Making shaving soap from GFT Eucris

[SGWB]

To make a long story short, I used exclusively Geo F Trumpers shaving soaps for over a decade. Their latest formula really did not work for me, so I tossed out my remaining pucks over a year ago. Then last Fall I spotted a really good deal on a Eucris puck with the bowl. So I thought to myself, "Why not give it another shot. They must have improved the formula by now." I was wrong. I could whip up a good lather, but it would collapse so quickly I could hear it quietly hissing as morphed into a bubbly mess and vanished before my eyes. After trying a dry brush, a damp brush, a wet brush, the Marco method, badger and synthetic and even distilled water, I gave up on shaving with it and relegated it to the upstairs bathroom as a hand soap. It even failed in this. It was so drying that over the Winter the backs of my hands turned to paper. I was moments away from tossing it into the trash when an idea struck me.

I grated the remaining soap with a microplane, yielding 49 grams of soap flakes. To this I added about 12 grams of DR Harris Naturals and 12 grams of Williams Tonsorial Shaving Soaplets. Into this I poured just enough piping hot water to dissolve the soap into a goopy mess, mixed it well, and scooped it into a plastic screw-top container to dry. (Stirling, in case you are wondering)

There is a method to my madness. The DR Harris Natural's first ingredient is glycerine. Glycerine, from my reading, makes soap less drying and helps the lather last longer. The Williams Tonsorial Soaplets, judging from the ingredients list, is essentially a dehydrated shaving cream, and should improve latherability. So, my new mess of soap is Eucris plus gylcerin and shaving cream, making it an all in one Super and Uber lather.

I named it "Frank".

The resulting soap is very, very good. The lather does not explode off the puck like some soaps and creams, but it is dense and slick, slick, slick, even on residual cleanup passes. Post shave is not quite up to the the standards of my usual tallow soaps, but it is not drying at all anymore. The Eucris scent is, unfortunately but understandably, severely diminished. The soap pretty soft in the container, so I've also been pressing the remainders of my used up soaps pucks that are too small and fractured to load on their own into the container.

 

[RandyC]

Nice experiment. While you had it ground you could have mixed in some Eucris cologne to recover the diluted scent. A thought for next time perhaps.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[Blaidth]

Hmm... Gives me a little idea... I too have an Eucris puck that i have similar problems. I have a bottle of glycerine, perhaps i could use your method and add some, but not sure what else to add. Can't ruin it any worse than it is, and i was about to relegate it to shower duty...
Will have to try this.

 

[Pepin]

My puck of Eucris is down to a small curved sliver, have to pick up a new one soon.
It was from a few years ago, and I had no issues with it.

 

[SGWB]

My puck of Eucris is down to a small curved sliver, have to pick up a new one soon.
It was from a few years ago, and I had no issues with it.

Yeah, I have seen posts and vids from guys lathering it and getting good results. But, I've seen more guys reporting disappearing lather. My best guess is that it's a quality control issue, or maybe some pucks are affected somehow in transport. I don't think it's my water because I had problems with disappearing lather when using distilled water. As they say, your milage may vary.

 

[SHAVEWIZARD420]

Have heard many horror stories about the performance of GFT and many of the english soaps ( aside from DRH) and there is no reason to waste soap no matter how bad performance may be. Mixing soaps, or making uber lather can't hurt and you would be surprised how happy you can be from the results. Never hurts to experiment before throwing away hard earned money on less than stellar soaps. Glad to hear this experiment was sucessfull.

 

[Quinner30]

This is why everyone should have a bottle of kiss my face unscented around. An underperforming soap that smells excellent can be salvaged with a pump of cream on top before loading.

 

[Phog Allen]

I have the first cake of Eucris sold in the United States (no kidding, QED got them before even the English shops) and while it is certainly never going to be a Czech & Speake candidate, it is not unusable. Makes a decent lather if you work it well.

