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Prosaro, doing it wrong?

I've been trying to get my Prosaro (green) soap to work for me for the past three weeks, and no love.

I've been using Marco's method, which works perfectly with Cella, but with the Prosaro I either get lather that dries too quickly on my face, is too foamy and thin, or seems right but doesn't give me as good a shave as my cheap Palmolive stick.

After reading so many glowing reports of Prosaro I'm wondering if I'm doing it wrong?

I'm using a Vulfix 660 badger brush, 2011 Muhle R41 or Merkur 32C. I've also tried using hot and cold water.

I tried titrating the amount of water with bowl lathering, no joy. I've tried face lathering, no luck.

One thing I've noticed is that the lather feels the most 'slick' when it is the same consistency that cakes on my upper lip within 5 minutes.

What am I doing wrong?
 
It sounds like you could perhaps do with a bit more water and a bit more soap, and a bit more mixing thereof.
Caking up is a definite sign that it's too dry, and if adding water immediately makes it go foamy, there's probably not enough product in there.

What I do with Proraso is wet the puck while the brush soaks, pour off any excess water, then load up; I tend to see big dollops of proto-lather forming round the edges of the puck that I scoop up and add to the brush before face lathering. While lathering, I dip the brush a few times to add water, same as any soap.

I would caution that I've found Proraso to be the easiest soap to lather of any I've tried; for me, it just seemed to lather up quickly and without great effort, and so I haven't had to subject what I do with it to great scrutiny.
 
I would load the brush longer and slowly add water. From the way you described the lather above, it sounds too wet to me. Then again, Im new to this as well.
 
I use the cream 99% of my shaves. When I use the soap, I take a spoon and peel thin strips into my scuttle or bowl and add a little hot water to soften while I shower. When I first tried it, just trying to load the brush from the tub, I had the exact experience you are describing. I prefer the cream for convenience, but the soap works very well for me now.
 
I had a puck of the soap gifted to me and though I had always used the cream, I find the soap provides a slicker shave.
 
You can try adding more everthing then mix it in a bowl. After that let it sit for a bit and then re-mix. This is what I do with some of my other soaps - seems odd to be saing that for Proraso though.
 
Marco's method starts with way to wet a brush for my tastes, I find it harder to control the results than by using dryer brush and slowly adding water.
 
Marco's method involves a boar brush, which retains less water than badger. Using that method with badger can be a recipe for soap soup.

Every soap will have its quirks, so it can take a few tries to really dial in the lather. Proraso is a fine enough soap, you just need to figure out what makes it tick.... less water and longer loading would be a good place to start.
 
What's wrong? Well, for one thing you're using Prosaro and the rest of us are using Proraso.

Seriously, it's an excellent product and it sounds like you're either using too much water or not enough water. Start with less water and then add a few drops at a time if you need more.

Stu
 
Hmmmm.....you might try using bottled water also. Not sure if you have hard/soft water in your area but that can definately affect your lather. It's just another avenue to try. Good luck!
 
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The problem is you are using Proraso...no matter what people say, I personally believe this is not that great of a product. It has no moisturizing properties, which also means that it will not give that much of a "slickness" to your shave. This is my opinion, but believe me, there are much better products that contain tallow that you can get which will give you much better results than the Proraso. I would go with a Queen Charlotte Soaps cream or soap, they have excellent "slickness" and they won't dry up on your face like alot of the productions creams or soaps. Basically, probably any tallow based cream or soap would be better than Proraso. It gets alot of hype, but it just never did it for me.
 
Yep, PIF that green tub to mad man and go spend your hard earned on something more expensive...

I'll give it a good home!
 
If you are using Marco's method you should have no problems. Keep on trying. I use Poraso everyday and get great results.
 
I'm a noob, and a Proraso fan, too. The menthol does it for me, and I've never had problems lathering it. It does take a while, using trial and error, to get into a zone with a brush and soap of any kind.
I'm also a fan of scuttles. I have the Dirty Bird 1.5, and find that it really helps bring out the lather, and also keep it nice and warm. A larger "mixing bowl" might help.
 
Ahhh, so that's why my searches for 'Prosaro lather' came up short, I was spelling it wrong!

Tried again. Soaked soap with water for about a minute, poured off water. One gentle squeeze of the badger brush. One minute loading of the brush, into a bowl. Slowly added water, applied to face. Lather caked on my lip after a few minutes, added more water to the lather. Re-applied lather, still dried out on face, but not as quickly. Added more water, entire lather ballooned out into very light foam which felt less slippery than before.

I think maybe I' just need to relather my face more often with this soap? Or take less time shaving :)
 
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