First great shave with Proraso.

[kiwimike]

Hi all.
I havent had much success getting a decent lather out of Proraso products up until now.
The Proraso green in the tube irritated my skin due to the high menthol content and made an airy lather.
I recently bought the new formulation white soap and didnt think much of that lather also.
So I tried mega loading this soap for a full minute- the result? -an excellent creamy protective and slick lather as good as any of my hard tallow soaps!
With my hard soaps (tabac, speick stick, palmolive stick) I only have to load for 30 sec to get a great lather so I thought that as the proraso was softer I wouldnt have to load as long.
But for some reason I had to load for twice as long- the brush (FS 24/55 silvertip) didnt seem to pick up the soap as well I guess.
I havent had much experience with italian soft soaps.
Does anyone else find they have to load longer with soft soaps?
I wonder if a longer loading time will work with Arko also as that is a soft soap and I havent had success with that lately either.
I quite liked the scent of the white- not at first, but after a while its quite refreshing and addictive.
I also liked the slight cooling effect it had- not a full on face freeze like the green, but just enough for a hot day.

Cheers- Michael.

 

[Mad Man]

Hey mike,

This is a YMMV situation here; I can get lather out of 'Raso with quick loading. But good on ya for persevering and dialing it in. Because of water variation, brushes, loading, lather technique (face/bowl/hand) I believe it's almost impossible to truly replicate someone else's technique - except for Marco's wet brush method which almost works for EVERYONE!

Raso is one of the true staples of shaving and th only non-tallow in my regular rotation. It's the Kalashnikov of soaps; cost-effective, widely available, relatively simple to use and accurate enough.

 

[kiwimike]

Hi Paul.
Im glad I persevered too!
I think I could get quicker loading if I used more pressure, but using my usual moderate pressure I needed to load for twice as long as other soaps.
I could get lather from proraso only loading for 30 secs, but it wasnt the creamy dense lather I got from my favourite soaps- and who wants inferior lather!!
It certainly is great value for money and I am looking forward to using it more in the upcoming hot summer months.

 

[rxonmymind]

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't used that soap in months so I'll take it out for tonight's shave. Good stuff.

 

[jojoc]

I've had a hard time getting a good lather from Proraso as well. I tried Marco's approach over the weekend and got some great lather, but the process of building it was a mess! I had lather flying all over the place on my first pass. Teh second and third were excellent! here is a link to Marco's post:
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...with-Italian-soft-soaps?p=2981170#post2981170

Good luck! for the price Proraso is very hard to beat.

 

[kiwimike]

Yeah I like to try to keep things tidy so I started with a shaken and squeezed out brush, (the opposite of Marcos method I guess) loaded for one minute, and face lathered dipping the tips of the brush to pick up water until I had the consistency I liked.
I did the same tonight and got the same quality lather.
I really like the scent- very hard to describe but quite addictive.
I will be working with this soap for a while I think

 

[Suggy]

It is good stuff. It's consistent for me at least. Staying in my rotation
I want to try the sandalwood

 

[Foyle]

I may yet forsake all others for Proraso. It gives me the best shaves every time I use it. It's idiot proof to lather and it's cheap to boot. It's quite possibly the perfect soap.

 

[kiwimike]

Another great shave with Proraso tonight.
As my lathering skills have developed I have discovered how good a lather can be- creamy and protective, yet still slick.
I really think getting a great lather is half the battle as a newbe traditional wetshaver.
It really is vital to getting an irritation free shave.

 

[craig94yj]

Have you tried the creams? Proraso Red is my favorite. For $10 give it a go. Good shaves to you.

 

[Suggy]

Another great shave with Proraso tonight.
As my lathering skills have developed I have discovered how good a lather can be- creamy and protective, yet still slick.
I really think getting a great lather is half the battle as a newbe traditional wetshaver.
It really is vital to getting an irritation free shave.

As a fellow noob, I have to agree. I think I don't get enough water at times. Not wanting to make too big of a mess. Even the Proraso gets a kick up w good water amounts.

 

[kiwimike]

Have you tried the creams? Proraso Red is my favorite. For $10 give it a go. Good shaves to you.

Hi Craig. I have tried the green cream and the menthol didnt agree with me.
I have been hesitant to try the red cream as I find loading from a puck works best for me.
Do you smear it on your face or squeeze it onto your brush?

 

[SliceOfLife]

I put a toothpaste-sized shot of it on my brush and face lather.


I too found the proraso tub (and many of the soft soaps (croaps)) to really rely on heavy loading. The Italian barber technique Marco posted awhile back seems to work as well or better than any other technique I've tried with them, and it revolves around just saturating the brush with massive amounts of soap.