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Tabac going soft?

I've been using Tabac in the included bowl (not exclusively) for a few months now. It started out as a hard puck, it is now rather soft and gooey, even softer than my Razorock XXX Fresco (another excellent soap). My MWF has stayed a hard puck. When I am done shaving I put the lid on and leave it on the counter top.

Is this normal? It is to the point I need to start scooping out a dab into another mug to build a lather, otherwise it picks up more soap faster than it can incorporate water for the lather.
 

Hannah's Dad

I Can See Better Than Bigfoot.
I've been using Tabac in the included bowl (not exclusively) for a few months now. It started out as a hard puck, it is now rather soft and gooey, even softer than my Razorock XXX Fresco (another excellent soap). My MWF has stayed a hard puck. When I am done shaving I put the lid on and leave it on the counter top.

Is this normal? It is to the point I need to start scooping out a dab into another mug to build a lather, otherwise it picks up more soap faster than it can incorporate water for the lather.
That is definitely not normal for Tabac.
 
I heard about this but have not encountered it yet myself. The Bakelit lid is not tight so there should be some air circulation going on. Nevertheless I would stop using it and leave it completely open for 3-4 days to see if it firms up or not.
 
I've been using Tabac in the included bowl (not exclusively) for a few months now. It started out as a hard puck, it is now rather soft and gooey, even softer than my Razorock XXX Fresco (another excellent soap). My MWF has stayed a hard puck. When I am done shaving I put the lid on and leave it on the counter top.

Is this normal? It is to the point I need to start scooping out a dab into another mug to build a lather, otherwise it picks up more soap faster than it can incorporate water for the lather.
This is actually a fairly common complaint about Tabac. You'll find some past posts similar to yours if you search for them here. Imho, it's not a big deal, but Tabac does need to dry out between shaves. Make sure no excess water is left in it, and it's kept somewhere that's not too steamy and humid.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I've been using Tabac in the included bowl (not exclusively) for a few months now. It started out as a hard puck, it is now rather soft and gooey, even softer than my Razorock XXX Fresco (another excellent soap). My MWF has stayed a hard puck. When I am done shaving I put the lid on and leave it on the counter top.

Is this normal? It is to the point I need to start scooping out a dab into another mug to build a lather, otherwise it picks up more soap faster than it can incorporate water for the lather.
I assume you are not actually building the lather on top of the Tabac puck in the Tabac bowl; if so then in my opinion this is incorrect. I think you should simply load the brush in the Tabac bowl and then either face lather or switch to a dedicated lathering bowl.
 
I assume you are not actually building the lather on top of the Tabac puck in the Tabac bowl; if so then in my opinion this is incorrect. I think you should simply load the brush in the Tabac bowl and then either face lather or switch to a dedicated lathering bowl.

I was building the lather on the puck. My other soaps lather ok using this method.

BTW: an unrelated question, but I suppose the forum has no control over the adverts that are shown. Is there any review of them before they are allowed? I've noticed recently there are some extraordinarily poor behaving adverts/scripts that peg the cpu to 100% and eventually crash.
 
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EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I was building the lather on the puck. My other soaps lather ok using this method.

BTW: an unrelated question, but I suppose the forum has no control over the adverts that are shown. Is there any review of them before they are allowed? I've noticed recently there are some extraordinarily poor behaving adverts/scripts that peg the cpu to 100% and eventually crash.
I cannot comment on adverts, but I am not aware of any soaps that are intended to be used in that way. I have used hard soaps for years and have never built the lather on top of the puck nor seen anyone else do so. I imagine it would be very wasteful of soap and be hard to control the soap to water ratio. It matters not, if you like it and it works for you then keep doing it is my advice 👍
 
I cannot comment on adverts, but I am not aware of any soaps that are intended to be used in that way. I have used hard soaps for years and have never built the lather on top of the puck nor seen anyone else do so. I imagine it would be very wasteful of soap and be hard to control the soap to water ratio. It matters not, if you like it and it works for you then keep doing it is my advice 👍
That might work well enough with a very hard soap at the bottom of a large, deep bowl, but I would never add water directly to a puck of Tabac, Proraso, or any softer soap, unless you want a soupy mess.
 
That might work well enough with a very hard soap at the bottom of a large, deep bowl, but I would never add water directly to a puck of Tabac, Proraso, or any softer soap, unless you want a soupy mess.

I don't add water to the puck, I dampen the brush (squeeze excess water out) then swirl it on the puck. Periodically I dip the brush tips to pick up a little more water
 
Try leaving the lid off so the soap can dry out for a few hours. The problem is, every time you use it, the soap absorbs some moisture like a sponge. If you don't let the soap dry, the water will accumulate over time leading to the problem with the soap going soft.
 
I don't add water to the puck, I dampen the brush (squeeze excess water out) then swirl it on the puck. Periodically I dip the brush tips to pick up a little more water
OK, amigo. But as Atlantic59 says, soap really needs to dry out between uses, especially Tabac and other softer soaps, ime. After shaking out all excess water, try taking it out of the bathroom and leaving it in a cool, dry place for 24 hours, or maybe even longer.
 

JCinPA

The Lather Maestro
Load on the puck, go to bowl or your face. Rinse soap place upside down on towel while you shave. Then cover and put away. Should solve your issue.
 
I was building the lather on the puck. My other soaps lather ok using this method.

BTW: an unrelated question, but I suppose the forum has no control over the adverts that are shown. Is there any review of them before they are allowed? I've noticed recently there are some extraordinarily poor behaving adverts/scripts that peg the cpu to 100% and eventually crash.
There was a thread about adverts from a moderator asking about things like this since they switched to a new version of forum software. So I would reach out to a moderator.
I tend to read in safari and installed a blocker because the pop-ups irritated me. And less annoying inline adverts are now stopped also.

Regarding lathering on top. There are more soaps as tabac sensitive to this getting gooey. Either just load and air the puck out. Or scrape a week amount in a loading/lathering bowl and preserve the puck. I tend to do the last with most soaps
 
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