What's new
The Shaving Cadre

Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun

novicewetshaver's shave journal

hotel cecil. I thought i would revisit hotel cecil today. i pretty much have a whole tub of the stuff. its super soft and i think i may have been overhydrating it. i scooped 1/2 a tsp of the stuff and bloomed it with 2 tsp of water but i think thats too much and i really dont think it needs bloomings. i got a really thin lather didnt feel very protective at all. after the second pass i was pretty frustrated so i rinsed everything out and loaded directly from the puck for about 30 seconds no water. i got a really pasty lather that i proceeded to face lather with, the lather came out much better this time and felt much better on the face. i think im going to forgo the scoop method and just start loading directly from the puck. gonna take a few days off and let the face heal up and try this. seemed to net a better thicker lather. thanks for stopping by.
 
GearNoir said:
Something that may help, if you don’t do it already, is leaving the soap out for a bit after the shave, with the lid off. Helps some of that excess moisture from loading/blooming evaporate and keeps the soap more firm/dry.

Conversely, if a soap is getting too dry, I’ll put the lid back on right after I’m done, to help remain some moisture.
Click to expand...
That may be good advice for those who use soaps that are flush with the top of the puck. Evaporation might prevent the soap from spilling overl
 
novicewetshaver said:
hotel cecil. I thought i would revisit hotel cecil today. i pretty much have a whole tub of the stuff. its super soft and i think i may have been overhydrating it. i scooped 1/2 a tsp of the stuff and bloomed it with 2 tsp of water but i think thats too much and i really dont think it needs bloomings. i got a really thin lather didnt feel very protective at all. after the second pass i was pretty frustrated so i rinsed everything out and loaded directly from the puck for about 30 seconds no water. i got a really pasty lather that i proceeded to face lather with, the lather came out much better this time and felt much better on the face. i think im going to forgo the scoop method and just start loading directly from the puck. gonna take a few days off and let the face heal up and try this. seemed to net a better thicker lather. thanks for stopping by.
Click to expand...

To face lather or bowl lather, that is the question. Whether runny and sloppy or thick and pasty. As old sages opine, it is easier to add water than wait for evaporation. So face lather, my son, and learn the ancient art of dipping the tips.
 
Hi. I used hotel Cecil this morning. I think you’re overloading the soap with water up front, rather than adding it in gradually as you go. The chemist in me says “who care, same amount of soap and water gives same result” while the mixologist/chef in me knows that “sometimes it’s not the quantities you use, it’s how you put them together” (Not real quotes just me talking to myself).
So I’ll give the age old advice: put the soap in your bowl dry. Use a almost dry brush (rinsed with water than squeezed to get the excess water out, leaving a damp brush). Start to swirl. If it feels/looks too dry then turn on the tap (but don’t put your bowl into the stream) and using your index or middle finger flick two flicks of water into the bowl. Go back to swirling. If you need more water after 20-30 seconds of swirling, do the water flick thing again and repeat as necessary. I get a really nice result this way whenever I’m bowl lathering, no matter the soap.
 
its been a hot minute since i have done any shave journaling so i thought i would post my thoughts about todays shave. Its a rather cold day here, i decided to go with something on the spicy side. i pulled out D/G's massacre of the innocents and let me tell you, that stuff does not age welll. i had it sitting on my counter for prbly a year know since the last shave, couldnt really get a good shave with it the last time i tried this one out. the stuff smelled pretty bad, but decided to lather it up anyway and most of the funk dissapeared. Got a decent shave with it. mild iratation. loaded super heavy but still dont think this particular soap is all its cracked up to be or at least the way a lot of the youtubers make it out to be, just my thoughts. used the matching aftershave and it didnt smell all that great either. did a three shave pass and finished off swith some tom ford noir extreme. those are my thoughts so far. prbly wont be getting any d/g soaps for the forseeable futre. thanks for stopping by.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top