weird Kiss My Face lather

[peacefrog]

Until tonight, I'd not used anything other than Proraso in my wetshaving exploits. But today at the grocery store I decided to pick up some Kiss My Face Moisture Shave with the Vanilla Earth scent. (The only other choice was Peaches & Cream.) It lathered up beautifully in my bowl; it just seemed to explode in thick lather. But on my face, it seemed to vanish, to evaporate right in front of me. After two passes, there was barely enough lather on my brush or in bowl for a third pass. If I had wanted to do a fourth pass I would have had to squeeze some more out of the tube. It just evaporated! So, what happened? Too much or too little water?

I should add that, despited the vanishing lather, it provided good results with little irritation (probably less than I've yet achieved) and no nicks at all.

 

[MasonM]

Until tonight, I'd not used anything other than Proraso in my wetshaving exploits. But today at the grocery store I decided to pick up some Kiss My Face Moisture Shave with the Vanilla Earth scent. (The only other choice was Peaches & Cream.) It lathered up beautifully in my bowl; it just seemed to explode in thick lather. But on my face, it seemed to vanish, to evaporate right in front of me. After two passes, there was barely enough lather on my brush or in bowl for a third pass. If I had wanted to do a fourth pass I would have had to squeeze some more out of the tube. It just evaporated! So, what happened? Too much or too little water?

I should add that, despited the vanishing lather, it provided good results with little irritation (probably less than I've yet achieved) and no nicks at all.

Vanilla sounds good to me. It sounds to me, based on my limited experience, that it was too much water.

 

[htownmmm]

Too much wa-wa.


Marty

 

[Duhglas]

I've been using the same stuff lately and I find the exact same problem. I've been experimenting with the amount of water but it still seems to happen, it seems like it's just the way the product is. I usually just use a little more at the start and with the final pass I try to squeeze out as much of the lather from the brush as I can, and although it's not that much, and it ain't the best lather it does get the job done for me.

Dug

 

[NMMB]

I use KMF from time to time and find that it has a high cream:water ratio (i.e. needs lots of cream) as compared with other creams (such as T&H, Taylors, AOS, etc) - fortunately, KMF is in the right price range where I don't mind using a little more cream to whip up a nice lather.

 

[yomuppet]

In the interest of consistency, I have held myself to KMF for the past 5 shaves, and I have found that to get the best lather consistency I need to use the standard (ymmv) amount of cream, with much less water. I just give the brush a good shake, then add water 4 drops or so at a time as necessary while whipping. My preferred lather consistency is nice and thick, I can't stand foam or large bubbles, which is easy to do with KMF. No complaints with the shave once the proper consistency is achieved.

J

 

[Duggo]

I've been using it for the better part of 3 weeks. Lately, every lather looks better than the last....I get nice peaks and everything in the bowl. But when I apply it to my beard area...what gives??? It doesn't look anything like the photos here on B&B....It doesn't look like dishwater either...I think it's just cheap stuff. I bet I could get some really nice lather from the 3 T's....

I feel for ya. I don't get it.

Duggo.

 

[peacefrog]

I tried it again tonight, this time vigorously shaking out my brush several times and pouring all the water out of my bowl before putting any cream in my bowl. I got pretty much the same results as before. The lather looks good, but isn't really firm and just doesn't seem to last long.

One thing stand out though, and that's the consistency of the cream. Proraso is the consistency of toothpaste. This Kiss My Face stuff is much more watery; it's soupy. Does that sound right or could I have a funky tube?

 

[yomuppet]

I tried it again tonight, this time vigorously shaking out my brush several times and pouring all the water out of my bowl before putting any cream in my bowl. I got pretty much the same results as before. The lather looks good, but isn't really firm and just doesn't seem to last long.

One thing stand out though, and that's the consistency of the cream. Proraso is the consistency of toothpaste. This Kiss My Face stuff is much more watery; it's soupy. Does that sound right or could I have a funky tube?

