Lathering Captain's Choice

[spirograph]

Though I found face lathering CC to work excellently I’ve still been trying to see if I can get good results from bowl lathering. Not much luck, really. The below pictures are from a mid-week shave. We’ll loaded from the jar with a slightly damp synthetic brush before bowl lathering. I took a while before adding just a few drops of water. As usual, a very airy foam developed. It was a lousy shave, though the old blade contributed to that experience. Once again, more water and vigorous whipping made it more useable but it was not a great finish. I decided that my next attempt would start by trying to build the whole lather in the jar rather than just loading and moving to the bowl.

 

[spirograph]

On to today’s lather. I started out with the idea of just building the lather in the jar on top of the soap. Well, after a good long load with a well shaken synthetic a nice soapy slurry built up and I decided to go to the bowl. Started in a dry bowl and before long I had a nice frothy lather all over again (See the pictures below). It looks nice but is just as bouncy, airy, and foamy as the others. I only added a few drops of water (I can’t remember if that was before or after the first picture). The second picture was a few minutes later. So, pretty much the same result as most other times but the brush seemed to still have a decent amount of soap loaded in. So I decided to brush load with what was there, lightly dipping the tips and scrubbing to lather it up. It was an excellent shave. Truly. My congratulations to all those getting satisfactory lathers in the bowl but I think I’ll be face lathering CC from here on out.

 

[spirograph]

This thread appears to have exhausted all but my own personal interest, nevertheless, I will update. First, had a terrific shave yesterday face lathering CC Bay Rum from a sample. Very close comfortable shave. Absolutely tops. Face lathering is definitely the way to go for the soap.

Which brings me to today. The additional product I purchased arrived last night and included the cream version of Land Ho (terrific scent. Sad to hear it is being discontinued but I may not have bought the cream if not for the sale as I was going for the splash.). Lathered it up in the bowl this morning using a small dollop on my brush, peanut to small almond sized (probably less than what I was scooping from the soap to lather). Very different experience. Lathered similarly to my TOBS cream. The picture below was after adding three dips of the tips of the brush in water and lathering with little effort (I wore myself out trying to make the soap work right for me). At this point is started to resemble the CC soap lather somewhat (you can see some big bubbles), just enough that I could see the family resemblance, but it was much much better on the face than my experience with the soap. Less frothy, more creamy and lasted in a slick hydrated state without having to rush the shave. I may beg off the additional water drips sooner next time though it did perform quite well. I even stress tested it with several more drips at the end to see how it handled and it was still more lasting than the foamy soap lather. I can only say I hoped but did not expect the cream to perform so much better than the soap. It was a terrific shave. Very close without irritation, slick and comfortable and lathered without undue effort. I would love to hear if anyone else has had a similar experience with the CC cream vs the soap. To me, after having more or less written off CC, I have to say the soap and cream are top tier performers, provided you face lather the soap.

 

[ShavingPanda]

Tha nks for the updates. Sounds like you've managed to dial them in. Funny the soap is finnicky for face lathering vs bowl lathering. I thought back and realized I only face lather my soaps and had no issues with CC.

I have a sample of land ho, it smells great!

 

[Eben Stone]

@spirograph just curious, are you washing your face before face lathering? I'm wondering if the oils on the skin have anything to do with it.

 

[spirograph]

@spirograph just curious, are you washing your face before face lathering? I'm wondering if the oils on the skin have anything to do with it.

Shave after showering. Sometimes washing my face with a scrub and other times just washing as with shampoo as I wash my hair.

 

[gdawg55]

I made a post back in this thread stating that I also have trouble getting a good lather with Captain's Choice soap. Well, lo and behold, Scott (aka The Captain himself) sent me a message asking if I'd like to try another soap for comparison. Wow, wasn't expecting that. I explained my difficulties with my Land Ho soap and decided to take him up on his offer. I asked for Nor'easter as I've wanted to try it due to the menthol content. A few days go by and a large, heavy package arrived from Scott. Let me tell you, not only did he send me a tub of Nor'easter, he also sent another tub of Land Ho to try as well as an Italia cream to try. I was floored to be honest. Certainly wasn't expecting such generosity and great customer service, but that is exactly what I received...(thanks Scott you are too kind).

I used all 3 products multiple times before writing this to make sure I had them down the best I could before reviewing.

I really like the Nor'easter scent....kind of reminds me of a cross between Musgo Real Classic and LaToja....nice. The Italia is sweet almond, but I think it smells more like cherries to me.....not my favorite scent, but it's not overly strong and it may actually be growing on me.

My issues with the Land Ho that I currently use, is thin, airy, dissipating lather no matter how I try to lather it. Here is some notes on my thoughts on the new stuff.

Nor'easter: Loaded my brush and made what looked to be very nice lather. Had to keep mixing it during my shave as it wanted to disappear on me, but not as quickly as my original Land Ho. This stuff is super slick and I believe I got better results with it compared to my Land Ho.

