A nice wet kiss from boar brush will awaken "sleeping beauty".
Soap "cures" from the outside in, therefore the outside (the top surface) will be more dry and the inside will retain more of it's moisture. If you continuously use the soap no problem, if you leave it for a while and don't use it, the soap will continue to "cure" and become dry on the outer surface of the top of the puck....
+1 great adviceSoap "cures" from the outside in, therefore the outside (the top surface) will be more dry and the inside will retain more of it's moisture. If you continuously use the soap no problem, if you leave it for a while and don't use it, the soap will continue to "cure" and become dry on the outer surface of the top of the puck....
This is great advice. Also, after I use one of my hard pucks/soaps (DRH, MWF) I moisten the top of it before putting the lid back on, I do not let the puck dry out at all.
IME, that's the good stuff, right there. Try using that soapy goodness instead of pouring it down the sink. Nice soapy "bloom water" has always gotten MWF to work well for me.they all are pouring cloudy water i.e. melted soap down the drain!
There is a difference between a "cold process soap" and a "Triple pressed soap" in that the triple pressed soap is manually pressed together to make a firm bar and the cold process soap is not. The other aspect of this are the ingredients! A shaving soap is made and formulated differently than other types of soap in that it should be easy enough to lather and you need to get the right type of lather to produce the cream/dense lather that is required for this purpose. Stearic Acid is often used because of the tiny bubbles it created that give the lather a foam quality. Other oils like Palm Oil are also used because of the more creamy/foamy lather that it creates. If the formula contains the wrong amounts of these then they may be either too firm or too meltable to do the type of job they are required to do! So, even if they are Triple Pressed they may not be a firm as a typical triple pressed bar should be and if they are cold processed they might be even more firm than a cold processed bar is, if the higher end fatty acids (stearic) is used in a higher percentage than it would normally be used. Just to be clear, the "Triple Pressed" soaps tend to be more firm than the cold process.Quick question from a newbie, would this be true of ALL hard soaps? need to really absorb the moisture again?
IME, that's the good stuff, right there. Try using that soapy goodness instead of pouring it down the sink. Nice soapy "bloom water" has always gotten MWF to work well for me.
Two months ago, I found an 11 year old puck of MWF in one of my old "shaving stuff" storage boxes. A 20 minute bloom with about a tablespoon of water (and using the bloom water to start the lather) resulted in excellent lather and a great shave.
To me, this is blooming. A dribble to soften the surface is all that I use.... Using "about a tablespoon" of water ...
Just needs a little waking up. A new puck can be a little slow to start until its taken on a bit of water. Hang in there, you'll be back to normal soon