Purchased a couple of "homemade" glycering soaps and I simply can't produce a stable lather. They lather OK, but the lather collapses very quickly. I even tried to combine them with some other shaving creams and soaps, but they seem to be able to ruin all other, normally well-behaving, soaps. On the plusside they provide a really good glide. I suspect that the level of certain oils in the soaps is too high - is there anything I can do to save these soaps from becoming bathsoaps?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm idk shaving soap need to be made to produce and make thick lather to protect and left the whiskers on you're face and if it isn't doing that well uhhhhh sorry looks like you're stuck when i first got into de shaving I couldn't lather good anuff to protect my face so i used Barbasol and kept working on my lather Try bowl lathering it with different water and maby a different brush
wet puck+ damp brush should equal good lather. if your getting it right, but won't last, maybe Steve's right. not enough usually means too little water. too thin usually means to much water. just right but won't last,idk. sorry I'm still learning also. I soak, save a few drops. soak brush, shake it, twice. load brush. start swirling in those few drops. if still thick, I'll dip the tips of brush. swirl until lather forms. seems like an odd deal, I use a cup(soak brush),a mug( hold soap puck), and a bowl (make lather). but that's how I do it. man I bout gotta wash dishes every time I shave, bummer.
I would just use it as a pre shave soap instead. Just rub a little on your face and let it sit while you load your brush then lather on top of it.
My thought is that it might be hard water. Have you tried lathering it with bottled water (spring water or distilled)?
I suggest you double or triple or even quadruple the time you are loading the brush. Glycerin soaps tend to be harder than a lot of other soaps, so you need to load the brush more. Collapsing lather, IMHO, is usually caused by not enough soap.
These homemade glycerin soaps? They may just not be made to lather, or, they may simply suck. It happens.
There is a video somewhere here in the den that talks about loading the brush. My favorite quote from the video is "Load the tar outa that brush"
Perhaps you mean.... Seriously, load the tar out of it! If after you've done that you can't get it to lather, the maker probably didn't get it right. The only other option I can see after that is grate it down, press it into a bowl, and try again. Sometimes that helps. Alternatively, grate it down along with a good, low cost soap like VDH or Col. Conk, combine the two and again, press into a bowl.