I've been using JoAnna's Wheat Cream since it was released, I jumped on the initial introductory price offer, and used it for quite a while before I even tried and used her soaps. I think at last count I have 7 tubs of the Wheat Cream in my bathroom. So I thought I would put up this pictorial as to how I lather the Wheat Cream, since I've seen some asking how to hit the sweet spot to lather it. Remember this is how I lather it, not the only way to lather it, as your water hardness and brush combo will probably be different to mine. I soak my badger brush while I shower, give it one good shake to remove most but not all of the water, and empty the water out of my lathering bowl. I place the snurdle of cream into my lathering bowl, I use roughly an oversized almond amount, and add roughly 1/2 teaspoon of water in the bowl along with it. (The flavor in the pics is Bourbon Vanilla) With my damp brush I pickup the bowl and begin swirling, after about 30 seconds the lather looks like this: At around this time I pump and swirl my brush maybe a half dozen times to help release what is in the bristles, then go back to straight swirling,. At the one minute mark it looks like this: I will add another 1/2 teaspoon or so of water, pump and swirl a bit more, and then resume swirling in the bowl. At 90 seconds my lather looks like this: I do nothing extra at this point, just continue swirling. At roughly the 2 minute mark the lather is built and ready to use, my brush is fully loaded and there is plenty in the bowl if I need to go back for more: Going back to my original review I stated this: As stated earlier this is just a guideline as to how I lather JoAnna's great Wheat Cream, but I hope it helps others who may be having trouble lathering it.
I dunno if its my technique or just water, but I don't use very much water, I do use a lot of elbow grease!
There's a thread around here somewhere, if I recall correctly it was based off of Proraso Red. I'm sure JoAnna or Bill will jump in.
Here is the thread, it starts off with a member asking about the discontinued Proraso Red cream, and shows the progression of JoAnna producing her own interpretation of its qualities to help members who were missing the Proraso Red.
I am a massive fan of the Wheat Cream, going all the way back to the OP that started it all. TSD Wheat, in any flavor that I have used so far is a totes banging cream Ya'll! In fact, I have never tried the non-wheat version of TSD cream, specifically because of the Wheat Cream OP that Bill linked to. Now.... which TSD Wheat Cream most closely resembles the scent of Noxzema! The Blue Juniper is WONDERFUL! But not Noxzema-ish.... Any ideas???
Wow, my lather is looking nothing like that. After about six minutes I'm getting some volume to compare to yours but it's very airy & it dries out / evaporates quickly. When I squeeze it between my fingers it just collapses & dissipates. It does not stick together well at all. Am I not using enough water? At 1 minute: At 2 minutes: At about 6 minutes: I started with a pretty dry brush & have been adding a couple drops of water every 30 seconds or so. Now my wrist is tired!
This next picture is of my lather after sitting for about 5 minutes. The air bubbles are overtaking everything & there is nothing useable here. What am I doing wrong?
The second to last pic looks mighty tasty! But yeah, if your lather is puffy, buy dry and airy, ...sounds like not enough water and/or product to water ratio....
for what it's worth, I use about twice as much product as Bill shows in his pictures because I have pretty hard water. keep trying, when you get it you're gonna love it. if you look in the straight razor forum you'll find a video by Stingraysrock where he mixes up some wheat cream. it was very helpful for me.
I watched Jeff's video and I pretty much use the exact same technique...like literally lol... Maybe not quite as much cream but pretty much the same exact steps.
Thanks for this thread & the tips. I did watch Jeff's vid & it really helped. I had a much better lather this morning but I still don't think I've completely found the sweet spot. I look forward to being a wheat cream t-shirt wearing fool one day soon. Yeah, that's right. Been there, done that, here's the t-shirt! Maybe not there yet, but I will be. Thanks again all!
You cannot believe how happy I am to have found this thread! I just pif'd my last melt/pour soaps because I have gravitated toward creams and tallow/vegetable soaps. While Joanna's is one of the best of the breed, I just don't use that breed of soap any more. HOWEVER, her bourbon vanilla is my favorite shave lather scent of all time. I was depressed to let it go. While I often go into the shave den to snif products, I can honestly say Joanna's bourbon vanilla was the only tub I ever brought out of the shave den. I would sometimes keep it by the computer when perusing the shave forums and snif it every now and then. Is that weird? Why am I asking that, I know it's weird. Anyway, I have too much stuff in the den right now and I want to use some of it, at least get rid of a couple of items first. But I am really looking forward to ordering some bourbon vanilla wheat cream. Man I miss that smell. *sigh*
Sheep Juice, that's right, I said Sheep Juice! I know you and many others favor tallow in your shave goods, and I know it isn't quite the same thing, but I just wanted to put up a reminder that the wheat cream not only contains wheat germ but sheep juice (lanolin) also. So you can have your favorite Bourbon Vanilla scent, with the added benefits of sheep juice included.
I use only the Iced Subzero Wheat Cream, which I find very easy to make lather with. I just stick my brush in the tub, I swirl for 20 seconds or so, and voila, plenty of lather for my shave.
