GFT sandalwood, almond, nice but where is the slickness?

[Eben Stone]

I bought a GFT cream sampler pack from West Coast Shaving. The scents and texture is nice, and a lot of posts suggest GFT for its slickness.

No issues with GFT rose. I don't remember having any issues the first time I tried almond.

Yesterday using sandalwood, and today using almond, there was no slickness. No issue with 1st pass. On the 2nd and 3rd pass, the razor does not glide smoothly over my skin, it starts to glide then gets stuck to my skin (not sure how else to describe it).

I've tried adding more water, to the point where it's almost running off my face. I've tried reloading with less water to the point where it's like thick paint. I've tried hot, lukewarm, and cold water. I tried switching razors from R41 to Boker butterfly.

I havent had this issue with L&W bay rum, SV Opuntia, TBS maca root, GFT rose.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[sarimento1]

Welcome to B&B, Sir Eben Stone!
Congrats on going with a sample pack! Great strategy!
FWIW, I've always had good shave performance from my few GFT creams!
Perhaps my favorite is Coconut oil!
But each of the others perform quite nicely for me!

 

[ask4Edge]

Perhaps the SW and Almond (OP) samples, per se, are faulty?

IME, the Rose, SW and Almond perform essentially equally well, but for some reason the plastic tube versions i.e. Eucris and Spanish Leather perform even better.

 

[Eben Stone]

I got much better results today by bowl lathering instead of face lathering. But I'm still not impressed with GFT. I haven't tried all the scents, but so far the rose, almond, and sandalwood are just OK in terms of slickness.

 

[BCL501]

I always bowl lather the tradional english shaving creams such as Trumpers as this is the way their barbers lather the cream and in my opinion gets the best out of the cream performance wise. I've also used alll the scents they offer and get similar performance from each, however, I have found that those sample pots aren't usually a true reflection of the quality of what you get in a full size bowl or tube.

 

[ask4Edge]

Indeed, especially if sample is from a third party (sample jar direct from GFT online shop has an unmarked white lid, and is encased in cardboard).

 

[hcoop112]

Cant say about the rest but i enjoyed the GFT-violets it lathered up super peaky ...if the rest are like that then as person above said maybe the sample was bad

 

[Eben Stone]

I think I figured out my problem.

Today I bowl lathered with GFT GFT and achieved a good lather, good slickness and good cushion.

Apparently I've been lathering wrong all along, with too much water up front.

Today after soaking the brush I squeezed and shook it out thoroughly, and started churning the soap and slowly added a few drops of water. I kept repeating this, adding a few drops of water at a time while churning, until I had good lather, which took me about 3-5 minutes.

To compare with what I've been doing previously, I was not squeezing and shaking the brush out thoroughly enough and it was too wet.

I can't wait to try this new technique with SJoL because it seems to build good lather even with a wet brush, so I assume it will be even better by slowly adding the water.