Initial lather was pretty good (left)....can still see some bubbles. This is after what felt like 3-4 mins of work. The lather on the right is what I had when I finished shaving.....not too bad. It did dissipate on my face while shaving. I continually had to reapply lather to get it thick enough for my liking.

Tried to capture the thinning of the later from beginning to just after I completed my cheeks. It doesn't show very well, but in the picture on the right the lather has disappeared a little from when I initially applied it. Overall, not terrible, but I'm not sure why it likes to dissipate during the shave. The shave was good...no razor irritation. Just had to keep stirring the lather and applying it to my face.

Going to add additional write up in a new comment.

 

[gdawg55]

Continuing on....

Next ups was the new Land Ho. Really like this scent, but the new tub didn't really lather any better than my original tub.

Lather looks pretty good, but still a little airy and bubbly after several minutes of work. Shave turned out pretty good, but had to keep reapplying lather to my face.

You can see a little better in these two pictures how the lather dissipates during the shave. After I complete both cheeks, I have to apply a little more lather. This soap is very slick just like the Nor'easter.

Here is some lather from another brand I use often. Notice the difference in appearance....nice thick, dense lather that doesn't disappear. Right is before shave....left is after shave.

Next up is the Italia cream.....

 

[gdawg55]

Captain's Choice Italia cream.....turned out to be my favorite. It performed much better than the soaps for me.

The cream lathered up much better than the soaps. It also had more structure (less airy and bubbly) and didn't dissipate as much as the soaps either.

This picture tries to show the difference, but it was hard to capture. I really like how the cream performs. Maybe not quite as slick as the soaps, but plenty slick. Shave turned out great with this product.

The cream definitely performed better all around for me. Nice lather that stayed together much better than the soaps. I will keep practicing with the soaps to see if I can dial them in a bit, but I don't have these issues with any other brands.....except maybe Williams which I don't really use very often. It likes to be disappear on my as well.

I want to thank Scott at Captain's Choice for the generous offer of products. You are very kind and customer focused. I will continue to support your business in the future. I don't use a lot of creams, but the Italia works very well. I will certainly be using this product in my rotation. The soaps will need more work as I'm not sure what to do differently to make them more robust. I've tried super wet brush, damp brush, lots of water, very little water, lots of soap, not as much soap, but nothing seems to make much of a difference with the soaps. The Nor'easter lathered up a little better than the Land Ho for some reason. Though it did want to thin out and disappear, it was less so than the Land Ho.

 

[spirograph]

@gdawg55 That was exactly my experience. The soap works better face lathered than bowl lathered but the cream is much better/easier to use overall. And the Captain is a gentleman indeed.

 

[ShavingPanda]

Wow, that is a great detailed writeup @gdawg55! Interesting the experience between the soap and cream. Seems like the cream works better for you.

The Captain is a generous gent sending those on. Kudos to him.

 

[Crisp Rat]

I have had similar issues getting too airy of a lather with Captain's Choice soap. What I've found works well is using cold water to soak the brush, and blooming the soap for a bit, and don't be shy about loading. This has gotten good results with face lathering. I haven't tried the bowl yet.

Regardless of lather consistency I always get a great shave and post-shave feel with the Captain's soaps.

 

[bdehne]

I recently got a tub of Land Ho and a sampler pack. I have tried Land Ho, Itallia and Nor Easter. I always face lather and found that more soap makes a better lather. I am also using a synthetic brush. I also found that CC can take a fair amount of water. I add water until the lather has a glossy look. Very slick and as others have mentioned, excellent face feel after the shave. The hint of menthol in NE makes it very refreshing and adds a unique feel to the lather(I really like it). I normally use tallow soaps and I will say that once I got the water amount right, CC has performed very well for me. I think the lack of tallow may be causing others trouble. JMHO, tallow soaps are easier to make thick stiff lather. CC is one of the slickest soaps I have used. The CC scents are very nice.

 

[Ckmaui]

Just went through my cull down of some other soaps and Captains Choice has made it through with a few others to continue

going to have to try the face lather with CC more
to me the post and lack of residue is what I do love about this and SV does not leave anything behind which I find some other soaps do both on the skin feel and on the brush and bowl

 

[rudygu]

I’ve been trying out a sample of Captain’s Choice eucalyptus he sent with my bowl purchase some time last summer and having this issue with airy lather. On my first 2 attempts I scooped out an almondish sized amount and lathered in my cc bowl. After those attempts were both unsuccessful I scooped out the remaining soap from the sample - a pretty decent amount - into an empty Stirling body butter container, added several drops of water, loaded my Omega 48 boar brush from the tub and lathered on my face from there. It was a world of difference. I think I could’ve accomplished the same in my cc bowl, but I haven’t proven that yet. The results were good enough that I ordered a couple more samples from Maggards to continue experimenting.