but it turned into an interesting "science experiment" of sorts....
Ok, so the water at my new apt. gets HOT (probably hot enough to hurt you if you left your hand under it for long enough). This is great for soaking the brush, but I found out the hard way that it is a bit too hot for glycerin-based soaps today.
Here's what I normally do: fill my large soup mug with enough water to cover the bristles, and then fill the sink around the mug about half way up, so that blistering hot water is heating the mug from both the inside and outside. With soaps, I not only splash some of this water on top of the soap inside my ramekins, but I also set the ramekin in the water, so it is heated from the outside as well. This has helped me produce FANTASTIC lathers with triple-milled soaps.
So, this morning, I did the same thing with my HBS, and didn't stop to consider that this might melt the soap. When I went to dump the water off the top of the soap so I could load my brush, practically 90% of the melted soap went with it........and much to my dismay, I was left with a gel-like, gooey substance that only vaguely resembled the formerly wonderful soap. At this point, I almost reached for a cream. But, something told me to give it a try, so I dipped my bristles in the soupy, gooey substance, and proceeded to lather in my mug.
What I got was one of the thickest, richest lathers that I've ever gotten from a glycerin-based soap. Picture something that lathers thickly (like Proraso that hasn't been fed quite enough water) and increase that significantly...... The really incredible part that, despite the thickness, it was still slick and lubricating, instead of skipping, like many overly-thick lathers. It almost had the true consistency of Cool-whip when very cold (this stuff was THICK).
I certainly don't suggest that you try this (as the cost is a perfectly wonderful shaving soap), but it was interesting nonetheless.
Ok, so the water at my new apt. gets HOT (probably hot enough to hurt you if you left your hand under it for long enough). This is great for soaking the brush, but I found out the hard way that it is a bit too hot for glycerin-based soaps today.
Here's what I normally do: fill my large soup mug with enough water to cover the bristles, and then fill the sink around the mug about half way up, so that blistering hot water is heating the mug from both the inside and outside. With soaps, I not only splash some of this water on top of the soap inside my ramekins, but I also set the ramekin in the water, so it is heated from the outside as well. This has helped me produce FANTASTIC lathers with triple-milled soaps.
So, this morning, I did the same thing with my HBS, and didn't stop to consider that this might melt the soap. When I went to dump the water off the top of the soap so I could load my brush, practically 90% of the melted soap went with it........and much to my dismay, I was left with a gel-like, gooey substance that only vaguely resembled the formerly wonderful soap. At this point, I almost reached for a cream. But, something told me to give it a try, so I dipped my bristles in the soupy, gooey substance, and proceeded to lather in my mug.
What I got was one of the thickest, richest lathers that I've ever gotten from a glycerin-based soap. Picture something that lathers thickly (like Proraso that hasn't been fed quite enough water) and increase that significantly...... The really incredible part that, despite the thickness, it was still slick and lubricating, instead of skipping, like many overly-thick lathers. It almost had the true consistency of Cool-whip when very cold (this stuff was THICK).
I certainly don't suggest that you try this (as the cost is a perfectly wonderful shaving soap), but it was interesting nonetheless.
And my brush warms the soap up.
