Real Shave Co. cream troubles

chrisbell

chrisbell

Messages
6,299
Location
Norfolk, England
Does anyone here use Real Shave Co. moisturising cream regularly? If so, do you have hard water where you are? I ask because I'm getting a bit of a mental block about the stuff. I use a pure badger brush and normally bowl-lather. This was the cream I started with in October last year when I started DE shaving. :) As I got more experience under my belt, my lathering technique improved and, now, when I use TOBS cream, I can acheive a repeatable high standard of lather that combines thickness for cushion with plenty of "slip" to get the blade gliding nicely.

However over the last month or so, when I use the RSC cream, I find that the resultant lather seems sticky. It actually slows down the razor as I pass it across my face, it it seems to gum things up. I realised a few days ago that I had got into the habit of making my lather a touch too dry, so tried adding a touch more water to my TOBS cream when I shaved earlier this week. This really brought out the best qualities of the cream and made the shave a real pleasure. However, today I followed the same procedure with the RSC cream, and although the lather looked and sounded wetter and less claggy in the bowl, as I worked it onto my face, it seemed sticky again, and, when I started my first pass, it felt the same as it had done previously.

Has anyone got any ideas?
 
Hmm, yes, could well be. It just seems to stick to my face - sometimes, going XTG, when the weight of the razor isn't fully bearing down on the face, the blade doesn't fully cut through the lather - it leaves a thin layer of it the skin, and doesn't cut properly - so when I rinse my face between passes, if I brush my hand across my cheeks in the direction I've just shaved, I can still feel roughness. :roll: It seems that the only way to prevent this is to bear down slightly on the razor, which goes against every principle of DE shaving.
 
I strongly suspect that the ordinary RSC cream is virtually identical to products from the three Ts. In the case of the double concentrated version, it's definitely a matter of adding more water (I've found that stuff invaluable for making superlather when the water quality is poor). Your best plan would be to make up a few test batches to find out just how much water you can get into it before it starts to break down - there will be an optimum consistency for you.
 
Arrowhead said:
I strongly suspect that the ordinary RSC cream is virtually identical to products from the three Ts. In the case of the double concentrated version, it's definitely a matter of adding more water (I've found that stuff invaluable for making superlather when the water quality is poor). Your best plan would be to make up a few test batches to find out just how much water you can get into it before it starts to break down - there will be an optimum consistency for you.
Click to expand...

Cheers Arrowhead - is the double concentrated version labelled as such?
 
To add an update - having tried the suggestion of experimental latherings without actually shaving, it seems that, being double concentrated, it takes sustantially more water to acheive the lubrication I was missing. In addition, I have found a new way of determining the perfect consistency - before, when I lifted the brush from the bowl, I was seeing short, stubby peaks which didn't move when I shook the brush. This cream needs enough water adding to get longer peaks that wobble when shaken and sometimes even fold over on each other, a bit like soft ice cream from an ice cream van. The lather still feels cushioned, but doesn't feel tacky or sticky to the touch and seems lighter, yet it's not collapsing in the bowl, and, on squeezing the brush out (as you might for a final pass or touch-ups), the lather from the centre of the brush isn't wet or bubbly, proving that all the water from the brush has been absorbed by the lather without making it runny. :shave :cool:

Thanks gents! :D
 
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