How to make great lather from a soap ~ Tutorial

[Luc]

First post.

Will this lathering method work with soft cream-soaps like Cella? It seems odd to put a layer of water on top of them to soak before lathering, since they're already soft?

Seems like it does!!!

I'll second the many people who have commented that you need to start with a dry brush and add water very sparingly. The difference from previous lathers was startling.

Welcome to B&B!

Yes, it works well!

[marvin.bower]

1)QUANTITY - water resting ON THE SOAP
the original tutorial says "a teaspoon" - which is about 8 drops

2) TIME - how long for loading the brush
30 seconds is enough ?
yes it depends on the brush, but let's give an average number here

3) PRESSURE - how much pressure - and where - to load the brush

4) DIRECTON - what direction to load the brush - only circular?

5) TIME - how long for creating a "cool whip" effect lather ?
nobody says how long it takes?

6) SPEED - how fast you move your brush to make the leather
do you use it as you make scrambled eggs?

if we make all these numbers right, we will provide a great service to all the readers.


sorry, I'm an engineer,

Marvin

[Luc]

1)QUANTITY - water resting ON THE SOAP
the original tutorial says "a teaspoon" - which is about 8 drops

2) TIME - how long for loading the brush
30 seconds is enough ?
yes it depends on the brush, but let's give an average number here

3) PRESSURE - how much pressure - and where - to load the brush

4) DIRECTON - what direction to load the brush - only circular?

5) TIME - how long for creating a "cool whip" effect lather ?
nobody says how long it takes?

6) SPEED - how fast you move your brush to make the leather
do you use it as you make scrambled eggs?

if we make all these numbers right, we will provide a great service to all the readers.


sorry, I'm an engineer,

Marvin

I wish it would be that simple. It really depends on all the variables (soap, brush, hardness of the water, user).

However, the first two questions should be right.

3) A bit of pressure in the middle to push the brush down in the soap but you don't want to have the knot scoping the soap

4) Up to you but going in circles is easier.

5) Depends on the soap, brush, hardness of the water and user (speed that you are building the lather. It can go anywhere between 60 seconds to 3 minutes... That's a rough figure...

6) I don't think we all whip eggs at the same pace...

Lastly, YMMV.

This is not make your own cake contest and you only have 1 change. Practice, make a few bowls of lather between shaves. When you get a new product (soap or brush) try them before your next shave!

[Neurogenesis]

This makes my life easier indeed. I will try this method for my next shave!

[stiggs]

Thanks a lot for the guide. It made such a difference to my lather and my face! I have only done 6 shaves so far, the last 2 of which I used this technique (although re-reading my brush should be more dry) and not only does the lather turn out great but I have reduced nicks with my novice hand from about 7 per shave to .01 of a (tiny) nick -although this was a touch up without lather. Gonna keep trying to perfect it and read the pages between 1 and here to see any tips I skipped over :)

[Eric V]

bravo! Excellent pics and description. Thanks!

[noahpictures]

For some reason I couldn't find this a couple of weeks ago, nevertheless I learned how to build lather from this guide when I joined B&B.

[erischilde]

thanks for the shot by shot... looks awesome

[zhobbyhouse]

Great Tutorial!! I'm going to put the Proraso cream aside for the next shave and try my soap puck again. I certainly did not do it right the first time I tried the soap.

[easyE]

Bumping this thread to make it easier to find as I experiment with it for the next couple of days. Who knows it might help out another troubled soap user!!

[patrickamory]

I'm gonna completely retract what I wrote above, at least for Cella. I'm a convert to Marco's method of loading the brush with water as much as possible, and then doing 120 swirls no pressure.

Marco's method is here:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthr...ian-soft-soaps

[guero_gordo]

Thanks, I've been frustrated with Tabac and an Omega 48, getting good looking lather with no lubricating properties.
I know I'm working with the right tools, so no doubt where the problem lies.

[Raatt]

Like so many others, after reading this thread my soap shaves have exceeded the quality of my cream shaves...I thought I was in heaven when I found creams...so what do you call this place...?

[Loken]

I really got to try this out. So far I think my lathers have been OK at best really. I think my brush technique is questionable but I got to see will that water from the soap going into mix bowl will make it better. Also, I assume there may be no difference but this would work with cheaper (cost) soap like Williams and VDH?

[flamewing]

@Loken I just started this whole process a few days ago. I'm using VDH and I'm getting progressively better results. The more bowls I make I realize some of the errors on previous bowls. I'm still trying to dial in the ideal water amounts but this guide is helping me improve my lathers a lot.

[newshavr]

Thank you so much for making this VERY informative and easy to understand guide on lathering your shaving soaps. I'm as new as a noobie can get (dont even have a shaver yet), but have a cheap puck of VDH as well as the matching ugly green plastic handled VDH boar brush, and been practicing my lathering technique for a few days now. Thought I was doing okay until reading this guide. Can't wait to get home tomorrow and practice the "new" method.

[jpress76]

+1 to that. Could someone point me to a post on face lathering? I tried it once and failed. But the bowl method is coming along quite nicely with Proasso cream....some soap samples coming in the mail. We'll see how it goes.

[Luc]

+1 to that. Could someone point me to a post on face lathering? I tried it once and failed. But the bowl method is coming along quite nicely with Proasso cream....some soap samples coming in the mail. We'll see how it goes.

All lathering tutorials can be found here: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Category:Lathering

[jpress76]

All lathering tutorials can be found here: http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Category:Lathering

Thank you sir!

[kaseri]

Just tried this method with MWF and it worked wonderfully. All this time I thought my lather was fine but now I see what real lather is.