Ok so here is the deal and I am reaching out kind of desperately as I really want to like and use this soap. I recently bought a few different "higher" grade soaps to try and be able to mix things up instead of always using my TOBS,AL,Prosaro creams etc. So I bought Pre de Provence, D.R. Harris Arlington, Prosaro soap (btw it looks like cream in a plastic container), Mitchells wool fat, Kiehl's, TOBS sandal wood , mama bears leather, and some more VDH deluxe. Now here is the situation I also bought a new boar brush actually 2 but one has not arrived yet the one in question is a Semogue 1305. I posted another thread on which I should try first and MWF came in first on the poll but I went with the Arlington...... OMG is this just another Williams mug soap disaster soap ? I cannot get this to make a stable lather no matter what I do !!!! I have used soap before and I know all formulations are different but I've tried everything from soaking the puck to ringing the brush, leave the brush wet , get a thick matte and try to lather to a wet face adding only water to my face, I even tried over watering in the bowl no matter what I do it either dries to a dust on my face or just disappears period. I was then thinking it must be the new 1305 and not the soap so I went on a crazy ride tonight and broke out every soap I bought !!!! the brush makes amazing lather perfect slickness perfect cushioning etc. with ALL the other soaps even the MWF !!! no problems what so ever I took over an hour just trying every single soap previously mentioned with the Semogue and zero problems except with the D.R. Harris Arlington what gives what am I missing ? I use the same process for all the other soaps which is soak the brush..... wet the puck .... pour excess soapy water into the bowl ring out the brush swirl brush for about 20 times in the soap and away I go and I turn for 200 + strokes and all but the DRH Arlington responded fine. Is this a temperamental soap ? Please help me I really want to use and like this soap. Just another tid bit when I first got the Arlington I did a test lather that did go well but after that one test lather it's been down hill ever since and of course of all the soaps that one was the most expensive. figures.
Someone please help .what am I doing wrong ?
- Thread starter Aschecte
- Start date
Does it look like you are loading enough soap onto your brush or not getting any?
some pics of what you are seeing would be helpful.
I used Arlington today and it was just fine. First time I bowl lathered with it as I usually face lather but wanted to switch up today as this week is D.R. Harris soap for the item of the week and I only have Arlington in the bowl and Arlington shave stick so thought to do a bowl lather today. Worked just fine. Liked more water than most of the products I have used but I made more than enough lather for 4 full passes and plenty left over for a full 5th and a palm full for touch up.
some pics of what you are seeing would be helpful.
I used Arlington today and it was just fine. First time I bowl lathered with it as I usually face lather but wanted to switch up today as this week is D.R. Harris soap for the item of the week and I only have Arlington in the bowl and Arlington shave stick so thought to do a bowl lather today. Worked just fine. Liked more water than most of the products I have used but I made more than enough lather for 4 full passes and plenty left over for a full 5th and a palm full for touch up.
- Thread starter
- #3
It's a bit late for me to take pics but I will tomorrow ..... I wont be shaving but I will go through the motions heck I don't know if B&B has this option but I'll even post a video f me doing everything step by step maybe that's even better but by bare minimum I'll take lots of photos....... to answer your question yes the brush was loaded great to the point that lather was all over the sides of the bowl the soap came in the one thing I did notice which seemed odd though is it only seemed to be on the brushes tips and no matter what I did including pumping the soap or lather would not migrate towards the knot.
- Thread starter
- #4
BTW I also tried face lathering at first that did work a bit better than bowl lathering but still way to thin with almost no water. and when I added a drop I counted 3 drops of water the entire lather disappeared.
You can create an account at youtube, upload your video there and use the insert video icon to put the video within the post.
- Thread starter
- #6
Will do I have a youtube account.
How hard is your water, regardless with a little elbow grease with the brush in the shave bowl you should be able to get a lot of lather, look to work that brush about 100 times in the shave bowl before applying.
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- #8
My water is not hard at all but really not soft either I already thought of that and kind of discredited that one as every other soap exploded with lather and the Arlington just smeared around and if I added as little as 3 dops of water and then wet my face and tried to apply it will just disappear like casper the ghost. I also go 60 times in each direction Cw,CCW and I do this 2 time so that is 240 strokes.