Sounds right to me, it was a little hard to work with for me at first as well, but if it's too much trouble to work out the proper consistency then KMF may just not be the cream for you. Then again the stuff is cheap enough that you can practice all day with the tube you have and see if you can make it do what you want. If not, no loss, just don't buy it again

J

 

[kozulich]

It performs well for me. I treat it just the same as proraso, except I use a little more KMF.

 

[yomuppet]

I wanted to post pictures of tonight's KMF (Virgin Forest) lather, just so you might have an idea of what to be striving for with KMF. This is my ideal KMF lather, which is very thick, but still slick (if that makes sense). I used between a nickel and quarter's worth of cream, shook out half the water from the brush, then added maybe 10-12 drops of water during the mixing. Do keep in mind that I'm using an extremely small brush. Click for larger image.

J

 

[vespergo]

Hmmm, I'm crazy about KMF, it's close to the top as far as the creams that I've got. I just use one pump and have plenty of lather for 3 passes with my 2234 vulfix. I'd say i've used it 15 or so times in the past few weeks. I'm amazed that people use 6 or more pumps with this stuff. Keep trying with it you'll get the hang of it.

 

[peacefrog]

Nah, I've given up on it. I've tried varying amounts of water all the way down to no water. It still just seems to evaporate, except the no water version. In fact, that worked the best...just smeared it on my face and spread it around with my brush. I think I'll keep it for use a brushless when traveling, but I doubt I'll buy any more.

 

[Leisureguy]

It MIGHT be that you've not completely worked into the lather the water at the base of the brush. Try pumping the brush a bit as you work the lather to make sure that all the water in the brush is worked into the lather.

 

[Quagmire]

 

[candt]

I recently purchased some Kiss My Face shaving cream at the local grocery store for $6.19. Its the new formula, and the scent is lavender shea. I have used it twice now, and both times it has been a really thin lather. This last time I used it, it almost seemed like it was disappearing when I applied it to my face, and I almost ran out of lather by the end of the shave. Im not sure what happened there. Any ideas on what I might be doing wrong? I have been using two pumps, maybe Im not using enough product?

 

[Angry__Panda]

Use more cream?

Also I have seen some threads about hard water not helping KMF...You might try to get one of those dollar gallons of distilled water from your local grocery store and either heat it or try to lather with it? You might need more or less water? Can you take some pictures of the lather you get?

 

[kf4tqj]

I've got some KMF Lime. I can't remember if I bought it from Amazon or from West Coast Shaving but I love the stuff. Count yourself lucky though that you live in an area where you can get things like that locally. I can get cakes of VDH or tubes of Neutragina at WalMart but that's about it for local other than canned goop.
You haven't mentioned if you've had similar problems with other products. If so, it might be your water. If you can get a nice lather with soaps though I'd nix that idea and look more at technique. More or less water might be the cure. Just for kicks, try running some water through a coffee pot with a filter and then try it. Coffee is optional and it should remove some of the minerals and give you something nice and hot to work with. If you're going to try bottled water you can just heat it up in the microwave.
All The Best,
Woody

 

[maxman]

I've got some KMF Lime. I can't remember if I bought it from Amazon or from West Coast Shaving but I love the stuff. Count yourself lucky though that you live in an area where you can get things like that locally. I can get cakes of VDH or tubes of Neutragina at WalMart but that's about it for local other than canned goop.
You haven't mentioned if you've had similar problems with other products. If so, it might be your water. If you can get a nice lather with soaps though I'd nix that idea and look more at technique. More or less water might be the cure. Just for kicks, try running some water through a coffee pot with a filter and then try it. Coffee is optional and it should remove some of the minerals and give you something nice and hot to work with. If you're going to try bottled water you can just heat it up in the microwave.
All The Best,
Woody

Do you have any health food stores around that might carry it? That's where I found it.

 

[techdog]

Don't be shy using more product, you get a ton of in in that pump bottle, enough to last you at least 6 months of daily shaves. I do one full pump for my first pass and half pump for my second pass, no additional pump for touch-ups.