Help with lathering Geo F Trumper soap

[Doc Dan]

I need some advice. I have used Geo F Trumper Rose shaving cream and love it. I decided to buy the hard soap, this time. Well, I can get it to lather mounds of lather, but it is not useable lather. It is frothy and disappears on my skin very quickly.

I have tried soaking the puck for 15 minutes and using a dry brush to lather. I'd add a few drops of water as needed, then using my bowl to finish lathering. I have also tried using a very wet brush and lathering, letting the froth fall into the sink. Once I got my brush overloaded, I transferred to my bowl to finish lathering.

In both cases, there were mounds and mounds of lather, but it was so frothy that it would disappear soon after painting or face lathering.

Any suggestions?

 

[SydneyShaver]

There have been dozens of threads here on B&B on it. Apparently, its not possible to lather as it is missing key ingredients that make a soap latherable. Its universally panned by almost everyone who has it im afraid.

 

[Drew]

There have been dozens of threads here on B&B on it. Apparently, its not possible to lather as it is missing key ingredients that make a soap latherable. Its universally panned by almost everyone who has it im afraid.

This!

I tried the Eucris soap, same experience. It is confounding they put that product in the market given how good their creams are.

 

[Doc Dan]

Yeah, the cream is great. I thought it was just me. This is a very hard soap, though.

 

[CCS]

With the English Big Three, I will ALWAYS choose their creams over soaps. I prefer creams anyway as they are quicker to lather. I do like soaps but not from the Big Three. The Italians, French, and Germans seem to do them pretty well.

 

[sarimento1]

no problem here getting stable lather with GFT Eucris hard soap; trick is to load heavy with barely-moist brush, then use a bowl or mug to work the lather; may take a minute. there have been excellent tutorials in threads here describing in detail.

 

[lasta]

Don't be worried if the lather looks a little foamy, it's slickness that counts, nothing else.

I chased creamy, low structure lather a few years ago, and it's true that some soaps do it better than others. But I can get very slick shaves with bubbly lather too.

Enjoy the scent and shave on!

 

[Lane101]

I need some advice. I have used Geo F Trumper Rose shaving cream and love it. I decided to buy the hard soap, this time. Well, I can get it to lather mounds of lather, but it is not useable lather. It is frothy and disappears on my skin very quickly.

I have tried soaking the puck for 15 minutes and using a dry brush to lather. I'd add a few drops of water as needed, then using my bowl to finish lathering. I have also tried using a very wet brush and lathering, letting the froth fall into the sink. Once I got my brush overloaded, I transferred to my bowl to finish lathering.

In both cases, there were mounds and mounds of lather, but it was so frothy that it would disappear soon after painting or face lathering.

Any suggestions?

What kind of brush are you using? For my hard tallow soaps, Mitchell's Wool Fat and Williams, a good stiff boar brush works best. For these soaps I also use a hybrid method where I begin generating the lather directly on the puck and then finalize the lather via face lathering. Need a soap container, like an apothecary mug, with plenty of extra vertical space. Note the above works on these soaps with a dry puck to start.

P.S. Looked at the ingredients, looks like the fatty acids are all saponified with sodium hydroxide without any potassium hydroxide. The latter contributes to stable lather and its absence may be what was noted in other posts as the cause of this issue. Still worth trying to use the boar brush for the best possible result.

 

[Pepin]

I use two Geo F. Trumper scents purchased in the last couple of years (Eucris and Violet). Both of these soaps provide great lather, and will be replaced when used up, which is the case with the Eucris.


When starting a new puck I always hydrate the puck the first dozen or times I use it, afterwards I have found that I do not need to.

• Dribble some warm water on the puck to hydrate for a few minutes.
• Put the brush to soak in warm water.
• Shake out the brush and pour off any water that is on the puck.
• Load a lot of product.
• Begin to build the lather in the bowl/scuttle for a short time.
• Finish building the lather on your face. You can feel when the lather turns thick and yogurt-like. I find that using the brush like a paint brush works well for me.
• I find that it is a very good soap, but it will take some effort to dial in. I like to use a soap for at least a week straight (or a month), this gives plenty of time to dial in the soap with regards to amount of water, temperatures loading etc.
• It has a narrow window of temperature and how much water to use.

 

[never-stop-learning]

I need some advice. I have used Geo F Trumper Rose shaving cream and love it. I decided to buy the hard soap, this time. Well, I can get it to lather mounds of lather, but it is not useable lather. It is frothy and disappears on my skin very quickly.

I have tried soaking the puck for 15 minutes and using a dry brush to lather. I'd add a few drops of water as needed, then using my bowl to finish lathering. I have also tried using a very wet brush and lathering, letting the froth fall into the sink. Once I got my brush overloaded, I transferred to my bowl to finish lathering.

In both cases, there were mounds and mounds of lather, but it was so frothy that it would disappear soon after painting or face lathering.

Any suggestions?

My response to another GFT soap thread:

I get Trumper Limes soap to lather every time I use it.

