Right now I've got a couple badger brushes, and I'm having difficulty getting great lather with Cella in a bowl. What procedure works for you guys?
Bowl lathering Cella?
- Thread starter Corran2015
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So, after some thinking, I figured maybe I'm irrationally stuck on bowl lathering, and decided to give face lathering another shot, since I love doing it with my Palmolive and Arko sticks. I'm leaving this up to document my path to enlightenment--maybe some other guys (and gals?) starting out are looking for direction in bowl lathering and I can set them straight and save'em some soap.
I set out my shave stuff, one $8 "Lijun Shaving" badger brush (a reasonably stiff badger brush with a bulb shape), and one Van Der Hagen "Luxury" badger brush. I've got nicer brushes but I persist with my "everyman" brushes--I think I just like to persist in proving that luxury shaving doesn't have to be expensive. I then roughly followed this technique: shaking my soaked brush dry (4-5 good shakes) and whipping around for about 25 seconds til I had a thick cream on the end. I'd already wet and applied pre-shave to my face, then wet again, then applied the brush. After only seconds I had thick dense lather forming. I kept going, and was in amaretto paradise. It was the slickest lather I've produced yet with a cream soap. Will post a better write-up of this enlightenment in its own thread tomorrow, when I'm more awake.
I set out my shave stuff, one $8 "Lijun Shaving" badger brush (a reasonably stiff badger brush with a bulb shape), and one Van Der Hagen "Luxury" badger brush. I've got nicer brushes but I persist with my "everyman" brushes--I think I just like to persist in proving that luxury shaving doesn't have to be expensive. I then roughly followed this technique: shaking my soaked brush dry (4-5 good shakes) and whipping around for about 25 seconds til I had a thick cream on the end. I'd already wet and applied pre-shave to my face, then wet again, then applied the brush. After only seconds I had thick dense lather forming. I kept going, and was in amaretto paradise. It was the slickest lather I've produced yet with a cream soap. Will post a better write-up of this enlightenment in its own thread tomorrow, when I'm more awake.
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I bowl lather cella without any issue at all. Use a wetter brush than normal. Cella is rather thirsty.
I too bowl lather Cella. I use a large almond size amount of cream and wet brush and slowly add water until the correct lather is obtained.
+1
This is the procedure I follow with all of my shaving creams, not just Cella - works every time!
For bowl lathering you probably want a longer load time than 25 seconds. Use the slower/longer load method ala Marco for these soft italian soaps. I prefer this exact method when bowl lathering as I find that using Marco's technique to face lather leads to lots of foamy water being flung from my brush all over myself and the counter as I begin building the lather, so when face lathering I'll leave the brush a little dryer. My bowl was nice and full of rich Cella lather this past Wed using this method.
Can't quite get bowl lathering down myself, but I get pretty results with face lathering, I got a sample of cella, just got to break it out.
I've bowl lathered all of the soft Italian soaps (including Cella)
It's been a while since I enjoy building lather on my face with these soaps because the scent is more pronounced that way
As others have said..... Water, water, and MORE water is the key (along with enough product too)
It's been a while since I enjoy building lather on my face with these soaps because the scent is more pronounced that way
As others have said..... Water, water, and MORE water is the key (along with enough product too)
I've never had problems face lathering and loading using the method in the sticky at the top of the soap forum. However, if the dry brush method isn't working for you then give Marco's method a shot as it seems to be popular.
I face lather Cella, but I prefer using my boar. I let a layer of water soak into the soap while I shower and soak my boar at the same time. I pour off the excess water from the soap and start loading with my wet brush and pour out excess watery lather as it builds. After 20 seconds, I have a very thick lather that's perfect for the face. If it's too dry, I will re-wet my face before face lathering.
Ooo, you are pouring out all that nice protolather! My suggestion would be to let it sit on the soap while you load, then dump that protolather into a bowl before rinsing the excess foam off the soap. Face lather, do your passes, and if you just so happen to need a small reload of the soap, just whip up that protolather in the bowl instead of going back to the tub. Will probably get you what you need for that last pass.
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I just used Cella for the first time this morning. I bowl/Scuttle lathered, I now see what you mean about the water. I was wondering why it wasn't lathering up like my other soft soaps,and was dripping water in to little benefit. Finally I cupped my hand to hold a little more water intending to dribble in a little more than the drops I was flinging from my fingers and spilled the lot into the bowl. The soap then exploded into thick lather, and wow it does smell good too. I still love my arko, but see why Cella has the following it does, I believe it shall remain in my den.
+1 - fantastic advice here. Although I figured this technique out on Italian soft soaps myself, I now use it with any puck or tub type soap.
on the Marco Method! I'm finding more and more that I can do better (less time and good lather) by face lathering. With Cella, I just swirl the brush right on the soap to load and build lather on the face, going back to the soap and/or water as needed. Seems to work fine.Cella is a soft soap, not a cream. I found out that taking chunks of it out like that wastes a lot of cella. Using a small brush to fit in the container or putting the Cella in a larger container seems to work WAY better. For me, anyway.
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