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How to palm lather MWF soap

Hi gents,

Lately I've been using my palm to lather some of my soaps and after seeing the great guide du212 posted about how to lather MWF using the bowl, I decided taking my camera with me in tonight's shave and take some pictures while I'm palm lathering MWF.
I only have two hands, so bear with me about the photos quality, OK? :001_rolle
OK, let's start:

1. The gear you'll need

  1. One puck of MWF (well, dohh...)
  2. One good medium sized broken-in boar brush. I find the Semogue 1305 perfect for the job
  3. One bowl Access to tap water
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2. Preparing the stuff

Fill the bowl with tap water. The water must not be hot nor warm. Room temperature is ideal.
Drown the puck of MWF in the bowl. Put the brush in there too, but leave the handle above water level (so you don't have to complain later about chipped wood :tongue_sm).

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After a few minutes, remove the water from the bowl. Shake the brush for excess water and place the puck in the palm of your hand.

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3. Loading

Start swirling with the tips of the brush on the surface of the puck of soap.

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After one and a half minutes, the brush should be well loaded with soap.

4. Lathering

Now this stage is where normally one would place the brush in the face and start building the lather. I can do that, but I think I can "sense" better how's the lather is developing if I keep it in the palm of my hand. Besides, if I lather in the bowl, there's always some wasted lather that remains there, unlike palm lathering where I apply the lather directly in my face.
The palm skin is one of the most sensitive areas in the body, so it will tell you how does the lather is doing, after adding a drop of water.
Notice how the lather is faint and dry on the first picture.

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Each 15 seconds, I'll add 3 drops of water and continue swirling.

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3 drops more

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and some more. Notice how using this technique, MWF can process several drops of water easily without becoming too thin, airy or bubbly.

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OK, I think where done.

5. Finish

Now, I can feel the lather in the palm of my hand has being moist and soft, but at the same time, strong and tight, just what we're aiming for.
The lather is ready to "work" now. This is what it looks like when I pass the loaded brush in my arm:

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and this is the brush loaded with lather and ready to provide me a great shave!

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Enjoy!
 
Awesome tutorial!

I used to palm lather a lot and advocate for palm lathering, but then I fell out of the practice. I do recall the advantages you mentioned. I'll have to give it another try tomorrow morning.
 
Indeed a great tutorial. When ever I test lather a product, I hand lather and it always produces great results.
 
Palm lathering has always produced the best lather for me. You've got somewhere for the water to drip from your brush and, since the lather is building in your hand, it's fantastically easy to tell how slick, moist or creamy/foamy it is. Even though I prefer to face lather, it doesn't come close to being as easy or consistent when trying achieve a slippery, creamy lather - especially where MWF is concerned.

Works equally well with my Semoge LE or 830, or my Rooney 1/1.
 
You're saying water at room temperature?
That seems to be too "cold" for my liking. Is there anyway around that?
Finally ordered some MWF myself. I'll try your method.
 
You're saying water at room temperature?
That seems to be too "cold" for my liking. Is there anyway around that?
Finally ordered some MWF myself. I'll try your method.

Well, I've read somewhere that lanolin doesn't stand heat (> 40 Celsius) very well and might ruin the soap composition.
 
You're saying water at room temperature?
That seems to be too "cold" for my liking. Is there anyway around that?
Finally ordered some MWF myself. I'll try your method.

Well, I've read somewhere that lanolin doesn't stand heat (> 40 Celsius) very well and might ruin the soap composition.

Room temperature probably means something different to everyone. According to Wikipedia:
For scientific calculations, room temperature is usually taken to be 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, or 293 to 298 kelvins (K), or 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, .[citation needed] For numerical convenience, 300 K (27 °C, 80 °F) is often used.[citation needed] However, room temperature is not a precisely defined scientific term as opposed to Standard Temperature and Pressure, which has several, slightly different, definitions.

According to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), "Room temperature shall be considered to be 50 °F to 100 °F [10 to 38 °C] unless otherwise specified."

So there can be a lot of variation in there. I use warm/hot water to lather MWF and don't have any issues. My guess is the water is about 110°F, or so.
 
Very nice tutorial, Leon! No need to apologize for the pictures, they are just fine.

I've palm lathered sporadically but never with MWF - will have to try that.

I've read some of the threads about this soap and my experiences seem a bit at variance with many. Perhaps something about my water? I initially tried loading the brush with wet or dry boar brushes and never got very good lather. Adding water tricky too. Wasn't watering the puck because I'd fallen out of that habit, Valobra and Cella not needing it.

So then I didn't soak the MWF puck, but merely covered the surface with a very little water for a very short time, about 10-15 seconds, poured that into a bowl, and the brush loaded just fine. Not a easily as Cella but fine. Plenty of soap. Yes, too foamy at first but with more working in the bowl, becomes creamy. Do have to add water a bit at a time as you described.

I still find it dries on the face faster than some, but wonderful face feel!

- Bill
 
Since I am happy with my MWF prep, I lathered modern formula Williams with this method instead.

Still smelled like citronella, but the resulting lather was the best I had ever created with that soap.

Thanks for the tip.
 
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I stick my mug of water into the microwave for 90 seconds and then soak my brush while in the shower. Then I take my shave stick of MWF (made my own) and rub it around on my wet face. Then I shake most the water from the brush and face lather. I get way more than enough for 3 passes.
 
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