- Thread starter
- #9
This is why I am so frustrated and confused
May not be your problem, but why are you pouring soapy water into your lather bowl? I've never heard of doing this.
I think this is your problem.
Try:
Wet the brush under running water for 15-30 seconds.
Shake brush 2-3 times to remove excess water.
Swirl brush on soap for at least 60 seconds.
Lather on face.
HTH.
Thanks,
Mike
Try:
Wet the brush under running water for 15-30 seconds.
Shake brush 2-3 times to remove excess water.
Swirl brush on soap for at least 60 seconds.
Lather on face.
HTH.
Thanks,
Mike
You have good taste in soaps, sir. Just keep trying and experimenting with loading/water ratio, and you'll be fine. Load your brush like you hate it, then dip the tips and swirl, swirl, swirl.
- Thread starter
- #13
I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I got it off the WIKI here and B&B or from Mantic it's one of the 2. I t works great I do that for all the soaps and they came out perfect minus the Arlington. btw I'm not talking about filling the bowl with soapy water its the equivalent of maybe a 1/8 of a teaspoon if that it's like a few drops of soapy water that was collected from the wetted puck. Actually now that I'm typing this out it's definitlhy from the WIKI here on B&B they say to soak your brush and puck then pour a little bit of the soapy water into the bowl. Either which way I've tried it with the soapy water method and without the soapy water results are still exacly the same. here's a link to said WIKI http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/21136 note where it says to put the water that has soaked the puck.
- Thread starter
- #14
I will try this again but have done exactly this method more than once without good results..... I just am really starting to believe that it must be something to do with my facial chemistry and the soap not working together. literally I have no problems with any other soap except Arlington and WMS which does exactly the same thing.
- Thread starter
- #15
I'm not sure I have good tastes more like a bad addiction to wet shaving : ) !!! I will get this one down #1 I am determined to get it even if I need to take the day off from work I will get this done like it's my job !!!
Have you tried soaking the soap? Let some water soften the soap surface and then try to load the brush.
You aren't loading enough. It's a common problem. In addition to this thread you might want to look at other threads where people had problems lathering DRH. I can think of at least one off the top of my head and if I run across it I'll link as the other discussions may offer useful tips and advice.
As mentioned above, pics would help -- especially pics of the loaded brush before you start adding water and building lather. Letting some water sit on top of the puck may help with loading. With a boar your brush will probably need to be a bit more wet than the "(relatively) dry brush" approach recommended for badgers.
There's your problem. You can't treat all soaps identically...
..especially when loading. Don't rely on time or number of swirls. You have to learn to identify a properly loaded brush by look, feel & sound. Loading times/swirls can vary. If you rely on X swirls for all soaps you'll get varying results depending on the soap. If you memorize a recipe it's only good for the one soap. If you can tell when your brush is properly loaded then you'll have no problems lathering any soap out there. That is, except for the soaps that are truly poor shavings soaps. The Burt's Bee's soap I was using before I found B&B was definitely one of those soaps.
I personally find face lathering helpful for all soaps.
This thread (linked in the sticky at the top of this subforum) was the main resource I used when I was learning to lather soaps.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/21136-How-to-make-great-lather-from-a-soap-Tutorial
No, you just need some more practice with it. It's a very consistent performer in my experience and was actually in my top 3 until I pared that list down to the top 1.
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- Thread starter
- #18
Ok I have a update and a positive one though I'm not going to get over excited just yet...... I read read that wiki I linked above. I soaked my puck with even more water than recommended then added the entire amount of water to my lather bowl keep in mind this is not straight water it is a soapy gunky type consistency of mixed water and soap. I then loaded my brush as normal TAKESHI trust me I am not under loading my brush. then went to work and it whipped up a great stable lather I went for the full 3 even though I didn't need it just cause' I was so happy I finally made the lather stable. So my take is that it was a water issue but in the puck soaking not in the additions as I added no water besides what came from the puck. I'll still take a video later today of my process just to show you guys and gals how I do it.
Your problem may not be the soap but the brush. Boar brushes need several (at least 5-10) complete wet-dry cycles to break in and make usable lather. If the tips of your 1305 are not split yet, that's the problem.
