Superlathers: What are your favorites?

I prefer soaps to creams -- just do. But over time I've discovered that even the best soaps can be improved by adding a dollop of cream to create the explosion of shaving goodness that is a superlather. In particular, I've found that any of the four soaps below combine beautifully with any of the four creams -- 16 super variations in all.

Soaps

• Mike's Natural Soaps Unscented
• MWF
• D.R. Harris Almond
• Arko

Creams

• Erasmic (old style)
• Dr. Selby's Lavander
• Ingram
• Trumper's Rose

What are some of your favorite soap-cream combinations?

I've found that I don't have the patience to get a good lather out of soap, which is a shame because I have some soaps I really, really like the scent of. So the other day I tried making a superlather out of my favorite scented soap, Mama Bear's Ye Olde Barbershoppe, and a squirt of KMF unscented. Wow! Wonderful, wonderful! I'm going to give it a whirl with the C&E Sienna before too long.

I have one soap and one soap only that gets dedicated to superlathers, and that soap is VDH. Couple of reasons why: I can get a good lather out of VDH by itself, but it takes me FOREVER. The lather itself from VDH isn't as slick as I would like, but it takes a hell of a long time to dry on the face. Also, the scent from VDH is very mild. I found that combining a dollop of cream like TOBS Lemon and Lime does a lot of things: It makes the VDH lather more slick, but also has the quality of being non drying on the face. It makes the most wicked, pillow like lather ever, and it has the added benefit that the scent of the cream will take over the lather. I get the strong scent and wicked glide of the TOBS combined with the added shield and the non drying effect of the VDH. Best lather I have tried yet.

I really like my Col Conk almond soap as a base (very mild scent) and a touch of Proraso Red. mmmmmm AWESOME shave!

Williams with KMF or Headslick

Palmolive (Euro stick) with Proraso Eucalyptus or Body Shop Maca Root

Cella with Proraso, if you are in the mood for Italian.

MWF with TOBS Eton College. Great scent and wonderful lather.

Pipe Novelist said:

I have one soap and one soap only that gets dedicated to superlathers, and that soap is VDH. ...

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You've reminded me that VDH is a great-lathering soap whose scent leaves me ... puzzled. (What the heck is that smell, anyway? Cherry?) Tonight I'm going to dig out my bowl of VDH and try adding one of my creams to it and see what happens. Stay tuned.

Viseguy said:

You've reminded me that VDH is a great-lathering soap whose scent leaves me ... puzzled. (What the heck is that smell, anyway? Cherry?) Tonight I'm going to dig out my bowl of VDH and try adding one of my creams to it and see what happens. Stay tuned.

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I think I read something somewhere on the box or online about it being a light almond scent, though I could have been reading that about something else as well. Hard telling. Either way, VDH lathers great on its own with enough time, but adding a tiny smear of cream to it both prolongs your tub of cream and gives an awesome lather. Next time I shave I'll have to get some lather porn together for all you guys.

Col. Conk amber and Musgo Real

or

Proraso and KMF Key Lime, or Cool Mint if you want an extra menthol kick

whavens said:

MWF with TOBS Eton College. Great scent and wonderful lather.

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+1!

RR Bergamot Neroli and TOBS Almond is my current favorite smell. TOBS Almond and MWF gives fantastic shaves.

That being said, I use TOBS almond with all of my soaps lately and have wonderful shaves. I just got a badger a few days ago and am learning to make lather with soap so I have been adding cream because I haven't loaded long enough

Viseguy said:

You've reminded me that VDH is a great-lathering soap whose scent leaves me ... puzzled. (What the heck is that smell, anyway? Cherry?) Tonight I'm going to dig out my bowl of VDH and try adding one of my creams to it and see what happens. Stay tuned.

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Pipe Novelist beat me to it, but, yeah, first thing I thought of when I smelled it was almond. Which probably explains why you were thinking of cherry. Almond extract always seemed to have a cherry quality to me.

Mama Bear's Rosemary Mint + Palmolive Italian Menthol. Mmmmmmm.

MWF and T&H 1805. Even smell similar to me.

MdC and Lavanda.

Ron

MWF and I Coloniali Rhubarb cream. yum.

Vitos Extra Coconut and Vulfix Sicilian Lime. wowza.

EJ Sea Buckthorn and Veleiro. Ahoy!

Proraso green soap and cream together. Or VDH luxury with proraso green. VDH luxury with KMF cool mint.

One I've yet to try but think will be good is mikes natural peppermint rosemary with KMF cool mint

Arko and GFT Eucris

or

Cella soap and T&H Almond Cream

Viseguy said:

You've reminded me that VDH is a great-lathering soap whose scent leaves me ... puzzled. (What the heck is that smell, anyway? Cherry?) Tonight I'm going to dig out my bowl of VDH and try adding one of my creams to it and see what happens. Stay tuned.

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I put a dab of Dr. Selby's Lavanda (Lavander) on the VDH and it worked really well. Slick, cushion-y superlather, and the smell was basically all Dr. Selby's, which was fine by me.

Some great superlather suggestions here. Keep 'em coming!