glidiest lathers

[stillshunter]

An interesting weighting towards glide in straight shaver soaps seems to be emerging...

Mate my lather preferences have changed since moving exclusively to straight shaving. Just wondering how you found the Stirling worked with straights?

Yes @stillshunter, my preferences have changed a bit too. I find a slightly thinner and wetter lather works best for me. All of my favourite soaps still remain favourites, but I'm finding glide more important than cushion with straights and kamisoris, so I mix my lather to be wetter than for DE shaving. The Stirling soaps work fine for me when I prepare the lather this way.

I'd be very interested in what some of our other straight shaving members have to say on this subject, so please chime in guys...

Glide is king!

As I recall this property was less of a priority when a DE orbited Planet Face (not saying it wasn't considered, just maybe not considered as highly above other properties).

Anywho, be keen to know what folks would rate the soap/cream with the most glide?

 

[pyrokov]

Glide is definitely significantly more important to me than cushion, even with a DE. I find overly-dense lathers to be a bad quality for me. I'd recently started using some XXX (thanks to @MrT ) and the lather feels amazingly fluffy on the skin.
As for slippery lathers, I'm sure Stirling and Shaver Heaven will get good mentions, and probably every other soap that can accept lots of water.

 

[alfredus]

I never discuss glide so much, because it is a given - something like food that doesn't satiate. Sure it might be of interest once in a leap year, when you do a Heston food experience, but at the end of the day you don't want to stand up hungry from a meal - same goes for lather...

Having sad that - I can only repeat myself - my personal holy trinity of lather has to excel in glide, cushion and post-shave - Mystic Waters, Mike's and Stirling

Or: if it doesn't fly around, it it too dense

 

[filobiblic]

Two soaps not mentioned enough in this category:
- Saponificio Varesino
- Antiga Barbearia de Bairro

 

[bald as]

For me with a straight the only - only thing that matters is glide. Post shave - use some oil. Sorry but this mumbo jumbo about post shave leaves me wondering if it is a shave or a ladies spa Cushion is from my limited experience actually a draw back. I don't want a big boofy lather under my nose or over my chin getting in the way of the blade and muddying the waters as to where the blade and skin meet. Correct glide should hopefully give the blade adequate cushion across the skin.

Qualifier: I'm probably completely wrong. Again YMMV - So for me a pretty wet slippery lather is the number one priority. It can actually look quite pathetic as long as it helps the blade "glide".

I'm trying to make for my own use a soap for straight razor shaving that has those aspects. I have found my skin type [whimpy] is pretty allergic to Oleic, Myristic and Lauric acids which is a bit of a bummer as they are the major fatty acids in Coconut oil, Tallow, Olive oil, Almond oil, Macadamia Oil, Avocado Oil and Shea butter. To name just a few. So my search is for a different oil to saponify for a shaving soap.


Steve

 

[alfredus]

Pork fat?

 

[bald as]

@alfredus - Surprisingly it is actually higher in Oleic acid than Beef tallow.

 

[pyrokov]

Pork fat?

Yeah I was just going to say, isn't that a gross way of saying~

Tallow

?

 

[bald as]

Lard and Tallow are similar in what they contribute to a shaving soap. They aren't the same just similar.

Stearic 50%
Lard 25%
and Coconut 25%

is a good general shaving soap.

Add a rasher of Bacon for post shave.

 

[pyrokov]

Lard and Tallow are similar in what they contribute to a shaving soap. They aren't the same just similar.

Stearic 50%
Lard 25%
and Coconut 25%

is a good general shaving soap.

Add a rasher of Bacon for post shave.

Soaps actually use Lard? what's the name they hide it under in their ingredients list?

 

[bald as]

I don't know about a commercial soap but the recipe I gave above with 60% KOH and 40% NaOH will make a very good shaving soap. I'm sure someone somewhere sells a Lard base shaving soap.

Lard, Pig Tallow (Manteca) is the name used in Soap Calc. I think Tallow is a general classification for rendered animal fat.

 

[khun_diddy]

Wickhams is a lard soap.

Some of the Bald Diddys and my ones are as slick as I've come across. That is the raison d'être for those soaps.

When I bust out the 60 & 70% olive oil soaps early next year I reckon they will be very slippery indeed.

 

[alfredus]

@alfredus - Surprisingly it is actually higher in Oleic acid than Beef tallow.

I am hungry

 

[3pass]

Tiki would be the glidiest in my collection. Saponificio a not too distant second.

 

[stillshunter]

Tiki would be the glidiest in my collection. Saponificio a not too distant second.

Yeah I'm finding the SV nice and slidey...