Method #1:

BOSC SCIENCE meets George F. Trumper's Limes:

1. Bloom the GFT Limes and place a penny sized dollop of Cremo in the Captain's Choice Copper Bowl:
View attachment 1381357
2. Load lots of GFT Limes using a damp brush:
View attachment 1381358
3. Build the lather, adding drops of water as needed:
The result? A very nice, full, slick lather that retains the wonderful GFT Limes scent and the great post shave face feel.

BOSC SCIENCE RULES!

Method #2:

*Start by blooming the puck for 5 minutes (or so).
*Use a minimally damp brush.
*Load heavily (and often) - then load more prior to lathering for each pass.
*Add a very few drops of water as needed. *My preference with GFT is to build a really thick Lather in the Captain's Choice Copper Bowl and then paint the Lather on nice and thick.

Method #3:

*Spoon/grate a quarter to half a TSP (or so) into the bottom/center of the Captain's Choice Copper bowl
*Add a bit of hot water to soften the Trumper's
*Soak your brush in warm water - shake and squeeze most of the water out
*Load a LOT of soap onto the brush
*As soon as the Trumper's in the bowl has softened, start building lather - saturate the brush with lather
* Reload the brush from the puck before each pass, including the first pass
* Apply the lather to your face, dipping the tips lightly as needed.

In my opinion, none of these processes are particularly onerous. Using any of these processes, GFT is capable of good, slick lather with excellent post shave skin feel!

YMMV

Hope this helps.

 

[RayClem]

Many hard pucks are difficult to lather. The poster child might be Williams Mug Soap. There is a YouTube video where the shaver takes about twelve minutes to develop a lather with WMS. I refuse to spend more than 60 seconds lathering any soap.

The concensus seems to be that G F Trumper and Taylor of Old Bond street make better creams than soaps. The creams are easy to lather. On the other hand D R Harris is said to make a better soap than a cream. I have the Trumper and TOBS creams and the DRH soap, but am not impressed with either of them. There are far better options for similar pricing.

 

[Doc Dan]

Well, I did something heretical. I got some hot water and filled the bowl so that the puck was submerged completely. I put the cover on and let it stand overnight. When it came time to shave I found that the puck had absorbed all of the water and had swollen up. That was encouraging. I wet and then wrung out my brush and started to swirl, then I started to really dig in. At first, clear liquid came out and when that was gone the bowl suddenly filled up with rich, yogurt looking lather. This only took a minute or so. I moved to my lathering bowl and man did that stuff pile up the thick lather! It was great! I painted it on my face and shaved away. The second pass I face lathered and I got a huge amount of creamy lather.

The lather's foam doesn't last as long as other soaps, so I had to repaint a couple of times. That's okay. I usually have to freshen up the lather on the other side of my face before I shave it no matter which soap I use...when I am using a straight razor. I found that the GFT hard soap imparts a serious slickness that wants to stay on the face even after repeated washings. Good thing. That residual slickness made touchups very easy and safe.

Problem solved! Thanks for all the tips.

 

[Pedigree]

I need some advice. I have used Geo F Trumper Rose shaving cream and love it. I decided to buy the hard soap, this time. Well, I can get it to lather mounds of lather, but it is not useable lather. It is frothy and disappears on my skin very quickly.

I have tried soaking the puck for 15 minutes and using a dry brush to lather. I'd add a few drops of water as needed, then using my bowl to finish lathering. I have also tried using a very wet brush and lathering, letting the froth fall into the sink. Once I got my brush overloaded, I transferred to my bowl to finish lathering.

In both cases, there were mounds and mounds of lather, but it was so frothy that it would disappear soon after painting or face lathering.

Any suggestions?

Page 3.

The Trumper Trek

I just ordered 4 different Geo F Trumper hard shaving soaps: Limes, Sandalwood, Eucris and Rose. And I am determined to (one way or another) prove that these SOB's can lather as well as any other soap despite their recent reputation as worthless-performing soaps. I'm going to first try loading...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Doc Dan]

Thanks. I no longer have issues with GFT or any hard milled soap. I found the secret.

 

[Pedigree]

Many hard pucks are difficult to lather. The poster child might be Williams Mug Soap. There is a YouTube video where the shaver takes about twelve minutes to develop a lather with WMS. I refuse to spend more than 60 seconds lathering any soap.

The concensus seems to be that G F Trumper and Taylor of Old Bond street make better creams than soaps. The creams are easy to lather. On the other hand D R Harris is said to make a better soap than a cream. I have the Trumper and TOBS creams and the DRH soap, but am not impressed with either of them. There are far better options for similar pricing.

TOBS soaps are as good as their creams, if not a little better performing. Agreed on the DR Harris soaps vs their creams, their creams were no better then TOBS creams but their soaps are phenomenal performers. The GFT soaps take a bit of experimentation and practice to figure out, but once you get through that tiny little window of a tiny water to soap ratio, it's also a great soap. Think of their formulation as like the psychology/mindset of a hard-to-get woman who on a hotness scale, is a 10 out of 10... when it comes to the water ratio, loading time, technique, etc they are picky as hell.

 

[spacemonkey42]

I picked up a great trick here for lathering hard soaps... Grate them then press them into a container! That took one of my hard soaps which took about 2 minutes to load down to about a minute to load.