Combining Cream and Soap in the one lather

[Wal59]

I may be late to the party on this, however recently I started to combine cream and soap to make a lather. I have not read or heard of it before. A quick search on B and B came up with nothing. Perhaps I missed reference to it, but it is truly fabulous!

One day, a couple of weeks ago, I had my TOBS Sandalwood Cream out for my daily shave. I noticed I had failed to put away my Stirling Vanilla and Sandalwood Soap from the day before. So I thought, why not use both to create a lather?

So, with an Omega Boar, I used about half what I would normally do, followed by 15 seconds or so in the bloomed soap. I took that to my bowl and …well…what a lather! Extremely thick and more than enough for 3 passes. Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt as if there was extra protection from it. Certainly then, and since I have had no nicks, cuts or razor burn - not that I am prone to them anyway - but still.

It was so slick that it took me twice as long to rinse my face after the last pass. I have tried the technique daily after that and am most impressed.

One thing though. There is a lot of lather left over. Perhaps a waste, but with the number of soaps and creams I have managed to accumulate, there will be many remaining in my estate after I go to the great barbershop in the sky.

 

[Lil Cooties]

Sorta like a "superlather"?

 

[Wal59]

Sorta like a "superlather"?

Exactly. Uber lather even. I have also used Trumpers Rose Cream and Stuga Rose Geranium and Lavender Soap (from Sydney) with the same result. I continue to experiment with combinations but think I have hit on something good.

 

[Cumberland Sausage]

I've occasionally blended soaps with creams and I think quite a lot of B&B members have mentioned doing the same on various threads. And some soaps are almost like stiffish creams. They've sometimes been called croaps.

 

[StlEd]

Exactly. Uber lather even. I have also used Trumpers Rose Cream and Stuga Rose Geranium and Lavender Soap (from Sydney) with the same result. I continue to experiment with combinations but think I have hit on something good.

I think that was, perhaps, meant as a hint to search the forums for the term "superlather"...

 

[86-foxtrot]

I think that was, perhaps, meant as a hint to search the forums for the term "superlather"...

 

[Wal59]

I think that was, perhaps, meant as a hint to search the forums for the term "superlather"...

Hahahaha. It takes me a while to take a hint! Cheers

 

[Wal59]

Sorta like a "superlather"?

I’ve finally taken the hint!

 

[Wal59]

Folks, I have been kindly pointed to other posts about this very subject. A classic case of multiple independent discovery!

In any event, i recommend a combination of soap and cream while lathering. Good luck.

 

[Lil Cooties]

I’ve finally taken the hint!

I should've been more helpful and actually linked to something, my apologies.

 

[Eric_75]

Not soap and cream but in the past I have mixed Yardley Wild Rose and Yardley English Lavender with Arko and produced some wonderful lather. Just having a little fun experimenting.

 

[Wal59]

I should've been more helpful and actually linked to something, my apologies.

No worries at all. I twigged in the end. Haha.

 

[BigJ]

SURE! This approach is used by many.

ENJOY!!

 

[Jay21]

There were times when I first started out with DE wet shaving that I couldn’t get the soap lather right while bowl lathering because my water is pretty hard. To overcome this as a quick fix, I’d shoot a little canned foam into the bowl to thicken the lather up.

 

[86-foxtrot]

Usually when I try a new soap or cream that underwhelms I make a Frankensoap/Croap. Turns it from barely usable to ultra-lathering.

I use such Frankensoap today.

VDH Luxury that has been previously melted with Mama Bear's Awakening.

Awakening has a great menthol feel but produces thin lather. VDH works great as far as lather goes. Both soaps are glycerin based and easily melt-able.

Terrific combination soap.

 

[geneaut]

I keep a pump bottle of Nivea shave cream handy. Sometimes, I may not load enough product or have a soap that is just a little finicky, and a small squirt of the Nivea cream gets everything moving in the right direction. In the old days it was a small pump bottle of unscented Kiss My Face shave cream.

 

[Captain Howdy]

When I've experimented with this I didn't find the "superlather" to perform and better than just a well built soap lather. If mixing cream with soap is making your lathers perform better I can't help but wonder if you're not getting the pull potential out of your soaps and are just relying on the ease of cream to compensate.

 

[tejolot3]

Super-lathering is a combination of cream and soap. Uber-lathering is a combination of cream, soap, and glycerin.

Forum member |Mick| used to use the term super-sticking to refer to a combination of bowl-lathered cream and face-lathered shave stick. I used that method for a number of years, before eventually going with shave stick exclusively.

I super-sticked for so long because I found that cream alone wasn't slick enough but cream alone didn't have enough cushion.

 

[Lane101]

Usually when I try a new soap or cream that underwhelms I make a Frankensoap/Croap. Turns it from barely usable to ultra-lathering.

I use such Frankensoap today.

VDH Luxury that has been previously melted with Mama Bear's Awakening.

Awakening has a great menthol feel but produces thin lather. VDH works great as far as lather goes. Both soaps are glycerin based and easily melt-able.

Terrific combination soap.

VDH Luxury or Deluxe are melt and pour soaps (can melt in a few seconds in a microwave) that make a great binder for custom soap blends of tallow based soaps that are grated (can't melt them easily). They have the added benefit of enabling easier lather creation and as part of a blend the tallow based soaps provide superior slickness.

My favorite blend starts with two pucks of VDH Deluxe, Two pucks of Williams (substitute Arko if you don't have Williams on-hand since its been discontinued), a stick of Arko, one ounce of Proraso Red (superlather) and 2 ounces each of Dove Men+Care (superlather) and Ivory (more slickness). Makes five 3 ounce+ pucks that are enough for around a year of shaves. Grate and mix all the ingredients except for the VDH. Then melt and pour the VDH into the mix and stir/knead the mixture like a bread dough and form into pucks.

I've also found that if you let the blended pucks "age" for 6 plus months the components further blend on their own to the point where you can no longer identify any separate components from the grated soaps after about a year. Core shaving performance (lathering ease, lather quality/slickness and stability) is as good or better than most of my commercial soaps.

 

[Lane101]

Regarding @Wal59 original post I sometimes superlather with my LEA Mentolada to add a bit of menthol chill to whatever soap I'm using. Typically three pea size dobs spread on my face prior to face lathering.