Face lathering with a Shavemac 429

[thunderball]

I just received a Shavemac 429, 23mm. knot in Finest and I love the thing. It is worlds more luxurious than my floppy old Vulfix and is beautifully made. One thing I am finding however is that it seems a bit more difficult than it should be to transfer all that lovely lather it produces from the brush to my face. It seems that the brush is full of lather but even if I sort of 'paint' it on my face it just wipes it off as much as it leaves lather behind. The lather will also kind of squeeze out of the 'bottom' of the brush (the knot area) and overflow down the handle and over my hand instead of coming out of the top of the brush where I need it.

What do you guys do? If I just squeeze out the brush I get a huge handful of nice lather and could apply it that way (but then I can only really do one pass) but is there some technique I'm missing here for applying a thick layer of lather to the face with such a dense brush?

Any suggestions welcomed.

 

[TorzJohnson]

I use my 429 for face lathering, but (as with all my brushes) most of my lather stays in the top 3/4's of the brush. There must be something different in the methods we use to actually accomplish the face-lather. I tend to smear the cream onto both sides of my face and my neck, then use the brush (shaken out a bit) to whip the cream and spread it round for full coverage. Then I drizzle a little water at a time into the top of the brush and build up the lather that way. I never have any coming out the bottom, although when I used a bowl that would happen.

 

[bro-ham]

Try adding more soap/cream. I have found that going to a more absorbent brush required adding more soap/cream to my face (or bowl).

Although I do +1 for face lathering. It seems to keep more of the soap closer to the tip of the brush.

 

[infotech]

I face lather with a Shavemac 177 23 mm.. I dip the brush in the cream and then put a light coat of cream (protolather) all over my face using a painting and swirl motion. Then I slowly start to build lather with circular motions and slightly press down. As the lather builds I push down a little bit more, but by no means to the hilt of the brush. I dip the tips of the brush in water as needed until the lather is good to go. I haven't had any problems with the brush hogging lather.

 

[thunderball]

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys. I think I may have found my problem. With my little Vulfix I always put the cream down in the 'chamber' of the bristles and it was never a problem but when I put the cream deep down in the bristles of the Shavemac it just doesn't really rise up to the top of the brush the way it did with the Vulfix (due to density and overall size of the 429 I guess). I tried just smearing some cream on my cheeks first and then just using the tips to build the lather that way and POOF! lather for days..... Arigato!