Soaps that are a brush's kryptonite?

[huck1995]

So I am testing out some Palmira soap from Serbia (a tallow based cube of soap with a lovely almond scent), and the first run out was on Wednesday with a synthetic brush. I got a lovely, creamy and thick lather with plenty of slickness that led to a good shave, and a nice scent to boot. Couldn't have been happier with it. Then today, I figured I'd try out the boar hair brush on it, and no matter what I did, the lather completely failed. Thin, full of air bubbles, and dissipated on the face before the razor could even get there. I tried loading with a drier brush and wetting it on the face, loading the brush more wet, loading long, loading short, yet everything I tried was a complete failure. I decided I'd check out the synthetic again on it (since I wouldn't have to spend any extra time soaking the brush), and voila, literally within 20 seconds I have a wonderfully creamy lather again and was able to get a great shave again. Confused, since I've used the boar hair brush loads and never have failed on a soap so completely (except when testing some hand soaps for fun, which also fail when using a synthetic too), I figured I would just rub it on some Arko to see if perhaps I got some crud in the brush. Nope, the Arko exploded into the typical great lather (which is unsurprising, since I'm pretty sure you could lather Arko with a brick, but I digress).

So next I will test this Palmira with a badger and see how that fares, but it's interesting to me that the same soap can have completely different outcomes depending on the brush I use (and two brushes that I use all the time, it's not some new brush I've never used before). Now the question is, do you have any soaps that will lather with one type of brush but completely fail with another? Let me know, I'd love to hear your experiences!

 

[guitarslinger]

Interesting. I have some Palmira I was planning on trying this weekend. I was going to use a badger brush.

My first thought is some other soap residue in the boar brush might be reacting with the Palmira? Kind of like putting face oil on your overfoamed beer?

 

[naughtilus]

Did you try face lathering and using the cube like a stick rubbed directly on the face?

 

[huck1995]

Interesting. I have some Palmira I was planning on trying this weekend. I was going to use a badger brush.

My first thought is some other soap residue in the boar brush might be reacting with the Palmira? Kind of like putting face oil on your overfoamed beer?

That's what I thought too, though I had cleaned it relatively recently. However, considering how easily the Arko lathered up with the boar after rinsing out the remnants of the poor Palmira lather indicates to me that it's probably unlikely. I'll test the boar again tomorrow with Proraso red soap to see how that does, then I'll try out the Palmira and badger on Sunday.

 

[huck1995]

Did you try face lathering and using the cube like a stick rubbed directly on the face?

That's a good question. I did both actually. When I did it with the synthetic, I just lathered right off the cube, then rubbed the excess off the cube onto my face, and that worked great. Tried the same thing with the boar, to no avail. Then I tried to use it as a stick, rubbing it everywhere, still no dice. Then I tried lathering the everloving crap out of it directly on the cube, and still, while it seemed like it was loading a lot of soap, the lather itself was awful in every method. When I switched back to the synthetic again, I just went right off the cube and it was a perfect lather within 20 seconds or so.

 

[naughtilus]

Weird. What boar brush did you use BTW?

 

[guitarslinger]

Shoot, I have the Palmira sitting here in my office. I'm going to give it a go with my office badger test brush

 

[huck1995]

Weird. What boar brush did you use BTW?

It was the Proraso branded Omega boar brush, well broken in (it was my first brush as a matter of fact).

Shoot, I have the Palmira sitting here in my office. I'm going to give it a go with my office badger test brush

Hopefully it works out for you like it did for me with the synthetic rather than the boar! It really was a fantastic lather with the synthetic, so creamy and slick.

 

[naughtilus]

It was the Proraso branded Omega boar brush, well broken in (it was my first brush as a matter of fact).

That brush should lather it like mad. Perhaps having the cube presed in a tub would help.

 

[huck1995]

That brush should lather it like mad. Perhaps having the cube presed in a tub would help.

You'd think so! Never had an issue with it before. But alas, I do think that this soap is just the kryptonite for this brush, since it worked so easily with the synthetic and not at all with my trusty Proraso boar. I did have the cube in a kuksa when lathering off the cube, as I do with all solid soaps. Really, I have no idea what the issue is, but at least I know to use the synthetic with the cube in the future (unless the badger also works well).

 

[guitarslinger]

Hey,

So, trial #1 complete. Took more work than any other soft soap I've ever used to result in a fairly cruddy, airy lather. I'm not going to shave with this.

 

[huck1995]

Hey,

So, trial #1 complete. Took more work than any other soft soap I've ever used to result in a fairly cruddy, airy lather. I'm not going to shave with this.

Almost identical to the lather I got with the boar. Maybe a smidge more dense, but really that's basically what I got. If you've got a synthetic, you should try it with that, really it was night and day. I honestly didn't load for more than 20 seconds with it and had a fantastic lather. Such a weird soap.

 

[Boghopper]

Shoot, I have the Palmira sitting here in my office. I'm going to give it a go with my office badger test brush

That is serious commitment to have an office test brush!

 

[naughtilus]

That is serious commitment to have an office test brush!

Funny how I didn't think of it as something weird at all. Many of us are too far gone.

 

[guitarslinger]

That is serious commitment to have an office test brush!

There are only so many days in life to shave with so many soaps to try. This is a quick way to find out which soaps will not be used for a real shave. I don't want to suffer through terrible stuff. It's also invaluable for finding out soaps to which I'm allergic before I end up painted into a corner at 7:15am stuck in the shower with my face burning off. I've avoided disaster enough times to make this worth it.

 

[Macfrommichigan]

Try distilled water with the boar.

 

[rockviper]

My current soap being 3017'd, Shaving Yeti's Mamacita on the Rocks, is in the boat. Boar, 2 badgers, horse ... didn't matter. What looks good while building lather quickly dissipates and the 2nd pass's lather is almost non-existent. Loading like crazy for pass-1 didn't change up this behaviour.

Switched to my Chubby 2 synth and none of these issues seem to exist. A very nice, stable, creamy lather without much effort at all.

Strange that a soap made for shaving should behave this way.

 

[huck1995]

This soap is so weird, I used the badger on it today, and again (like with the synthetic), I got a fantastically creamy and slick lather in literally no time at all. Worked just as well as the synthetic did. For whatever reason, the only brush that DOESN'T work with it is the boar.

Try distilled water with the boar.

Not worth the extra effort, the soap works fantastic with the other brushes I tried, and the boar works with all my other soaps, so instead of going out of my way to try to find distilled water somewhere, I will just try to remember to not use the boar on this particular soap.

 

[BigJ]

This soap is so weird, I used the badger on it today, and again (like with the synthetic), I got a fantastically creamy and slick lather in literally no time at all. Worked just as well as the synthetic did. For whatever reason, the only brush that DOESN'T work with it is the boar.


Not worth the extra effort, the soap works fantastic with the other brushes I tried, and the boar works with all my other soaps, so instead of going out of my way to try to find distilled water somewhere, I will just try to remember to not use the boar on this particular soap.

Weird!!

 

[cryhavoc]

That sounds very strange, I've never had a soap or cream that worked with a certain type of brush hair and not with another.