Shave samples and lather

[losing]

Up till about a month or so ago I have used Stirling shave soap samples. These are easy to use (at least for me). After years of using Stirling soaps I can almost create a decent lather blindfolded. Recently I had purchased several soap and cream samples from Maggards. The soaps have been a bit hard to lather, the creams are easier. I am having a lot of issues with the soap samples which are in small jars. The closest I have come to a lather was scooping out a bit of the soap, placing it into an empty shave soap jar and beating it senseless with my Yaqi. I have tried it with little water to a good amount of water and the lather disappears in seconds.

I know it's mostly my "technique" so what am I doing wrong? Am I missing anything?

 

[Tommy Tutone]

Lathering soaps from small sample jars is not easy and I try to avoid it if at all possible. (The huge Stirling samples spoiled you ). I would try to scoop out the entire sample and flatten the soap into a container to get as much surface area in contact with your brush as you can. Soap:water ratios vary so when in doubt, use more product. Hopefully you can at least get a good idea whether you like the soap's scent if nothing else... I don't think you're doing anything wrong or missing anything..

 

[APBinNCA]

Disappearing lather is a sure sign of over hydration. With a synthetic, I would thoroughly shake most of the water out of the brush and spend more time loading the brush. You didn't say whether you face lather, so that's as much as I can say.

 

[losing]

I will try and take the samples and make them more into pucks, good idea. As far as lathering I have been using an empty plastic soap jar loading up the brush as best as I can and using my hand for the main lathering, well what lather I can get.

 

[APBinNCA]

I would give face lathering a try, after loading in the jar. If you start with a relatively dry brush and take the time to get it loaded. Then you just dip the tips in water, swirl on your face until it feels dry, dip and swirl again and repeat until you have your face lathered. The trick is to do a little at a time so you don't blow past the hydration limit of the soap. You can feel when the soap is hydrated, it will have reduced resistance when you swirl and may run a little bit. You can then move onto painting to spread it evenly and you should be left with a pretty full brush for your second pass.

 

[sarimento1]

try this...just smear, sliver or grate some of the hard soap sample into a mug; mash and spread around with a finger.
then whip it up with a barely-damp brush; be patient, might take a minute or so!
works well for me!

 

[Ron R]

I use a lathering bowl on all my soaps & creams 98% mostly and just press of spread soap/cream on bottom of bowl and just start to lather and add drops of water as needed to meet my desire lather charteristic that I enjoy. Takes about 1-2minutes regardless of natural or synthetic brushes used and have used this method for last 5 years. Ideal bowl is 5 inch diameter with shallow depth works the best IMO, deep bowl are hard to get soap smeared and harder to clean IMO.

 

[Filudo]

I use a lathering bowl on all my soaps & creams 98% mostly and just press of spread soap/cream on bottom of bowl and just start to lather and add drops of water as needed to meet my desire lather charteristic that I enjoy. Takes about 1-2minutes regardless of natural or synthetic brushes used and have used this method for last 5 years. Ideal bowl is 5 inch diameter with shallow depth works the best IMO, deep bowl are hard to get soap smeared and harder to clean IMO.

I gave UP on those mini samples....a waste of my $$$. They don't lather well

 

[Ron R]

I gave UP on those mini samples....a waste of my $$$. They don't lather well

Samplers, Some do lather well and for sure some do not I have also discovered and could turn me away from that soap brand. You would think the MFG's would want something a little better in the sampler you pay for to attract business! Free samplers could be 2nds in a batch possibly?

 

[borwish]

I rub those small samples on my face like a shave stick.

 

[Filudo]

Now for those that love samples, they are 20%off @ the vendor in #1

 

[RayClem]

Samples are wonderful for evaluating scents. However, I never get as good a lather when attempting to lather samples as I do when loading my brush directly from a bigger tub. When doing soap evaluations, I always want a full tub. I just do not get the same results from samples.

If you are using a lather bowl, you can cut an almond sized piece of soap and place it in the bowl along with some water and allow it to sit for a few minutes. Then try to build a lather. That helps, but still does not compare with a full tub.