Need help on best way to lather up croaps (e.g. QCS creams)

[learis]

So I recently got a sample pack of shaving creams from QCS. It's got a consistency similar to putty or soft candle wax, hence the "croap" name (which I just recently figured out after days of confusion is the combination of the words cream and soap). So I take a dab of it and mush it to the bottom of my bowl and start mixing with my brush to make lather. No matter how much swirling I do or water I add or what-have-you, I don't get that great of a lather. When I go to wash my bowl after the shave, I see that a bunch of the croap is still on the bottom. Despite a long time mixing, only part of the croap turns to lather. Anyone else have this problem and know ways to fix it?

My two possible solutions I'm going to try:

1) Spread the dab of croap out as thin as possible over the widest area on the bottom of the bowl. That way, a greater majority of it is exposed to the brush and will turn to lather quicker.

2) Possibly use a stiffer brush and see if it digs into the croap better to mix it into lather.

 

[mekler]

I just toss a dab in the bowl with some hot water (just a little) then go at it with my brush. I gets gooey, then I add more water little by little and it turns into a fantastic lather. I've done this with all my brushes and have no issues making a lather with QCS.

 

[Deacon Frank]

I likewise put an almond-sized snurdle in the bottom of my shave bowl and let it sit in a teaspoon (or less) of hot water for a couple of minutes.

Others seem to have good luck treating it like an Italian soft soap, ie, loading right from the tub.

 

[Gigster]

Here's a YouTube vid that should help. . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JhuOU_Zz6o

 

[Bobtrumpet]

"Marco's method."

 

[JoshuaNY]

"Marco's method."

+1 Can't beat it

 

[SmoovD]

Soak a brush. Shake out most of the water. Load brush like you would a soap. Apply coating of croap to face. Add water to brush as needed in order to achieve the lather you desire.

 

[jeffzeitlin]

+1 Marco's method

 

[linty1]

I was just about to post something similar to this, but instead of bowl lathering with QCS, I tried face lathering with it. At first it just fell off my face in flakes and chunks. Like you mentioned, I had to smear it/press it cold butter on bread style onto my face and really use a wetter brush than I usually do. Seemed to work. I found on one of my lathers, some of the crammed soap didn't get lathered completly, again like you mentioned. Mmm.... I dunno. Maybe I will try instead of keeping it in the bathroom where it is cooler, maybe by the window ledge where the sun hits it so it softens a bit more? Let me know if you try anything that works.

 

[Predict]

Load like soap.

 

[learis]

Smearing it out over the widest area on my bowl helped a lot; all of it gets exposed to the brush much quicker now. But my main problem was that I was adding too much water. I ended up making a great lather just by dunking my brush, shaking out most of the water and then mixing from there. I used to always add additional water (like an additional teaspoon and then some drops) thinking that was a good thing, but it just ended up making the lather too watery and diluted.

Ultimately I think all the beginner's lather tutorials I see are kind of misleading. I sort of got the feeling that I needed to add water later on when I actually didn't. You live you learn.

 

[Flashvictor]

For me these are classic "lots of product + lots of water = great lather" products.