So I keep a lot of "Vintage" Williams around, and always on the lookout for a good deal on Vintage stuff, I found a seller of lots of Modern Williams who happened to have a small stock of 02-04 (pre-reformulation) pucks. It'd been awhile since I tried any this recent, and a lot of people have postulated that the age itself is part of what makes vintage soaps superior. In use I felt these pucks performed close to, if not equally to the Williams I use regularly that is anywhere from 50-100+ years old. What I wanted to do however was to compare them directly against the post reformulation.
The first test was my head to head, lathering somewhat how I typically do. Water on top of puck, soak brush 90 seconds, load and lather. I selected 30 seconds as load time to keep things fair... though 10s is probably closer to what I do on a daily basis.
The following pictures are from the Modern Williams face lathering test:
As can be seen, the lather covers well enough, but is full of air. It actually crackles audibly, feeling almost crunchy. It does not accept water. This is that "magical disappearing lather" that some refer to.
The first test was my head to head, lathering somewhat how I typically do. Water on top of puck, soak brush 90 seconds, load and lather. I selected 30 seconds as load time to keep things fair... though 10s is probably closer to what I do on a daily basis.
The following pictures are from the Modern Williams face lathering test:
- Puck and brush soaking
- "Protolather" applied after loading
- Completed lather
- Brush after lathering
- Brush after lathering
- Lather squeezed out of knot
- Lather spread in palm
As can be seen, the lather covers well enough, but is full of air. It actually crackles audibly, feeling almost crunchy. It does not accept water. This is that "magical disappearing lather" that some refer to.