Storing soaps

Newbie question for you all:

I have come to realize from reading posts that I have been using my shaving mug wrong. Luckily, I have been using a brush and mug for years and am just now awaiting a couple of DE razors to try out.

My parents got me a brush from Taylors of Old Bond Street years back and more recently a hand made shave mug when they were out visiting me in Oregon. I just plopped the soap in the mug and have been basically creating a lather combo on top of the soap in the mug and on my face. I have one or two soaps floating around (and looking forward to trying some more I've read about!) but if not in the mug, where do you keep the soaps that you can laod up your brush? Seems like I need a second mug or a tub of some sort. Am I missing something or are tubs that hold soaps available? Saw some soaps come in a tub, but other appear to simply be pucks on their own.

Thanks for your help and patience with a newbie.

I'm with you brother. I did the same thing as you for years. Built lather right over the soap. Frankly there's nothing wrong with this except you probably waste some soap you otherwise wouldn't. My biggest mistake was I never whipped long enough. I basically just swirled until a soap mix built up and that's what I shaved with. It worked ok, but I wasn't taking advantage of the thick cream these soaps are capable of generating.

Anyway on to your question. There are a myriad of things you can buy from the cheap to the expensive. I purchased a small ziplock bowl w/ lid at W. Mart for a travel soap and it works well. If you go to Amazon.com and run a search for "shave soap bowl" serveral products appear from metal to wood. Some soaps like Tabac come w/ a bowl. You could also continue to leave your soap in the mug and purchase a second bigger bowl in which to whip your lather. All good solutions and all work equally well. Good luck.

The Old Dominion Soap Co. offers a nice selection of shaving bowls to choose from. So does Em's Place.

You also might want to check out Anchor-Hocking glass bowls in the 1-cup size. They come with a tight-fitting lid; lots of guys seem like them.

Good luck!

Evan

I just buy the soap refills. I then grate them and put in a ziploc bowl w/ a screw on lid I got from Walmart (3 for $2. something). After you grate the soap, pour a little water and press the soap down so it will form the mold of the bowl. This may it won't move around when you are generating lather. Also my bowls can handle 2 cups - so I don't have to worry about the lather spilling of the sides, there is plenty of room. When you are done just let it dry and put the screw on lid - which is great for traveling also. You also don't have to worry about dropping the bowl and breaking it and all that extra issues. This way you can enjoy different soaps for a long time at a resonable cost. If you were to buy the original bowls for evey soap, that would be expensive, just imagine if you bought the extended warranty for every electronic equipment you bought.

MasterP said:

If you were to buy the original bowls for evey soap, that would be expensive, just imagine if you bought the extended warranty for every electronic equipment you bought.

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With all due respect, buying bowls for shaving soaps doesn't quite compare cost-wise with buying several extended warranties for electronic gear. Granted, it's certainly more expensive than your method but it's not going to run into many hundreds of dollars.

Evbo said:

With all due respect, buying bowls for shaving soaps doesn't quite compare cost-wise with buying several extended warranties for electronic gear. Granted, it's certainly more expensive than your method but it's not going to run into many hundreds of dollars.

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...and in the case of many soaps you only buy the original bowl once. After that you buy refill pucks. Doesn't even need to be the same brand if you just get the same puck size. Frankly Tabac in the bowl only costs $14 and refill pucks alone can be more than that for some brands. In my mind there is no financial incentive to skimp here if you don't want to, but I use the cheapo container too for travel as mentioned so there you go.

Evbo, I respect your point. Looking at the options it will cost you minimum $14 to $20+ extra depending on the manufacturer. I guess it's no big deal if you buy one or two, but if you have about 10 soaps, you'll save a minimum of $100. If that's your thing go for it, but for me the bowl works better, especially with the screw on lid. Also with the wooden bowl I don't know if the soap moves around.

For years I whipped up a lather with a boar brush right on top of the soap in a mug then really got it going on my face. Nowadays I've got a couple of mugs with soap in them (but they seem to loose their scent quicker), a couple of wooden bowls with lids, a metal dish and then there are the sticks and the creams. I keep everything displayed on a shelf. I don't have a problem, really.
A good cheap way to store the soaps and keep them fresh is store them in those little plastic Glad containers with lids. That will keep them fresh.
Lately I use a mug or cup just as a place to keep the brush and soap warm between passes. I set the mug in a sink of hot water, whip up a little lather on the brush, then move to the hot mug for some more whips and do most of the lathering on my face, like you should

You can't beat the ziploc bowls for the price - less than a dollar a bowl. That is an added benefit that it locks in the scent.

Plus you have more surface area to lather from in the bowl - once the soap forms to that shape.