Mystic Water lather photos - some of the best lather shots ever at B&B ...

Well, some of us have been struggling mightily trying to understand the new Mystic Water shaving soaps, including brucered, who is no lather slouch (he has posted a series of terrific lathering videos recently).

It took a while for us to dial it in, but it is truly wonderful stuff. After many trials and tribulations, and much wailing and gnashing of teeth, brucered actually threw in the towel on this soap. Yes he did.

BUT! When the cluebird finally defecated on my head and I learned how to lather this stuff, brucered valliantly sallied forth to do battle with it once again. And wow! Some of the finest soap lather photos at B&B were done by xillion, here:

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...treet-now-in-soap-form!?p=3563602#post3563602

Talk about defining the art, both of lather and photographing it!

Well, *drum roll* brucered has at least equaled that achievement. Check these out. Soap is highly recommended. It requires rather strict lathering procedures, but it is truly tremendous stuff.

I understand the photos are whacked. One moment, I'm fixing them.

It's the wine.

That's some truly outstanding work!

Wow, that's some serious lather.

I've been following the previous thread about lathering Mystic Water as I'm interested in artisan soaps and am impressed that Michelle uses locally sourced, grass-fed beef tallow.

I've seen TheVez2's excellent lathering videos which are now featured on Mystic Waters home page, so what changed for you from finding the soap finicky to producing such dynamite lather?

redrako said:

I've been following the previous thread about lathering Mystic Water as I'm interested in artisan soaps and am impressed that Michelle uses locally sourced, grass-fed beef tallow.

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Oh, lord, you're not going to start eating the stuff like Jwcarlson, are you?

What changed is we finally stopped following the instructions on the card that came with the soap (being rewritten) and started following TheVez2's advice. As far as shaving soaps go this stuff is positively hygrophobic. But it is tremendous once you understand it.

redrako said:

so what changed for you from finding the soap finicky to producing such dynamite lather?

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like john said...THROW THE INSTRUCTIONS AWAY

i used a very DRY BRUSH (soaked then squeezed all the water out), and added very little water 1/2 thru the bowl lathering process (3-4 drops). i also went at the puck with some pressure (as seen in TheVez's videos), not lightly like the directions say.

I've found many soaps do better starting with a drier brush. You get more tackiness which allows a better base at which to build the lather upon.

LOL, Sometimes instructions are helpful....and sometimes not.

Sounds like the classic prescription for lathering MWF. I'm wondering if the high tallow content and perhaps better quality of the tallow lead it to already have a lot of moisture built in?

In any event, thanks JC and Bruce for following through on this. I'm waiting for some Mystic Water Shampoo Bar samples to be delivered and will have to order some shave soap samples.

On a side note, JC is that a Dirty Bird 1.5 with a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in your photos?

While I've had good luck with my array of MW samples, it hasn't been like that lather. Awesome. Guess I'll have to attack a sample tomorrow morning and see if I can duplicate.

Great work solving the MW mystery!

seizure said:

While I've had good luck with my array of MW samples, it hasn't been like that lather. Awesome. Guess I'll have to attack a sample tomorrow morning and see if I can duplicate.

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Agreed, MWF seems to be it's own type of cat. Perhaps Mystic is another type? The lather in the photos looks good enough to eat.

redrako said:

LOL, Sometimes instructions are helpful....and sometimes not.

Sounds like the classic prescription for lathering MWF. I'm wondering if the high tallow content and perhaps better quality of the tallow lead it to already have a lot of moisture built in?

In any event, thanks JC and Bruce for following through on this. I'm waiting for some Mystic Water Shampoo Bar samples to be delivered and will have to order some shave soap samples.

On a side note, JC is that a Dirty Bird 1.5 with a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in your photos?

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brucered's photo, but yes, that's an SOC. It's not a DB scuttle, though. Brucered will have to fill in.

BruceREd kindly PM'ed me with an answer to my question. The scuttle is a Georgetown G5 scuttle.

Of course it's hard to tell what it is in the photo because the exploding lather covers all.

JCinPA said:

BUT! When the cluebird finally defecated on my head

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THat's just awesome! I'm going to remember that line and use it some time.

I don't know much but I know grass-fed beef has fatty acids comparable to or closer to those found in avocado, coconut and similar oil-bearing foods, i.e. This is one reason grass fed is "better" for you than conventional beef (that is, if you eat meat). This may account for its lathering capabilities. And if it's a boutique producer, mfg. technique may also be a factor, e.g. this being one reason not all lavender, sanalwood & other essential oils are not equal to each other. But again, what do I know? Where do you get this stuff?

Touchy, you're one of THESE guys, aren't you?

k2clones29 said:

Have you seen the headspace gas chromatogrophy results regarding comparison of old spice products??? You better believe there are some analytically and scientifically-minded folks around here!

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brucered said:

like john said...THROW THE INSTRUCTIONS AWAY

i used a very DRY BRUSH (soaked then squeezed all the water out), and added very little water 1/2 thru the bowl lathering process (3-4 drops). i also went at the puck with some pressure (as seen in TheVez's videos), not lightly like the directions say.

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I do the dry brush thing to get a lot of my soaps to give the goods up but i do find im more prone to hair loss (the brush not my head) when doing this specifically when the paste begins to form on top of puck do you ever add a drop or two of water at this point ?

I am happy to see these photos. It is the same results I got with Mystic Water from the start. I have never found the soap finicky to lather. All soaps have their idiosyncracies and this is no different. Indeed, I would not start with an ultra wet brush. Yet I do not shake the brush almost dry either. I do chuck about a teaspoon of water on the soap cake whilst I get the brush wet with hot tap water. Then I give the brush one hard shake andgo towirk on the soap fairly aggressively. This goes on for twenty to thirty seconds at most. Usually byyhen I have good loading of semi-paste lather in the brush.

Now here is where I vary from others. I then add a good 1/2-1 teaspoon of warm water to the brush and continue to work the cake of soap. But I use nowhere near the aggressiveness I do when "scrubbing " the soap to load it. More like using the top of the cake as a lather bowl to hydrate the lather. Sure, it picks up some more soap but not much. I have used the lily of the valley all week and even with my aggressive lathering all the bumps and dips from pressing the cake into the bowl are still visible. Now that I have good lather going I open the breech of the brush and add another good half teaspoon of water and then face lather till I get lather like the photos above. Sounds tricky or time consuming but it is not. A total of three to four minutes sees it done. This soap loves water but not all at once. Fantastic product.

Cheers, Todd

Ok...yet another soap I want to try. I bet I can get lather like this in no time with grass fed beef tallow (just like old spice and Williams used to use!) where do you get it?

Thanks Todd. Now to pick a scent...