On the other hand, I had a cake of the alleged tallow formula (soap base, shave soap base) version and to be frank, it was not a whit better than a 99c cake of Williams. It would have been from the late 90s or at latest very early 2000s. I pif to an English gent and he had better luck with his water. Trumper has really let the wet shave world down with their quality these last years. My cake of Eucris is about 3/4 ful, but I may yet Frankensaopsoap it to see how it goes. I have the edt (love it) and could pump up the scent a bit at the same time. I just wish Trumper would sort this with their supplier.

 

[eelhc]

I broke into my bowl of Eucris that I picked up back in April at their Mayfair, London shop on the recommendation of the shop attendant.

The soap is excellent.... for washing my feet.

I have soft water and have no difficulty building a thick, rich, meringue like lather with just about any soap. I have tried many different brushes, techniques... Nothing works on this soap. Makes me wonder if anyone at Trumper's actually bother to test/use any of their products.

I contacted them wrt to building a lather with this stuff and here's what I got.

I write to advise that every shaving soap is a little different in how it lathers. Some soaps are quite hard and a slightly different technique needs to be applied. For difficult-to-lather soaps, you may find the following instruction useful:

First soak the brush thoroughly and shake out most of the water. This leaves the brush damp, but not loaded with water. Work the brush on the soap to get it loaded with product, even though you won't start to see creamy lather yet. At this point it will be a bit dry looking and sticky on the end of the bristles, but this allows the soap to break down into the brush. Once you've gotten a good bit of soap loaded up, dip the end of the brush tips in hot water to hydrate it more, then proceed to try to create a lather. Depending on your brush grade and the hardness of your water you may have to experiment by lightly dipping the brush into the water a few more times. However, you'll notice that the soap will quickly build into the creamy lather that you are looking for.​

I would advise staying away from their products for a while until they get the recipe back.

 

[sarimento1]

No problem with my puck of Eucris!
Here is lather at about 3 Minute Mark.
Nice cushion and slickness. While not to level of Harris or Woolfat, fully acceptable to my (perhaps low) standards! Of course, great Eucris scent!

I’ll hold the bowl over for tomorrow’s shave and will update.

 

[SGWB]

It's odd how many have had terrible experiences with the recent GFT formula, while many get good results. As I said earlier, I suspect it's a quality controll problem. But mistakes happen. I can accept it, as long as the maker owns up to it. What really annoys me is Trumper's arrogance. When customers complain their response is to send instructions on how to lather soap.

 

[Phog Allen]

SGWB, I fear you are more than correct. I don't know who is 'leading' Trumper's but I invite them to pull their heads from their bums and inhale a big dose of oxygen. While I could point out the lost products and other things I don't care for, the main thing is your last point. The disconnect from consumers. And for goodness' sake, if you are going to charge 38-48 per bowl of shave soap, make it something worthy of the brand.

 

[sarimento1]

Ok, here’s my Eucris shave today.
Prepped with glycerine soap face lather and rinse.
Rubbed the butt of the Eucris puck over the two days growth, then face lathered.
Nice lather developed. Good slickness.
Yes, some thinning of the lather, but no real issue.
One pass was all that was needed with the amazing Proguard blade!
Leftover lather served as “aftershave balm”.
Cool washcloth rinse then Eucris cologne.
Overall, great shave!

Feel free to send me any orphaned Eucris shave soaps!

 

[eelhc]

View attachment 825805 No problem with my puck of Eucris!
Here is lather at about 3 Minute Mark.
Nice cushion and slickness. While not to level of Harris or Woolfat, fully acceptable to my (perhaps low) standards! Of course, great Eucris scent!

I’ll hold the bowl over for tomorrow’s shave and will update.

Sorry.... that lather looks weak just like the one I'm able to build with my Eucris puck. Bubbly and loose lather that dissipates and drys up quickly.

With every other soap and cream I have, I'm able to build a thick and fluffy yet dense meringue like lather that'll last for several passes. I've tried everything with this puck and I'm convinced it's just not made for shaving.

 

[Pepin]

My puck of Eucris is all but used up. I will be replacing it, as it works so well for me.

It does have a "narrow window" in terms of how much water to use.

I face lather it and am very happy with the lather.

As always YMMV.