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Lathering Modern Williams Mug - Pretty Easy!

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I’ve been reading here about the modern Williams being hard to lather and overall quite sucky for a few years now. So tonight I tried it. And I gotta say.....it’s pretty darn easy to lather! Damp brush, lots of soap, aggressive face lather. Plenty of lather for 2 shaves. Smooth shave. Pleasant scent. For the price it is easily a top preforming soap in my book.

See for yourself!

 
Yea, I never got what was so difficult about it; after a couple uses with some decent blooming, it lathers like a champ.

It’s pretty much elite level slickness if nothing else.
 
I have used Williams for over 10 years. While I find it lathers fine I do notice that the lather itself is often not the most long-lived or stable - especially if I don't take time to pay attention to it while I am making it. I think that is what most people complain about with Williams.

I get good shaves from it, and I always have a few pucks in the shave den, but it isn't the easiest soap to deal with and that is a fact.
 
It doesn’t work at all with my tap water. It works perfectly fine with bottled water.

I don’t shave with bottled water.

I’ve tried to make it work a few times over 13 years, but I have given up. It’s not worth it.
 

nemo

Lunatic Fringe
Staff member
Haven't had a problem with it (California well water, never soak) myself but have read a lot of grumbling about the lather.

For me, it's sure a slick one! The price is right.
 
I've never had a problem with it. It's the soap I learned on, and it's still the one I use most often. Also, the slickest soap I've found. At $0.99/puck at my local Wegman's grocery store, it's a steal.
 
At home (hard water), its terrible. Thin lather that vanishes. I've tried everything.

I've traveled with it and can say it is a very good soap. In "good" water I found it very easy to lather. It worked great. The lather it produced was thick and slick.

I see how some say its unlatherable and others think it's great. It all depends on the water.
 
I only got it to work after blooming the soap. Other than that, I don't load it differently than any of my other soaps. It's cheap, found locally, and provides a slick lather.
 
I get a ton of thick lather from modern Williams mug soap but, it still dissipates halfway through my shave. It looks like you cut the video when it dissipated halfway through your shave. Godrej round is much better than modern Williams IMO. I would like you to do a shave with the vintage Williams & compare the two.
 

Toothpick

Needs milk and a bidet!
Staff member
I didn’t show the shave part. I just showed lather for the first pass and second pass. Maybe you mean for the second pass it looked like it started to dissipate? Pretty sure I already did one with Vintage Willams but I must be mistaken because I can’t find it. I can do one comparing the two.

I’m gonna need more mugs to keep all this used soap!
 
I too heard about the difficulties of lathering Williams and decided to give it a try this weekend. Like you, Jason, I found it to lather up just fine. My water isn't the greatest but I was able to load up my boar brush with a lot of soap and whip it up in a bowl. It provided a nice, slick shave. I'll go back after Arko August.
 
I didn’t show the shave part. I just showed lather for the first pass and second pass. Maybe you mean for the second pass it looked like it started to dissipate? Pretty sure I already did one with Vintage Willams but I must be mistaken because I can’t find it. I can do one comparing the two.

I’m gonna need more mugs to keep all this used soap!
Vintage vs Modern Williams sounds like a winner shave off to me! Please do it.!
 
I started out shaving in '63 with Williams, it was a fast lathering great soap, loved this old now vintage soap. I do use the new Williams in my rotation but only when I want to take the time to build a good lather, it does give me a slick long lasting lather but not as great as the vintage. I have some vintage Williams that I've been comparing to the modern Williams. Modern gives a good lather but Vintage wins every time
 
As I said I've compaired Vintage and modern Williams Vintage was best. Tested a mix along with the 2 Modern and Vintage, A Williams-Dove mix, 1 puck Williams shaved, 1/2 bar Dove Shea Butter shaved, has Tallowate as an ingredient, and it mixes well. As I mentioned above, Vintage is a much better save soap than the modern But when adding the Dove for some reason I get a great lather that matches the vintage Williams except I get a nice scent. I guess the ingredients in this bath soap enhances the modern Williams.
When my wife and I went on a trip I forgot my shave soap Used her Dove soap in the shower and saw that it had a spippery lather,tried it for my shave and lathered up to give me a fair lather, Ergo the experiment with the mix.
 
As I said I've compaired Vintage and modern Williams Vintage was best. Tested a mix along with the 2 Modern and Vintage, A Williams-Dove mix, 1 puck Williams shaved, 1/2 bar Dove Shea Butter shaved, has Tallowate as an ingredient, and it mixes well. As I mentioned above, Vintage is a much better save soap than the modern But when adding the Dove for some reason I get a great lather that matches the vintage Williams except I get a nice scent. I guess the ingredients in this bath soap enhances the modern Williams.
When my wife and I went on a trip I forgot my shave soap Used her Dove soap in the shower and saw that it had a spippery lather,tried it for my shave and lathered up to give me a fair lather, Ergo the experiment with the mix.
Hmmmm ... I should try that with a Caprina Fresh Goat's Milk Soap bar, with Sodium Tallowate listed as the first ingredient.

For Dove:
Ingredients: Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Sodium Tallowate or Sodium Palmitate, Water (Aqua), Sodium Isethionate, Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Fragrance (Parfum), Sodium Cocoate or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Oil, Sodium Chloride, Propylene Glycol, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Yellow 5 (CI 19140), Yellow 6 (CI 15985).
Don't they know which? It seems like it should be a big difference.
 
I shaved with William's this morning and I was impressed with it. I let it bloom for maybe 5 minutes and it produced a very nice thick lather in no time using a run of the mill Omega boar.

It was slick enough for a pleasant shave and the lather easily lasted for three passes and has a nice clean scent that reminds me a bit of Kirk's castile soap.

I think it gave a heck of a good shave for the buck and a half I paid (IIRC) I have some high dollar soaps on the shelf and they don't leave William's in the dust by much and for most of them I'd say fragrance is the major improvement.
 
Lather is not synonymous with quality, performance, and slickness. I never liked it, used to leave my face irritated and dry.
 
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