Having lather problems

Zannkimaru

Zannkimaru

Messages
21
Location
Cheshire, UK
Ok, I just cannot seem to get the hang of this lather business. These are the steps I follow.

1. Soak brush in water
2. Shake brush a few times to remove excess water
3. Attack soap with brush
4. Either face or bowl lather

No matter what happens I just cannot seem to perfect it, I always end up with something that looks like lather but dries out before I even get one side of my face done. What kind of texture/feeling am I after exactly? It feels slick to me but obviously it dries up far too quickly to be of much use. There's an awful lot of small air bubbles in any lather I create, could there be too much air? I appreciate any help given. Thanks in advance.

Pictures of lather process.

Loaded brush


Soap after loading brush


Straight from brush to bowl with no extra water


After adding a small bit of water


After working a bit more


End result after working even more
 
It's actually all looking a bit dry.

Keep things a little wetter to begin with and load the soap for much much longer, better to over than under do it.
 
Looks as though you're nearly there Adam.....I would say to whip the lather until there are no visible bubbles and the soap is the consistency of whipped cream....I like lather to stand in points in the bowl(without the point tip falling over)when I pull the loaded brush out of the bowl.....Thats the way I do it anyway....works for me.
 
Is that tallow soap? Looks like a tallow base. Just judging by the color of the cake.

If so, tallow seems to have its own rules on how to lather. Face lathering works best for tallow in my experience.

Anyway, regardless of type of soap, judging by the pictures it looks to me that the following is happening:

Your not using enough water and when you whip up the lather what your making is a bunch of air bubbles that will simply pop and dry up quickly once applied to your face. Therefore, I suggest adding more water and going for a less foamy and thick lather. You really don't need to look like Santa Clause to shave. Its fun and all, but not better. The main point of lather is to hold the water to your face after all.
 
Yeah the lather certainly feels like it has far too much air in it. It feels slick but at the same time too fluffy/airy if you know what I mean.
Oh and the soap is some Penhaligans I picked up last week, not sure if it's the old formula which had tallow in it or the new one (I got it second hand but unused)
 
I wouldn't get preoccupied with ingredients as every soap behaves slightly differently, keep practicing from the numerous guides and vids available, it's simply about getting the soap water ratio correct. Brush is soft and soap is hard, soften the soap and load for longer.
 
I would add that I found washing my face vigorously, using a flannel made a big improvement. No dead/dry skin cells, and moist clean skin, gives me more leeway for my soap/water/elbowgrease ratios.
Lloyd
 
Also does this happen with all soaps and creams. I live in a hard water area and a few soaps do that for me, Crabtree and Evelyn is one for example, but most people have no trouble with it.

Maybe have a go with some palmolive soap or cream which just to see if its the soap or your technique.
 
Hiya,

The soap lathering thingy has always been the weak link in my technique. It rarely looks as luscious as many of the pics other people post, although it performs fine.

Creams are a different story.......the lather looks nicer when certain (but not all) creams are used. Heh, the only problem is I don't care for the performance quite as much and I hardly ever use em.

I think the right brush makes a difference.....some of mine work better than others and those are the firmer types. Floppier ones seem to handle creams the best, at least for me.

You might like to try a cream or two, just for the hell of it. Or; just stay with what you have now and things should come together before too long. Main thing is how it performs. It's kinda tricky to figure out.

Martin

Oh yeah, I just remembered something from a while back about that soap you're using. When the tallow was removed, there was sorta mixed reviews on how it lathered up. I think there may have been some issues that were resolved in the next version, but I can't be positive about that. I know that was true when Floris first switched their formula.

Heh, you can tell if yours has tallow by the price you paid. A refill alone goes for $50-60, and with a bowl, who knows.
 
There are so many tutorials on whipping up lather, all ever so slightly different. The one linked to this thread by RB73 works good for me. Take mantic59's video on youtube, That does not give me lather. A 3 second spin on a wet puck and 30-60 seconds to build lather does not make it for me.

I would suggest this:
-Start of with a soap that is very forgiving, like Palmolive. Dirt cheap, and easy to lather. Cella is also easy, from what I hear Tabac as well, but I can't attest to that, I haven't tried it yet.

-Do as the tutorial says. Excatly! Loads of soap, add water slowly.

You'll pick up what kind of lather you are looking for very quickly this way if you use some of the easy to lather soaps. Once you have this, its much easier to tune in to your other soaps.


I should add this is the way I nailed down how I wanted my lather. I now start with a little more water in the brush, hence needing to add less later. But to get it right in the first place, I think using a forgiving soap and antdad's tutorial si the way.

My 2p.

/Max
 
Ok, I've just spent some time doing some test lathers with some Palmolive cream, my TOBS sandalwood cream, a tub of Proraso and a mama bears soap sample.
Now with the creams and the Proraso I managed to make a thick creamy looking lather. Still dried out pretty quick though.
With the mama bears soap I got the same result as with the Penhaligans, too fluffy and full of air. I think this might settle it, there's something wrong with my technique. Maybe I need to get a lot more soap into the brush. Looking at the picture of my loaded brush above it does look like the soap in there isn't as thick/clumpy as what i've seen people loading in the various tutorial vids/pics. Hmmm I think a lot more practice my be needed, you guys think i'm right?
 
It isn't an exact science, if what you are doing doesn't get you the required results change it, leave more water in the brush and load more soap, much more.
 
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