Lather Consistency: The Definitive Answer

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I am seeking the definitive answer for the ideal lather consistency.

I see 'yoghurt' mentioned a lot. I don't know what yoghurt these guys are eating, but I'm pretty sure something with the density of yoghurt wouldn't hold on the face too well.

What's your preferred consistency please, based a real-world reference?

I'm somewhere between squirty cream from a can and dairylea currently.
 
There's yoghurt and there's yoghurt. Anything from a Petits Filous to tzatziki (without cucumber). It's a broad description.

For me the lather gets whipped up and what's important is the amount of water added, which means you can have a fairly light thick lather with a lot of moisture. In practice this means that I tend to build the lather on the face and depending on the razor I'm using will keep adding water, whilst beating it up into a thick layer.

OC - least added water
SB - medium amount
Straight razor - most water added

The resulting lather looks the same, but a straight razor lather typically has twice as much moisture / water than an OC safety lather. YMMV

Oh and I personally find that Feather blades (DE or AC) seem more tolerant of a dryer lather than other blades.
 
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It depends very much upon what preferences you have.

I prefer a balance of good slickness and cushioning hence I look towards mixing a nice thick lather in a bowl before applying it to my face.

I usually achieve this by super or uber lathering, but do sometimes use single products (such as Fitjar cream or Xpec for example) that provide the consistency of lather I'm looking for.

This, to me, is what yoghurty means, and the end result works well for me.

It has nothing to do with my technique whilst shaving, it's just my preference of how I like things to be.

I suspect that there will most probably be a number of views counter to this as this is very much a YMMV topic.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
For me, it's something like crème chantilly:

creme-chantilly-123.jpg
 
More important than broad appearance IMO is the surface texture - it should have a pearlescent, semi-gloss sheen, and, as you even out the layer, there shouldn't be a rough, uneven surface texture to the lather, which would indicate that it's too dry. If I bowl lather, I find it useful to get a fair amount of lather on the brush and gently shake it - the peak of lather should move, but shouldn't collapse.
 
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