So you've been lathering with creams and now you want to try some soap or you've got a soap puck and you're having trouble with it.
The idea is to get you into a consistent routine so you can get great lather time after time.
As you can see the brush is a cheap boar from WS and the bowl is glass without any surface texture (not recommended). Fill your sink with hot water leaving the brush and bowl to soak and add a tsp of water to sit on top of the puck to soften it. (>2 mins or go shower)
In time you'll fiqure out what works best for your particular brush and soap but initially at least SQUEEZE hard and give two good SHAKES before soap loading. Then really load that brush, I spent a good 30 - 45 sec's doing this. If you're getting airy suds spilling from the puck at this point I would say your brush has too much water in it to begin with (more squeezing or shaking required). You can always add water later. If you are using a badger brush with softer hair bear in mind you may need to load for even longer but if in doubt overload your brush.
With a hard soap, especially triple milled you need to twirl and occasionally plunge the brush until you feel a paste forming on top of the puck, when you feel it "smearing" keep loading untill the hairs clump together with soap.
I'm lathering in a bowl for the sake of the demo but I would recommend this method to start. You do get ultimate control.
Some like to pour the water sitting on top of the puck into the container, I didn't here but agitate for 30 sec's or so.
I literally added a few drops of warm water by dipping my fingers and letting them drip in the bowl.
Agitated vigorously for 30 sec
A few more drops and more agitation. Less visible air bubbles and you should be able to feel the lather become thicker.
Okay almost there. Thick but not slick.(<2 mins)
At this point you would transfer to your'e chops and work the lather more on face or in bowl.
For the demo I am going to lather on the hand for the final phase and I recommend you try this for yourself and you really get to feel the transformation from just thick to thick and slick. Work it for a while on the hand and you'll see.
As the lather "tightens" it becomes denser and and it visibly changes texture.
I would describe the lather as a cross between thick double cream and hand cream with a tacky texture, rub the lather between your finger tips to get a feel of the lather's "slipperiness", this is a good indication of the lubrication that a soap/lather can provide.
I brushed the ceramic wall so you can see the composition of the lather.
Thick and slick with minimum of visible air bubbles and in about 2 mins or so.
There are many factors that affect the quality of lather but soaps can be much fussier than creams, spending 20 minutes practicing your technique will certainly save you time in the long run. You will also find that as you become more accustomed with the characteristics of your brush and soap you will naturally be able to produce the lather you desire in much less time.
Hope this helps.
It is however an extremely dense triple milled soap.
