Unable to load my brush sufficiently after the text wore of my C&E Sandalwood.

[JDTTO]

I have been using C&E Sandalwood for a few weeks. It was instant love, easy to load the brush once and get 3 comfortable passes out of it after an easy facelather.

After a week, I could not even get a second pass out of it and I can't figure out what the issue is. The only thing that seems to have changed is the text and logo being worn of. Could the texture of the text have helped loadinig the brush?

Probably a silly question and I can't really imagine it's a real factor but I am a bit lost with this soap at the moment.

 

[ouch]

All of the soap is actually in the logo. The rest is just filler.

 

[morganjg]

Did you try putting a bit of warm water on it for a few minutes before you lather? I find with Nomad that it seems to get the job done.

 

[JDTTO]

Did you try putting a bit of warm water on it for a few minutes before you lather? I find with Nomad that it seems to get the job done.

Yes, everytime.

about 1mm of hot water on the soap before showering.
After showering, allow a bit of water to fall out of the brush and start swirling on the soap for about a minute and then on the face.

 

[mhdena]

No the logo isn't the problem, but if it makes you feel better take an object and make another one.

AOS & Harris pucks lather instantly with a damp brush on a dry puck, try yours this way, can't hurt. (no soaking the puck) imo.

 

[fccexpert]

More water, either on the brush or on the soap (which does not matter). The text and logo probably helped by trapping water.

 

[MoeTrain]

Can always take a wire brush or some sort of rasp or zester and shave some texture back into the top of the puck.

 

[JDTTO]

I just carved it up, it now looks like a hamburger.

Will see how it lathers tomorrow morning.

 

[Bobtrumpet]

I just carved it up, it now looks like a hamburger.

Grating does seem to help some soaps.

I had the same experience with C&E Sienna soap. I think the constant application of hard water caused it to develop a "skin" of sorts; the surface feel was noticeably different compared to when it was new. I wound up using mine in the shower, but I never tried either skimming off a thin layer, or grating it into a different container.

 

[ThePatrician]

+1 to more water. I'm a bowl latherer, and putting more water hot water on the top of the puck helps A LOT. I picked up a small inexpensive electric kettle and use that water on top of all my pucks except MWF. The only way loading my brushes could be easier is if they did it themselves. If grating the puck doesn't work try using a bit more water, like 3 or maybe even 4 millimeters.

 

[tempusfugit]

Yes, everytime.

about 1mm of hot water on the soap before showering.
After showering, allow a bit of water to fall out of the brush and start swirling on the soap for about a minute and then on the face.

With the rock hard water that comes out of my tap, I need to swirl my brush for at least two minutes and usually longer to load a workable amount of soap. Try swirling for 30 seconds, then add a few drops of water to the puck, swirl for another 30 seconds, add a few more drops...and repeat this for as long as it takes to work up a creamy lather.

 

[Go West Young Man]

You need to clean your brush, it's probably just soap buildup preventing water from being fully absorbed.

 

[JDTTO]

Tried it this moring. The carving seems to have worked. I got quite a generous amount of creamy lather from it which allowed 3 passes.

It may well have been a combination of factors mentioded above.

The carving is about 5mm deep so it had a lot of surface which the water could soak into. If the problem is hard water then I will be screwed even in the near future as I exposed more surface to the water but I do not think the water in my city counts as really hard.