Yesterday I was excited to try out some brand new Honeybee Spa soap I had recently received. I soaked the brush, moistened the puck, the usual deal. I loaded the brush with what I thought was a fairly sensible amount of soap. When I finally made the lather though, it was terrible: thin, frothy, and all around awful. In a bout of frustration I said to myself "I'm going to get awesome lather if it kills me!" So I rinsed my brush of the terrible lather, and went to town on that puck of soap! I loaded it with about three times what I felt was "sensible," and began to lather. Oh..my..GOSH!!! That was the best lather I've ever had! It was then that I learned an important truth: one cannot be "sensible" or "conservative" with one's soaps if one is to achieve a superb lather. Besides, using lots of soap with each shave makes it a lot easier to justify all those AD's! I'm just sorry it took me so long to learn this simple, yet profound truth.
A shaving soap revelation!
- Thread starter amspratt
- Start date
+1, when it comes to anything shaving related, more is always better!
Congrats on your lather and welcome to the awesome world of soaps! Don't forget the shaving sticks now too!
I beleive this happens with a lot of people. Then they end up blaming the soap (i.e. MWF) and giving the soap away and telling others not to try it.
Ah, Grasshopper. Now you truly begin to understand the Way of Soap. This will change your life.
Forever.
Forever.
One of the biggest problems newbies face is not using enough product.
Various videos may show a quick 10 second loading of the brush, but I have never found that to be very effective. I load my brush for upwards of a minute!!
Don't be afraid to really load that brush, most of the products we use are not that expensive that they need to be heavily conserved.
Various videos may show a quick 10 second loading of the brush, but I have never found that to be very effective. I load my brush for upwards of a minute!!
Don't be afraid to really load that brush, most of the products we use are not that expensive that they need to be heavily conserved.
+100
I wasn't aware of this phenomenon until I helped a newbie lather some col. conk. He swished the wet brush lightly on the puck for about 10 seconds and then tried to make lather in a bowl - didn't work out at all. He was shocked when I took the same brush back to the puck for about a minute and proceeded to produce a bowl full of nice creamy lather.
Like, more blades, for example? Or perhaps more pressure. Maybe more after-shave balm. Or... you get the idea
I always count to 100 while loading the brush, seems to work well for me. The old Mantic four swirls had me confused for a long time!
HBS might be my overall fav co.
You will learn that many, many questions on B&B can be answered easily if you remember two simple maxims: (1) buy both; (2) use more product.
last Monday me or my mom we was going to do some shopping.that time i see new Branded pears menthol soap.the shopkeeper told give me information related this Product.when i used this soap i really feel nice to experience after shave.
+X <--- whatever the next number is
When I first tried Honeybee soap back in 2007, I didn't think much of it. Same result as amspratt -- frothy dull not-much-of-anything lather. I ended up using all my pucks of Honeybee as shower soap, except one solitary puck of Chamomile. The shower lather was very rich, which confused me all the more.
Anyway, jumping into your TARDIS and materializing 3 years later (seriously, you guys watch Doctor WHO, right?): I upwrapped the Chamomile and tried again. With 3 years of having tried different soaps under my belt, I tried again -- same deal initially. Soapy water. But I kept going, and it turned out to be among the best lather that I have experienced (my top one still being the Wilkinson Sword Shave Stick -- but, how can you beat glycerin AND lanolin AND tallow??).
I've since ordered more Honeybee soaps. I've found that, after first use, it is subsequently easier to lather every time afterwards. I've also found that FIRST lathers of the Honeybee is best with a boar brush, and then either badger or boar anytime after that first time. Come to think of it, I had the same issue with the vintage Williams Tonsorial soap. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the smoothness of the new soap -- the slightly glossy/smoothness making a badger brush "slide" over the soap rather than pick up much soap residue?
In previous posts, I'd mentioned the notion of "etching" the soap surface of a new soap with the brush -- and this was exactly what I was referring to.
And yes, I realize that those otherwise wonderful showers are now just a waste of what would have been good shaving experiences.
Cheers,
Jimmy.
When I first tried Honeybee soap back in 2007, I didn't think much of it. Same result as amspratt -- frothy dull not-much-of-anything lather. I ended up using all my pucks of Honeybee as shower soap, except one solitary puck of Chamomile. The shower lather was very rich, which confused me all the more.
Anyway, jumping into your TARDIS and materializing 3 years later (seriously, you guys watch Doctor WHO, right?): I upwrapped the Chamomile and tried again. With 3 years of having tried different soaps under my belt, I tried again -- same deal initially. Soapy water. But I kept going, and it turned out to be among the best lather that I have experienced (my top one still being the Wilkinson Sword Shave Stick -- but, how can you beat glycerin AND lanolin AND tallow??).
I've since ordered more Honeybee soaps. I've found that, after first use, it is subsequently easier to lather every time afterwards. I've also found that FIRST lathers of the Honeybee is best with a boar brush, and then either badger or boar anytime after that first time. Come to think of it, I had the same issue with the vintage Williams Tonsorial soap. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the smoothness of the new soap -- the slightly glossy/smoothness making a badger brush "slide" over the soap rather than pick up much soap residue?
In previous posts, I'd mentioned the notion of "etching" the soap surface of a new soap with the brush -- and this was exactly what I was referring to.
And yes, I realize that those otherwise wonderful showers are now just a waste of what would have been good shaving experiences.
Cheers,
Jimmy.
The quick loading seems to work for Mantic, and it might work for some other people too, I am just not convinced it works very well for the majority of wet shavers.
I have tried quite the vast range of products, and I have yet to try one that functions well with a very small tiny amount of product.
I would much rather use a few extra cents worth of product than have a bad shave. Besides, the faster you go through stuff the more you get to buy.
I ensure I swirl my brush for no less than 1 minute. better to overdo it and ensure the brush is fully loaded.
David
David
Pretty sure it's N. It's always N.
Anyway, I don't go by the clock. I wait until just after I know for sure it's been far too long. Usually, this is about a minute and a half, but varies greatly depending on how long it's been since I ran the water softener.
Honeybee Spa is indeed great soap, but as the OP said, you have to be sure and load the brush. Once you do that, you're well on the way to a great shave!
