Sorry guys and gal, but I've not had much luck with this soap. And it's not for lack of trying. Could someone who's used this soap successfully please offer some advice to this confused puckwit?
It arrived yesterday from the very friendly Maggi Dearmer. First impressions: attractive looking aquamarine-coloured 'round' (much more opaque than translucent); lovely fresh scent; a nice big hunk of soap. I couldn't wait for my evening shave.
Now I should probably point out that I'm a newcomer to soaps - Palmolive (stick) and Tabac are the only ones I've tried so far. I've no doubt that my lathering technique is far from perfect, but I have had good results from the above soaps, particularly the rather odd-smelling Tabac
.
I was quite confident I'd soon be whipping up torrents of lather from this beauty (following Antdad's lather tutorial). But it wasn't to be. It took quite a while to charge my damp Men-U boar bristle brush, after which I began bowl lathering steadily...then furiously. In all fairness, I did end up with an average-looking lather after some time, but it looked and felt very 'airy'. I added more soap, and a touch more water, whipped it up some more and arrived at a 'useable' lather. I can't say it afforded much cushion, but it did contribute to a trouble-free shave; so in that respect it did its job.
Having spoken to Maggi over the phone, and read some great reviews, I really wanted this great-smelling soap to succeed. So, an hour after shaving and reading-up on technique, I went to lather it again, but using a wetter brush this time. Again, the results weren't too great. Tried to lather up the round again today with a drier (but still damp) brush and achieved pretty much the same results as my first attempt. Gutted.