Proraso Sandalwood Fail

[celishave]

Last week received a tub of Proraso Sandalwood. Was very excited to try this as love most sandalwood products and enjoyed the traditional green tub proraso. So it's been a week and to this point I'm disappointed. I struggle to get quality lather from this soap - at best I am getting passable lather. I have tried both the "Marco" method using my Omega boar brush and Art of Shaving boar brush. Have also tried using various other methods - all face lathering - and at best I get a mediocore lather that lasts for one pass and have to relather for second pass.

And to get that I have to literally load off the soap for over a minute. Exceptional soaps should lather quickly. Comparing to RazoRock and Cella - those products lather with little effort. I have tried using lots of water and also tried using a relatively dry brush. I typically soak the tub with hot water and then start lathering after my shower. I have tried all the tricks and it just doesn't work for more. Anyone else simply given up on this?

 

[TacticalPanda]

I never soak the tub and I never load for more than maybe 15 seconds tops. Try using a drier brush and adding water a bit at a time. Once you figure out what ratio it likes, then you can move faster with it. I always found it a very easy croap to lather.

 

[celishave]

Also forgot to post a link. I looked on youtube for proraso lathering tips. The result below is one of the first that pops up. Do people consider this to be good lather? 5 minutes of lathering and the result appears to be subpar IMO. Certainly compared to Cella or Razorock products

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI1tWQySskQ

 

[Wetshavingswede]

Look at performance rather than lather quality is my opinion when it comes to proraso, no matter how little i swirl the brush the lather seems to protect my skin perfectly every time and also i don't get dried out skin. Price-performance i think proraso is on par with arko even

 

[Foyle]

You're soaking your tub of Proraso in hot water? I bet you're just getting sudsy soup instead of a stiff stable lather. Proraso in the tub is a hard cream. Don't soak it. Just swirl your brush on the soap until it's well loaded. Any where from 20 seconds to one minute should be plenty depending on your water hardness. Then lather.

 

[TourettesTuna]

I have to agree with Wetshavingswede. I tend to value performance over "quality". It might be more apt to say that lather performance is synonymous with lather quality in my book.

The video and comments thus far, beg the question how are we defining "quality" of lather?

As to the result in the video looking subpar, the guy had reasonable proto-lather from the getgo. It just needed to have a little more water worked in, which he presumably does, and gets what looks to be a passably viscous lather. I'll grant you he doesn't look like Santa Claus, but you really don't need to lather that thick to get a good shave. Some would even argue that a thick lather can be counter productive.

 

[markg]

Maybe slightly off topic, but I have over 30 soaps and creams including the green, white and blue Prorasos. I like them all quite a bit. But the red one is the only soap from the whole collection I gave up on because of its smell. At the end, the lather was the same or worse than the other Prorasos but I just could not tolerate the smell.

 

[duki92]

Like mentioned above, maybe soaking ruins it, as Proraso soap is actually same as cream, just leaved to dry. Maybe it dissolves in water.

Who knows, maybe the surface layer is ruined, and you need to dig deeper.

Method that works for me: Put just a few drops of water on it, and spill that. Leave it while shower, soak brush in water. Shake and squeeze brush to be dry, load brush for 15 seconds. I use both cheap pure badger and Omega 80080, and it works wonders with both of them,maybe better with boar, easy to get for 3, maybe even 4 passes with that. Slick, stable lather, for me better than green proraso.

 

[wolfmanxiii]

You can always send it to me...I can test it out to make sure you didn't get a dud