Mikes Natural/Tallow based lathering advice needed

[boogieman_]

Hey guys, I just got some Mike's Natural Coconut. I love the scent! I am having a bit of trouble though. I got nice looking lather but the razor doesn't like to glide at all. It's as if my face were made of rubber. I do have hard-ish water. This is my first tallow, so not sure how to lather, water logged brush? Dry-ish brush?

Can someone explain their method of lathering on a tallow based soap like this? Do I need to get some filtered water?

Thanks for the help!

 

[mdevine]

Mike's requires more water than most other soaps I've tried. Try adding more and see what happens. I face lather and find it works best when I go back and dip the tips of the brush in water quite a few times.

Mike

 

[akokandy]

Mike's requires more water than most other soaps I've tried. Try adding more and see what happens. I face lather and find it works best when I go back and dip the tips of the brush in water quite a few times.

Mike

I agree. I've never used Mike's, but generally speaking if your lather isn't slick, you need more water in the mix.

 

[shaverjoe]

+1 to both comments above. Mike's holds a ton of water and once you get it dialed in, it makes one of the best lathers you could ask for.

 

[mdevine]

Some soaps, like Cade, do best if you start with a dry brush and gradually add water. Mike's does best when starting with a relatively wet brush and adding more water than you think you'll need. I don't usually use the "Marco" method, but this is one soap that does very well with this approach.

 

[lt114]

Yes more water should help. Mike's is very slick when you get it dialed in.

 

[boogieman_]

I tried more water, getting it dialed in, it was slicker but I still need to work on it. I got a small bottle of water at the gas station to try some soft water. Even with it not mixed quite right my face feels pretty good with this.

 

[celestino]

Mike's requires more water than most other soaps I've tried. Try adding more and see what happens. I face lather and find it works best when I go back and dip the tips of the brush in water quite a few times.

Mike

+1 With your hard water, you will need to add more water, little by little. Great soap!

 

[shave~extacy]

Lots of water, lots of load time.

 

[5savages]

Hey boogieman_, you're not the only one having trouble with this soap. I've tried it for my last three shaves and have been disappointed so far. The first coat looks pretty good, the second coat is just ok, and then the third coat is not very good at all. I'm also not getting much slickness so perhaps I need more water as well.

Perhaps I made the wrong assumption that Mike's would lather up as easily as Mystic Water since they're similar consistency but evidently that's not the case. I can get MW to explode with lather with hardly any effort at all (and with a wide variety of different methods) and the lather is more than enough for 3+ passes.

I know I need to give it time and effort before I come to my final conclusions, but so far I'm underwhelmed.

 

[Attila]

I'm of the inclination that certain soaps work well in certain water conditions. For me, Mike's is a very easily lathering soap that has the best slickness out of all the soaps I have. Try loading for a bit longer and then adding water as you need it (a decent amount). Also, I find when I give it a good amount of elbow grease to whip it up in my scuttle (whip it very strongly) it becomes much more slick and thick. But as in all things, YMMV. If you decide to put it on the Buy/Sell forum it would go very fast I'm sure.

 

[Mink]

Hard water here too. Yes, add more sprinkles of water to your lather bowl - and to the surface of the soap so you can keep loading the brush. I found that all the swirling on the puck make a lathery looking mixture that the brush picks up, but it's not enough. Once you start getting good looking lather building up in your bowl, you can stop adding more soap, but you can still continue to sprinkle water into your bowl until your satisfied with the lather. Use this same technique for MWF too.

 

[5savages]

I have softened water, so that's no problem. I also face lather exclusively. I'm sure many others who love Mikes also face lather so I wouldn't think that's the issue.

The lack of lather makes me think I need more soap. The lack of slick makes me think I need more water. In the end, I probably need more of both.

 

[boogieman_]

Face lathering is working much easier than bowl. I have got some good bowl lathers, but it really takes a LOT of water. Like I was saying, this is my first tallow, the closest thing I tried is glycerin soap. It's a whole different thing. Anyway, it's working quite good, I need a little fine polishing, but its still giving good shaves. My face has never been better conditioned. I think it's really gonna be a great soap for this winter when the dryness of winter is around.

 

[joser]

Hard water here too. Yes, add more sprinkles of water to your lather bowl - and to the surface of the soap so you can keep loading the brush. I found that all the swirling on the puck make a lathery looking mixture that the brush picks up, but it's not enough. Once you start getting good looking lather building up in your bowl, you can stop adding more soap, but you can still continue to sprinkle water into your bowl until your satisfied with the lather. Use this same technique for MWF too.

Don't use hot water, use warm or cold. Mike's has lanolin like MWF and it has to be treated in a similar way (like Dave aka Mink said), so that means warm not hot water. I also recommend letting water sit on the puck while your brush is soaking, I didn't do it this morning and it was harder than usual to load my brush with Mike's.

 

[Attila]

Don't use hot water, use warm or cold. Mike's has lanolin like MWF and it has to be treated in a similar way (like Dave aka Mink said), so that means warm not hot water. I also recommend letting water sit on the puck while your brush is soaking, I didn't do it this morning and it was harder than usual to load my brush with Mike's.

+1 I always let some water sit on top of the soap (warm to hot) a bit before starting to load. Dump off the water of course right before loading. I then use cold water to add to the mix afterwards.

 

[mhdena]

YMMV

I've never soaked or let water sit on top of any soap. I do soak my brush in warm/hot water for 5 mins though.

 

[ODJ]

I have given Mike's soaps a few tries and have never had much luck. I can get a great lather out of them, but as you have experienced, it's never slick enough and the razor seems to drag across my face. I have always found this interesting because I am a huge QCS fan, and the ingredients of both creams/soaps are very similar and I can generate a very slick lather from the QCS creams I use. As a result I pif'd or sold all my Mike's soaps, but have a couple samples of the coconut and the orange, and just tried palm lathering with the coconut sample and a wetter brush than usual, and it seems to work much better than bowl lathering. Trust me, I really want Mike's soaps to work for me, because his scents are absolutely second to none in my opinion. I just wish I could get them to perform!

EDIT: So after I palm lathered the coconut sample I applied it to my face just to see how it turned out then rinsed it off. I can still smell the coconut and it smells flippin' amazing! Make's me really want to make this soap work! I'll shave with the rest of the coconut sample tomorrow and see how it goes!

 

[Robert45]

When I use Mike's (and MWF) I cup my hand and fill it full of room temp water and pour it into the tin. Then I put my brush into a cup to soak. Then I let both the soap and the brush soak while I shower. I face brush and and never had a problem making good lather using this procedure. BTW my water is hard water. Good luck...it is aggrevating when things don't come together like they should.

 

[redrako]

What works for me is to treat it like the classic MWF lathering technique. I start with a fairly dry boar ( a gentle squeeze of the knot after soaking) and slowly add tepid water a few times while loading. I then build the lather on my face, dipping the brush tips a few more times.

The key is to go slow, load lots of product and slowly add water.

A few more thoughts: I have much better luck with boar brushes than badgers. This is the same technique that I use with MWF and Mystic. I"ve used this method both with some water on top of the puck and a completely dry puck.

Like any new soap, it takes a trial period to find the right mix of product, water and time building the lather.