A thin-ish wet layer is best for me. On top of that I keep the head of the razor and blade wet as possible with frequent rinses. A wet DE blade is an effective, close cutting blade.
I'm heavily influenced by this Michael Freedbreg Youtube video about a good lather. He lathered up for quite a while and got a nice thick base but that he said was "sticky" and not the best. So he sprinkled a few drops of water onto the brush and got back to face lathering. He did the sprinkling/face lathering quite a few times. Finally, he'd arrived at what he called "slick." Ready to shave.
Attempting to emulate him, I seem to go from the initial good thick "sticky" base to beyond "slick," nearly runny.
I'm not dousing the brush with water. The thick base I've built up just doesn't seem to hold.
Any suggestions for keeping the base?
That's amazing.I bet I don’t swirl my brush but 3 to 4 times on top of any puck of soap I have
That's amazing.