my only experiance of face lathering was using a synthetic wilkinson sword brush and wilkinsons blue bowl soap, not very good at all, bowl lathering with soaps and creams from then on, last night i decided to give it another go with vie long horse bush, erasmic glycerin soap, 46 aristocrat with wilkinson blade, what a differance, a great shave, i think face lathering with some of my hard soaps will be on the cards from now on and bowl lather with the creams.