I was in mood to explore today. I've been using Cetaphil bar soap as a facewash and I've been impressed with the rich lather it produces, but today I suddenly became curious about its possibilities as a shaving soap.
So after my shower I put the bar of Cetaphil in my lather bowl, held it in place, and loaded a dryish Omega Lucretia Borgia. Once the brush was well-loaded, I put the bar of soap back in the shower and continued to lather in the bowl, adding drops of water until I had a rich, meringuey lather. This is the procedure I use for all my soaps.
I let it sit for a few minutes to see if the lather was stable, and it was. I wet it slightly again then applied for the shave (Gillette Superspeed with Voshkod blade on its third shave). I did a full (3-pass) shave with touchups, resulting in a BBS shave. The lather was very slick and had a fine cushion. There was no skipping or other unpleasant behavior from the razor/blade.
After the shave, my skin felt great -- not as conditioned as it is after MWF, but the same as with Palmolive or PdP. An application of Thayer's Superhazel revealed that the shave was easy on my face as well, with only some very slight burn on the neck (but there always is for me, no matter which soap I'm using). I'm impressed!
I'll upload some pics this weekend just to prove I'm not crazy.
So after my shower I put the bar of Cetaphil in my lather bowl, held it in place, and loaded a dryish Omega Lucretia Borgia. Once the brush was well-loaded, I put the bar of soap back in the shower and continued to lather in the bowl, adding drops of water until I had a rich, meringuey lather. This is the procedure I use for all my soaps.
I let it sit for a few minutes to see if the lather was stable, and it was. I wet it slightly again then applied for the shave (Gillette Superspeed with Voshkod blade on its third shave). I did a full (3-pass) shave with touchups, resulting in a BBS shave. The lather was very slick and had a fine cushion. There was no skipping or other unpleasant behavior from the razor/blade.
After the shave, my skin felt great -- not as conditioned as it is after MWF, but the same as with Palmolive or PdP. An application of Thayer's Superhazel revealed that the shave was easy on my face as well, with only some very slight burn on the neck (but there always is for me, no matter which soap I'm using). I'm impressed!
I'll upload some pics this weekend just to prove I'm not crazy.