I'm confused about the distinction between soaps and creams. For instance is Proraso in a tube a cream and the equivalent in a tub a soap? Exactly how are the products different?
Thanks
Thanks
Newby question about creams and soaps
- Thread starter Crazy Chester
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Welcome, Chester,
A cream can be in a tub as well; see Geo. F. Trumpers Almond cream or the much-loved Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood cream. If it's in a tube, then yes, I think it would be a cream as well.
Soaps are more like, well, the soap you use for your hands and face, but with more ingredients for slickness and to help your skin. Shavers like them, despite the fact they have to be applied with a brush, because they are more slippery and come in a great many more scents. Cream you can apply with a brush, but you could also scoop it right out of the tub with your fingers, apply to your face, and start in with your razor. I use both.
Whichever you use, let the stuff sit on your face for 2-3 minutes before starting to cut. It allows the beard bristles to soften still more.
A cream can be in a tub as well; see Geo. F. Trumpers Almond cream or the much-loved Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood cream. If it's in a tube, then yes, I think it would be a cream as well.
Soaps are more like, well, the soap you use for your hands and face, but with more ingredients for slickness and to help your skin. Shavers like them, despite the fact they have to be applied with a brush, because they are more slippery and come in a great many more scents. Cream you can apply with a brush, but you could also scoop it right out of the tub with your fingers, apply to your face, and start in with your razor. I use both.
Whichever you use, let the stuff sit on your face for 2-3 minutes before starting to cut. It allows the beard bristles to soften still more.
Creams are soft, soaps are hard, and croaps are something with a consistency in between a cream and a soap. Proraso in a tub is a good example—it’s not as hard most soaps, but not as soft as a cream. Try a little of each and you’ll learn what you prefer. If you’re like many of us here, you’ll realize you may enjoy the variety of keeping both on hand.
I have heard that some products, not all, the soaps and creams are the same product formulation but creams have a higher water content, and the soap is just cream left to dry longer.
Welcome aboard!
Basically, there is a spectrum from very soft creams to very hard soaps, with many things in between. It is fun to try various products, then decide where you fit!
Basically, there is a spectrum from very soft creams to very hard soaps, with many things in between. It is fun to try various products, then decide where you fit!
Years ago, there was a real distinction between soaps and creams. Most creams were quite soft. Most soaps were quite hard. With the advent of small batch artisan soaps, the line between soaps and creams has become quite blurred. Creams are generally still pretty soft and creamy, whether they come in a tube or tub. You can still purchase tripled milled hard pucks, but the majority of soaps these days range somewhere from as soft as a cream to quite firm. The term "croap" was invented by someone in the shaving community to represent those products that fall in the middle. I have never seen a product marketed as a "croap".
There is not necessarily a correlatiion between the softness of the product and its quality. There are excellent soft products and there are excellent hard products. Likewise, some of their harder counterparts are poor. The main difference has to do with the method used to load and lather the soap.
If a cream is in a tube, you squeeze out a small portion (about the size of an almond) either onto your damp shaving brush or into a shaving bowl. Then you add a little water and aggitate the mixture to develop a lather. You can lather either on your face or palm or in a bowl or mug. Because creams already contain a fair amount of moisture, less water is needed to build your lather, so creams usually lather quickly.
With a cream in a tub, it is best to dip out the amount of product needed with a small spoon, Popsicle stick, or even your finger rather than dipping your damp brush into the tub. Because the cream is so soft, it is easy to overload too much onto your brush if loaded directly.
At the other extreme are triple milled pucks. Some of those were designed to be used in a mug or similar sized container. They were often used as the only soap in the shave den, often with a single brush made of boar bristle. The It might take several days to get the soap wet enough to develop a good lather, but since it was used every day with the same brush, once the puck was moistened, it remained moist. Mitchell's Wool Fat and Tabac are two hard pucks that work best in this manner. If hard pucks are allowed to completely dry out, or when they are first used, it is usually necessary to "bloom" the puck by adding a small amount of water to cover the top of the puck and let it remain for 1/2 hour or even overnight in some cases. If you do "bloom" the puck, do not dump the bloom water down the drain. That liqued contains a lot of "goodies" that you want to capture in your lather.
The method you use for loading and lathering soaps that are in between hard and soft depends on the particular soap. I often add 1 Tablespoon of hot water (15 ml) into the tub or tin and allow the soap to bloom just long enough to develop a milky liquid. That might take 5 seconds with a soft product and 60 seconds with a firm one, varying the contact time depending upon the hardness of the soap. I bowl lather, so that bloom water goes into my lather bowl as the primary liquid for developing the lather. I add additional water a few drops at a time as needed. The blooming process softens the surface of the soap making it easy to load the proper amount of soap.
