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The 5th Annual Williams Mug Soap 3017 Challenge!

#8 today I took Spiders suggestion and tried hand loading and palm lathering. What this technique does is clearly show how slick and creamy Williams can be, and how big a mess you can make in short order when you get exuberant with a cake of soap in your hand. The Gillette platinum blade seems to be settling in and feels like i5 may be good for substantially more shaves. I wish I had kept track of how many shaves I had on it before starting the challenge.

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Timeless Razor ALSB45 aluminum razor.
Gillette Wilkinson Sword blade.
Razorock 400 Plissoft synthetic brush.
William's Mug shaving soap.
Timeless Razor shave bowl.
Scottish Antique by Andy Hilfiger cologne.

Ninth shave of the Williams challenge.

Happy Thursday everyone
 
Forgot to take a pic this morning, but I have an interesting tidbit for you.

I contacted Combe back in 2014 with a question about the scent of modern Williams. Most people describe it as Lemon or Citronella, so I was curious what scent they were actually using. This is what they told me:

Top Note: Sharp Fresh Citrusy Lemon
Middle Note: Blend of Spices and Herbs
Bottom Note: Warm Woody Cedar

Do you smell any of those notes?
 
#9 Today, in addition to trying to discern Williams scent, I experimented with lathering in the same mug as my soap lives. I reasoned that after loading, if I agitated in the bowl above the puck without touching it, and at the same time, not flinging lather all over the place. That might be one-stop lathering. It worked, after all fashion, but my Old-Spice mug is a touch shallow to pull it off. And, no, I don’t detect the aforementioned scents. Maybe they dissipated with age? Nah!
Pinaud Citrus Musk is some pretty good stuff!

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Majorrich said:
#9 Today, in addition to trying to discern Williams scent, I experimented with lathering in the same mug as my soap lives. I reasoned that after loading, if I agitated in the bowl above the puck without touching it, and at the same time, not flinging lather all over the place. That might be one-stop lathering. It worked, after all fashion, but my Old-Spice mug is a touch shallow to pull it off. And, no, I don’t detect the aforementioned scents. Maybe they dissipated with age? Nah!
Pinaud Citrus Musk is some pretty good stuff!

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Click to expand...
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Shield titanium creakote razor.
Gillette Wilkinson Sword blade.
Razorock 400 Plissoft synthetic brush.
William's Mug shave soap.
Timeless Razor shave bowl.
Scottish Antique by Andy Hilfiger cologne.

Shave ten of the William's challenge.

Happy Friday everyone!
 
This challenge has been interesting to follow. I typically finish a puck of shave soap before moving on to something else. I get good (slick and stable) lathers from the vast majority of soaps, but I have relegated a few duds over the years to handwashing duty.

I rolled the dice and invested $1.25 in a puck of modern Williams years ago. It was my first-ever shave soap purchase. I threw caution to the wind and paired it with an Ever-Ready boar (wire?) shaving brush and a cartridge razor. It didn't take long before I gave up and went back to my trusty Norelco, so I really didn't give the Williams soap a fair shake.

It looks like you all have found the secret to creating a pretty good Williams lather. From the photos, however, it still looks a bit thin. Do you find it to be as slick and stable as you're used to getting from other soaps?
 
Spider said:
Forgot to take a pic this morning, but I have an interesting tidbit for you.

I contacted Combe back in 2014 with a question about the scent of modern Williams. Most people describe it as Lemon or Citronella, so I was curious what scent they were actually using. This is what they told me:

Top Note: Sharp Fresh Citrusy Lemon
Middle Note: Blend of Spices and Herbs
Bottom Note: Warm Woody Cedar

Do you smell any of those notes?
Click to expand...
Short answer...no. Longer answer, I suppose I get something that might be called "fresh citrusy lemon" and MAYBE some sort of "blend of spices or herbs" but the idea that the scent inlcudes ANY warm woody cedar is pure insanity.
 
wristwatchb said:
This challenge has been interesting to follow. I typically finish a puck of shave soap before moving on to something else. I get good (slick and stable) lathers from the vast majority of soaps, but I have relegated a few duds over the years to handwashing duty.

I rolled the dice and invested $1.25 in a puck of modern Williams years ago. It was my first-ever shave soap purchase. I threw caution to the wind and paired it with an Ever-Ready boar (wire?) shaving brush and a cartridge razor. It didn't take long before I gave up and went back to my trusty Norelco, so I really didn't give the Williams soap a fair shake.

It looks like you all have found the secret to creating a pretty good Williams lather. From the photos, however, it still looks a bit thin. Do you find it to be as slick and stable as you're used to getting from other soaps?
Click to expand...
In my experience the 'modern' Williams is harder to get a stable lather but the broken/wet lather that is produced tend to be super slick. The vintage stuff I prefer using typically has no problem producing stable lather that is suffucuently slick.
 
wristwatchb said:
Do you find it to be as slick and stable as you're used to getting from other soaps?
Click to expand...


You'll find few soaps slicker than Williams....even when the lather is weak. Sometimes the humidity here in Vegas drops into the single digits.....sparks will jump off light switches when you go to turn on the light....its on days like that I will break out Williams and not worry that the lather disappears before one side of my face is shaved.
 
10 Trying the load and lathering technique I started yesterday with pretty good results. I think I could push more water into it though. I felt I was pretty much shaving with the superload, and less with the lather. I still got a terrific shave, and kind of wonder if I’ll be able to muster any whiskers for tomorrow’s shave. I suspect the best technique for me is face lathering because it’s less fussy to do. Ice Sport to finishIMG_1558.jpeg
 
Day 14

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BarberDave said:
Move along, move along, nothing to see here unless you want to see a depressed shaver, being tormented by boring, boring shaves
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Are you still bored? Here may this will help.
Remember when you did a pirate hat eyepatch shave? Try adding that for a little excitement. Challenge yourself with something else each time to help with it. Might add a little variety atleast to the non variety part. Hope this helps a little bit.
 
BarberDave said:
Move along, move along, nothing to see here unless you want to see a depressed shaver, being tormented by boring, boring shaves
Click to expand...
Also. Since you did accept the blindfold challenge. [I'm planning atleast a 1 pass blindfold video once my pay as you go phone data is back to full speed (plus gotta Practice it .( don't have your experience)].
 
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