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Tutorial: How to make SuperLather with a bowl

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I was looking at the tutorials that we currently have and we got most of the subjects covered but not this one... Yet...

Here's the tutorial on how to make superlather using a bowl.

Q: What is superlather?
A: Superlather is a mixture of 2 (or more) different shaving products that create lather on their own.

E.g. You could superlather using a shaving stick and charge a brush on a different shaving soap to then face lather.

The most common superlather is to use a shaving cream with a shaving soap. For the purpose of this tutorial, I did my favorite superlather:

The Proraso Superlather!

1-All right, here's what you need:
  • 1 x Shaving brush (I used a very cheap Wilkinson Sword bristle brush)
  • 1 x Small bowl (this one is approx. 3" wide by 1" deep).
  • 1 x Shaving soap (Proraso white tub)
  • 1 x Shaving cream (Proraso green tube)
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2-Soak the shaving brush in hot water. Not too hot, if you burn yourself it's no good. If you would put your hand in and find it comfortable, it's the right temperature.
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3-Add some hot water to soften the soap. You should soak your brush and leave the water on the soap for a few minutes (time to take a shower).
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4-Remove the water (so you just got out of the shower). Also, empty the water from the bowl.
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5-Squeeze the brush. Make sure you don't squeeze it too much as you need some extra water from the brush to build the lather. If there's water dripping from the brush, too much water, squeeze it more. If you squeeze it dry, the lather will be too dry and won't build properly. So, middle of the road is best, half squeeze the brush to get some water out but not all of it.
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6-Add some shaving cream in the bowl. You don't need much as 50% will be shaving cream and 50% will be shaving soap. I got ~1/2 a big almond.
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7-Do a few laps on the soap to pick-up some product. I did ~15 laps.
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8-Time to mix the charged brush with the shaving cream in the bowl.
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9-A few laps, ~30 seconds of mixing
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10-A few more laps, ~30 seconds on top of the first 30 seconds
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11-Total mixing time ~120 seconds
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12-How does it look? Thick lather and it's ready to use!
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Out of curiosity, wouldn't you achieve the same results by putting more proraso cream (lets say twice what you usually use) alone without the soap? Or conversely, more soap and no cream?
 
Very nice work Luc! I use the water that was soaking the top of my soap to start off the lather...particularly if I've used the soap before and there's a bit of old lather left in the mug.
 
Thanks for the tip. Based on this thread I started using Williams soap (99 cents!) in combination with regular shave creams as illustrated and the results have been outstanding. Thick, rich lather over flowing the mug!
 
Thanks for the tip. Based on this thread I started using Williams soap (99 cents!) in combination with regular shave creams as illustrated and the results have been outstanding. Thick, rich lather over flowing the mug!

Here, here, Louie. I use Williams with KMF cream and get off-the-chain lather better than either can do alone. It looks like the $9 investment will get me through half a year, at least. That tough little puck has barely receded over a month's time, and I use a mere dribble of the KMF (less than half a squirt); makes more than I need for four passes. PLUS, the rinse water in the sink makes a very slick lube for the final touch-ups.

-John
 
For me, superlather is a consistently faster method to a thicker, slicker medium. It will also stretch your cream, making it more economical (particularly if a low-cost soap is used).
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
Is there a benefit to using superlather rather than a cream or soap by itself?

Superlather will usually give more protection than regular lather. I would use superlather if you are looking for a new scent or if you have a product difficult to lather with. Otherwise, most products are very good by themselves.
 

Luc

"To Wiki or Not To Wiki, That's The Question".
Staff member
I don't know why, but using this method, I only get regular lather.

If your lather is the same than when you use only one of the products that you tried to combine, try using a bit more of the two products.
 
Okay, this superlather is shibby, very very shibby. I'm making enough superlather to use what's in the bowl to shave my big mellon and also my face. It also lasts long enough in the bowl to be perfectly shibby stuff by the time I'm done with my mellon and moving on to my face. :biggrin1:
 
"shibby"? Is that good or bad? (Never heard the term before...help out us old geezers!) :huh:
Okay, this superlather is shibby, very very shibby. I'm making enough superlather to use what's in the bowl to shave my big mellon and also my face. It also lasts long enough in the bowl to be perfectly shibby stuff by the time I'm done with my mellon and moving on to my face. :biggrin1:
 
Shibby is a good word. Like the Tar Heels are shibby or Becker is a shibby sitcom, or that Wonder Woman looks shibby.

Actually, shibby is a word from Dude, Where's My Car? One of my favorite comedies. :biggrin1:
 
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