The amount of time needed to load the proper amount of soap depends upon the hardness of your soap and the size, density and stiffness of your brush and the amount of pressure used for loading. For me, that time ranges from about 5 seconds up to 30 seconds. The only time it will take longer than that is when using a triple milled puck. Anthony Esposito, AKA the Stallion, likes using Mitchell's Wool Fat, a very hard soap. He always says "load it like you hate it". While that advise applies to MWF and other hard soaps, it you follow that advice on softer soaps, you will be wasting soap and will have a difficult time adding enough water to generate a properly hydrated lather.
Although Michael Freedburg stopped making shaving videos a couple of months ago, he has some excellent videos still posted showing how to lather soaps. He uses a hybrid technique between bowl and face lathering. He scoops out soap from the tub and presses it into the bottom of his "loading" bowl and then adds enough water to develop a proto-lather in the bowl. Then he transfers that proto-lather to his face and adds additional water a few drops at a time until the lather is properly hydrated. Although Michael's technique is a little unusual, it works quite well. My face it too sensitive to face lather, so I generate my lather in a bowl and paint it on my face. Sometimes I need to add a few drops of additional water to my face.
If you have specific questions about soaps or lathering, send a private message to RayClem. This post has gone long enough.
There is not necessarily a correlatiion between the softness of the product and its quality. There are excellent soft products and there are excellent hard products. Likewise, some of their harder counterparts are poor. The main difference has to do with the method used to load and lather the soap.
If a cream is in a tube, you squeeze out a small portion (about the size of an almond) either onto your damp shaving brush or into a shaving bowl. Then you add a little water and aggitate the mixture to develop a lather. You can lather either on your face or palm or in a bowl or mug. Because creams already contain a fair amount of moisture, less water is needed to build your lather, so creams usually lather quickly.
With a cream in a tub, it is best to dip out the amount of product needed with a small spoon, Popsicle stick, or even your finger rather than dipping your damp brush into the tub. Because the cream is so soft, it is easy to overload too much onto your brush if loaded directly.
At the other extreme are triple milled pucks. Some of those were designed to be used in a mug or similar sized container. They were often used as the only soap in the shave den, often with a single brush made of boar bristle. The It might take several days to get the soap wet enough to develop a good lather, but since it was used every day with the same brush, once the puck was moistened, it remained moist. Mitchell's Wool Fat and Tabac are two hard pucks that work best in this manner. If hard pucks are allowed to completely dry out, or when they are first used, it is usually necessary to "bloom" the puck by adding a small amount of water to cover the top of the puck and let it remain for 1/2 hour or even overnight in some cases. If you do "bloom" the puck, do not dump the bloom water down the drain. That liqued contains a lot of "goodies" that you want to capture in your lather.
The method you use for loading and lathering soaps that are in between hard and soft depends on the particular soap. I often add 1 Tablespoon of hot water (15 ml) into the tub or tin and allow the soap to bloom just long enough to develop a milky liquid. That might take 5 seconds with a soft product and 60 seconds with a firm one, varying the contact time depending upon the hardness of the soap. I bowl lather, so that bloom water goes into my lather bowl as the primary liquid for developing the lather. I add additional water a few drops at a time as needed. The blooming process softens the surface of the soap making it easy to load the proper amount of soap.
The amount of time needed to load the proper amount of soap depends upon the hardness of your soap and the size, density and stiffness of your brush and the amount of pressure used for loading. For me, that time ranges from about 5 seconds up to 30 seconds. The only time it will take longer than that is when using a triple milled puck. Anthony Esposito, AKA the Stallion, likes using Mitchell's Wool Fat, a very hard soap. He always says "load it like you hate it". While that advise applies to MWF and other hard soaps, it you follow that advice on softer soaps, you will be wasting soap and will have a difficult time adding enough water to generate a properly hydrated lather.
Although Michael Freedburg stopped making shaving videos a couple of months ago, he has some excellent videos still posted showing how to lather soaps. He uses a hybrid technique between bowl and face lathering. He scoops out soap from the tub and presses it into the bottom of his "loading" bowl and then adds enough water to develop a proto-lather in the bowl. Then he transfers that proto-lather to his face and adds additional water a few drops at a time until the lather is properly hydrated. Although Michael's technique is a little unusual, it works quite well. My face it too sensitive to face lather, so I generate my lather in a bowl and paint it on my face. Sometimes I need to add a few drops of additional water to my face.
If you have specific questions about soaps or lathering, send a private message to RayClem. This post has gone long enough.
What do you guys call castle Forbes "cream"? Is it actually just a soap in cream clothing? I can't even imagine that being in a tube.. or perhaps more insidiously I bet it would do serious body damage if you chucked it hard at someone 
What do you guys call castle Forbes "cream"? Is it actually just a soap in cream clothing? I can't even imagine that being in a tube.. or perhaps more insidiously I bet it would do serious body damage if you chucked it hard at someone
That is exactly what I meant by the line between creams and soaps being blurred. I have not used Castle Forbes so I do not know which side of the line it falls on. Perhaps you can call it a croap and call it a day.
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