Truefitt and Hill shaving soap how to get a good "yogurty" lather in a bowl?

[Athar]

Hi Everyone!

I am quite new to the wetshaving world, just began to try and test out several creams and soaps. So far I have tried some Tobs, Truefitt and hill, Proraso, Geo F. Trump and Castle Forbes creams with quite good results all of them, and now I have been trying the Truefitt and Hill 1805 soap, which is a very hard soap. I like bowl lathering and have seen some youtube videos, where some of the hard soap was scooped out in a bowl, and he managed to get a good creamy, yogurty consistent regardless. Well I cannot really manage to achieve this at all with my soap. It is just too fluffy and looks too "transparent" on the face when I try to paint it on. I can however put the bigger fluffy junks relatively OK on my face if I squeeze it out from the brush, however still feels a little dry regardless if I try with less or more water. Any ideas to improve bowl lathering with this soap? Yes, I could try face lathering, but I don't really like that. How do you guys managind these soaps?
Btw. I will get now some PAA and Razorock soaps hopefully next week, would be fun to test them out. Any good artisan-made soaps in Europe? Having trouble to find such, found some only in the USA so far.
I put up some pictures with less and more water, still no yogurty consistency and way too fluffy, looks "airy/thin" on the face. Feels a little dry also with the razor. Tried with several types and diameter brushes.

Thanks in advance for the advice/tips!

 

[hotmetal]

Hi and welcome
I'm far from an expert in these matters, but I have the T&H 'Luxury' soap in a wooden bowl and I usually find that if it seems too thin and 'dry' or not creamy enough, it's because I either didn't load the brush enough, or maybe got too much water into it too early. Some hard soaps benefit from being bloomed or prewetted first, in other words when you start soaking your brush, put a little bit of water on top of the soap too, so it's easier to load. Also some soaps don't seem to like a hot scuttle or bowl (not sure if this is relevant in this case). Some just need a lot of working up to get the lather.

FWIW your pictures actually look like decent lather, but you can only tell so much about consistency from a pic.

I'm sure some of the other guys will chime in with their thoughts too.

 

[Athar]

Hi and welcome
I'm far from an expert in these matters, but I have the T&H 'Luxury' soap in a wooden bowl and I usually find that if it seems too thin and 'dry' or not creamy enough, it's because I either didn't load the brush enough, or maybe got too much water into it too early. Some hard soaps benefit from being bloomed or prewetted first, in other words when you start soaking your brush, put a little bit of water on top of the soap too, so it's easier to load. Also some soaps don't seem to like a hot scuttle or bowl (not sure if this is relevant in this case). Some just need a lot of working up to get the lather.

FWIW your pictures actually look like decent lather, but you can only tell so much about consistency from a pic.

I'm sure some of the other guys will chime in with their thoughts too.

Hi Hotmetal!
I didn't load from the puck, but maybe I should try that - and probably the stronger backbone brush, but maybe it doesn't matter that much?
I scooped out some and smeared into the bowl, and I bloomed it first, but it seems that this solution maybe doesn't work that well with this very hard soap. I will have some softer consistencsy soaps soon coming from the USA (PAA, Razorock), it will be nice to compare them. I saw soap parts still in the bowl kind of untouched regadless that I had a ready lather already. Yes, the consistency was a little on the dry side even when I loaded gradually with more water (the third picture) and it was way too fluffy. Yes, it is a ceramic bowl, so maybe that donesn't hold the heat for so long but I tried to bloom with quite hot water anyways. Don't have much experience with soaps yet. I just know I love bowl lathering and would like to do that with soaps also, preferably the way that I scoop out a little from the puck, and not loading from the original puck and kind of face lather after. But I will try that with this hard soap next time.

 

[hotmetal]

I load direct from the puck and often hold puck and brush sideways while doing so to encourage the soap to get down into the breech of the knot, which I find helps with generating a good lather. If I'm doing bowl lathering I aim for glossy meringue peaks, and usually get there, not always quickly though. I actually suspect that too warm a bowl is counterproductive with some soap.

 

[Athar]

I load direct from the puck and often hold puck and brush sideways while doing so to encourage the soap to get down into the breech of the knot, which I find helps with generating a good lather. If I'm doing bowl lathering I aim for glossy meringue peaks, and usually get there, not always quickly though. I actually suspect that too warm a bowl is counterproductive with some soap.

Should I try to use colder water for blooming?

 

[donnie_arko]

@Athar

I'm not entirely sure but I think I might it one of the ones which has a poor formulation, looking around there are many others who have had unfavourable results with their T&H hard shaving soap.

So I hate to say it, your technique might be fine, it might just be a stinker of a shaving soap.

 

[Athar]

@Athar

I'm not entirely sure but I think I might it one of the ones which has a poor formulation, looking around there are many others who have had unfavourable results with their T&H hard shaving soap.

So I hate to say it, your technique might be fine, it might just be a stinker of a shaving soap.

Thanks for the honest answer! I read some similar myself. At least the cream is very good from T&H. I give another go this evening, loading from the puck and maybe face lathering which I don't like, or continue the loaded brush to make lather in the ceramic bowl...
It will be nice to test some artisan soaps, I ordered some they should be arriving this week and the next one. Thanks to this forum one of them will be the Spitfire from Phoenix and Beau the others come from the USA (PAA, Razorock).

 

[NatJag]

With these type of hard soaps, i rub the puck on my face and load some from the puck onto the brush. That works well for me. Brush in water gradually. A couple of light dips on the sink. Then started to build the lather on your face. I've never succeeded with these soaps on a bowl. A synthetic brush will work better than a badger brush while you get used to it. Compared to other soaps, these do take some work. Once you get it right, they are REALLY good and worth it.

 

[Athar]

With these type of hard soaps, i rub the puck on my face and load some from the puck onto the brush. That works well for me. Brush in water gradually. A couple of light dips on the sink. Then started to build the lather on your face. I've never succeeded with these soaps on a bowl. A synthetic brush will work better than a badger brush while you get used to it. Compared to other soaps, these do take some work. Once you get it right, they are REALLY good and worth it.

Will try that! Yes, it is really hard to do it in the bowl, and the result is not satisfying. Too fluffy and too dry.

 

[NeilJ]

Another option is to mix the soap with a cream to create a super lather. I’ve been mixing some new (rubbish) formulation Trumpers "Limes"with a pea sized amount of Bodyshop "Maca Root" and 4 drops of glycerin which gives me the most wonderful lather. The Trumpers soap on its own dissipated on my face but was very slick so by using it with a cream makes it stable.

 

[Athar]

Another option is to mix the soap with a cream to create a super lather. I’ve been mixing some new (rubbish) formulation Trumpers "Limes"with a pea sized amount of Bodyshop "Maca Root" and 4 drops of glycerin which gives me the most wonderful lather. The Trumpers soap on its own dissipated on my face but was very slick so by using it with a cream makes it stable.

I tried yesterday just the Trumpers limes cream sample (not the soap) and didn't work very well as is. It couldn't handle very much water and had dry feeling regardless even with more water, and had almost no afterslick feeling.