, the more time you need to spend loading. Good lather is all about the product : water ratio. Just like ketchup, it's a lot easier to add more water later than take some out.

BTW, a hot water soak will dissolve quite a bit of soap, especially the 'glycerin' and melt & pour soaps like Conk, VDH, HBS, etc. We had one guy here that went though a M&P soap in about a week. He stopped running hot water in his mug and then the soap lasted quite a while.

-- John Gehman