Lathering - circular or painting.

[Fido]

Some suppliers advise you to always lather with a painting motion.

Some people prefer to have a good exfoliating lather by using vigorous circular motions before finishing off with a painting motion.

What you are able to do depends on your brush. Attempting to do circular motions with a soft or floppy brush isn't easy. Such brushes are great however if you just do the painting method. If your brush has a good backbone, both lathering techniques are possible.

What lathering method do you prefer to be able to do with your brush? What lessons have you picked up which may help others when choosing and using a brush?

Sounds a bit like a GCSE question. Sorry about that.

 

[fozz77]

If I have lathered up in a bowl, I apply it to my face with painting strokes. - The lather is already made.

If I load the brush with cream or soap or apply the soap directly to the face with a stick, I use a circular motion to create the lather on my face.

I follow the same regime whether i use a badger or a boar brush.

 

[hunnymonster]

I face lather and it's a good brush mashing on the fizzer for me, circular strokes to get the lather right and a few paints to distribute it evenly.

 

[joe mcclaine]

...

 

[Rev-O]

+1.

Circles aearate and foamify; paint strokes, er, paint it on.

Henk might know the science of this - which is probably counter-intuitive so we're all wrong!!

 

[antdad]

A mixture but no set rule as it very much depends on the size and type of brush.

For the second and third passes I'm just painting it on, especially if I'm not wanting to generate more lather.

 

[Smell The Glove]

Swirly for the 1st pass. Painting the 2nd pass.

 

[IanM]

You can't paint if you face lather, because it doesn't work.

I face lather, so I think you can probably guess which I do.

Ian

 

[henkverhaar]

I thinkI you need a swirling motion to create lather -- whipping up lather with a brush is similar to whipping cream, or egg whites, with a whisk. So what happens is that you move something through a surface-active mixture (cream, egg whites, soap solution) with enough speed to create a vacuum in the wake of the moving object that gets filled with air. Because of the fineness of the hairs, the air bubbles introduced in soap lather are extremely small, creating a nice creamy lather. A linear motion, especially a painting motion, where the brush does not really move 'through' the lather would not be effective enough.

So to create the lather you need to swirl, either in a bowl, after which you can just paint it on (which is what I do), or on the face, when face-lathering.

Stated differently, you can only paint if you already have a lather.

 

[Audiolab]

The same, if it is cream and I am making lather in a bowl it's swirl in the bowl then paint on face. Face lathering is swirl to get the brush loaded then swirl on the face to make the lather and lastly paint to distribute it.

Is there any other way?, I mean would any sane man use their fingers to put lather on thier face? :lol:

 

[antdad]

I can assure you it is possible to generate lather using a "painting" stroke only, as the OP suggests it does just depend on the brush.

I do use a mixture of both especially with a larger brush. If you are a dedicated face latherer with a shortish lofted brush what else can you do but twirl? Same goes for bowl users, you have little choice really.

The hair is generally too short or dense to be effective when using painting strokes but it can with longer lofted brushes, these types of brushes are just not in vogue at the moment.

 

[JaseB]

I use a circular motion to face lather and then finish up with a couple of painting strokes to even out the lather.