Does anyone else have trouble with magical disappearing soap?

[ddk13]

Let me preface this by saying I have been wetshaving for many years and am not a newbie. I regularly use the following soaps with no problem whatsoever (face latherer btw); Mike's, SCS, Groom Room, Tabac, Mama's, WM Neumann and C & E.

I have a nemesis in Mystic Water shaving soaps. No matter what I try my lather eventually disappears. I just can't seem to find a happy medium. Semi dry brush, wet brush, bowl lather, face lather, load brush for 30 seconds, load for 60 seconds, reload and reload etc..................

Was wondering if anyone else experiences this. I would love for my Houdini skills to vanish and my lather to stay, but am getting a little discouraged. I love MW's scents (especially lotv), but I'm starting to feel that I'm wasting my time.

 

[Toothpick]

I have no experience with Mystic Water soaps myself. Hopefully someone will come along that does.

Perhaps they use olive oil as a first ingredient? I found out a while back that olive oil is a lather killer.

 

[MilkyLee]

No she doesn't use olive oil in her soaps. A lot of people have the same problem. I have two of her soaps and they take some work to get great lather but it's worth it for me.

 

[ddk13]

How?

No she doesn't use olive oil in her soaps. A lot of people have the same problem. I have two of her soaps and they take some work to get great lather but it's worth it for me.

 

[MilkyLee]

I use the Marco method and it works fine, but I shake the brush out ,just barley, a few times though. For me it takes longer than most of my other soaps to build a nice stable lather, but like I said it's worth it.

 

[Demaskee]

It works for me.

I use tepid water on the puck and brush, then I shake most of the water out of my brush, I load horizontally for about a minute letting the excess water and runny lather drip into the sink, after that I face lather starting with circular motions and ending with painting strokes as the lather thickens up.

 

[eyebright]

Your water quality can be checked by using distilled water to lather with and see if there's a difference in how the soap behaves. I imagine that if you get "thin, disappearing" lather, you aren't using enough product and if it dries on your face you need more water. Another thing you could try would be to use it as a shave stick and initially use an excessive amount of soap to get a feel for what it should be like, then scale back until you're using the correct amount. From what my customers tell me, it's not unusual for one puck to last four months (although of course they can be gone through more quickly depending on how you use it).

 

[lt114]

Your water might be part of the problem. Brucered made a video that you should be able to find here or on youtube about lathering MW.
It took me a while to dial it in, but it's a great soap if you get the water/soap ratio right.

 

[twitch182]

When I lived in upstate NY, I had a hard time lathering DR Harris and AoS tallow. The water was somewhere above super duper hard, and you could tell it. I recently moved to western PA and I instantly had a much easier time getting lather. I got quite a few samples from MW, and I had a heck of a time getting it to lather well. So I looked up water for my town, and it's only super hard. I really enjoy the scents (mmmmm Green Irish Tweed) so I'm going to go pick up a gallon of distilled water and give that a go. I'm sure it's just a mater of finding the correct ratio of everything.

 

[aBSent]

I too had some issues with mystic waters, tried using distilled, marco's method, dryer brush, face/bowl lathering etc... The combination that eventually worked for me was using warm water, long load time on soap, and then face-lather with paint-brush strokes only. As long as I follow those three, I can load the brush using whichever method I like and I get great results. Good luck! It's well worth the practice to get it right.

 

[kiwimike]

I've never had any luck either even though I tried really hard.
In the end I sent it to a friend, not sure how he got on.
I really liked the idea of a good Artisan soap so I tried mikes and had success straight away.
No offense to Michelle, her soaps just work for some and not others.

 

[bmilcs]

I had the same trouble with MW. No clue why either. I've used over twenty soaps and never encountered the issue again. I have since swapped to badgers - maybe it's a boar brush thing? I've tried just about everything else. It's a shame. Her Bay Rum smells unbelievably good. I'm envious of you lucky MW fans!

 

[Kooze]

I had the same trouble with MW. No clue why either.

Michelle is such a kind and gracious woman that I wish I had better luck with her shave soap. I've tried 2 different MW soaps and cannot maintain any sort of lather. I overload the heck out of it too, but its like time lapse photography, and I can see the soap quickly disappear before my eyes.

 

[NSmalls]

I couldn't get the hang of it either.

 

[VT_Hokie]

Mystic Waters was the only soap I ever had this issue with. I know of 3 other guys who live in the same 10 mile radius of me who also can't get the stuff to work to save their lives.

 

[RVshave]

I got a stick of orange vanilla in a trade and was told the stick lathered better so I have never gotten a puck. The stick works great, not sure if the stick and puck are different? The scent is awesome though.

 

[brucered]

One of my favourites and I have hard water.

Load heavy, no heat and face lather it.

 

[OccamsBadger]

MW is sensitive to the hard water in our area. I think it may be a specific mineral that it has problems with - it seems to work in some hard waters but not it others. I had the disappearing lather problem too. I used to solve it by loading more product and agitating the lather for a long time. I started using distilled water for my lather last summer and all my problems with MW just went away. I bowl lather so its not a big deal to use bottled water. It would be a hassle for face lathering though. It's a great soap and well worth the bother to get it right.

 

[5savages]

I took a puck of MW Sandalwood on our 2 week summer vacation. I successfully lathered it up in Nebraska, Denver, western and southwestern Colorado, southwestern Utah and northern Arizona with absolutely no problems. Easy, luscious lather every time. I have no idea what the water quality was like in each stop but it didnt' seem to affect my shave.

 

[TourettesTuna]

Well, I'm in Tucson, and I don't find the water here to be particularly hard. I still haven't succeeded at lathering MW, but I came close with Marco's method. One of these days I will try Marco's method with some D.I. water, and see what happens. My guess is that the lack of saponified coconut oil in MW makes it harder to lather in very specific conditions. Which is a shame because I think the exclusion of coconut oil is a very interesting idea, and one that I believe has paid off with some very satisfied customers.