So I recently bought Crabtree and Evelyn soap in the sandalwood scent and I have to say I am extremely disappointed. I have tried variations of water temp, different brushes, soaking the puck and different amounts of water and just cannot get this soap to lather well. It always produces a thin lather with huge bubbles that dissipates in just a few seconds. So my question is, is this a common complaint with this soap and is there anything else that I could possibly try?
With some of these very hard triple milled soaps you're going to want to load the brush as much as a full minute.
It is my understanding that the English soaps (with exception of MWF and Harris) were reformulated a fewyears ago and for the worse. I have an old puck of C & E Sandalwood and it is fine. I suggest D. R. Harris for a great English triple milled experience.
I forgot to mention that Penhaligans was recently reformulated again and for the better. I have the new Sartorial soap and it is great. I don't believe it is a tallow based formula. However, Harris is at least as good and about half the price.
If you like the scent, add a squirt of unscented KMF cream. It will boost the lather and not interfere with the scent of the C&E.
I suggest you try this: Soak the soap for at least 1 hour in warm water. By soaking, I mean submerge it. Soak your brush in warm water for 3-5 minutes just before you remove your soap from it's soak. Remove the brush & give it 2 brisk shakes. Proceed to the loading instructions below. Load the soap into the brush with vigor. It generally requires more time & effort to get enough hard soap loaded into the brush in order to make good lather. By loading, I mean: 1. Swirling. Press down moderately on the brush while holding the handle straight up or slightly leaning to the rear. Like you are pushing the bristles ahead of the handle. 2. Pumping. Push the brush down moderately onto the soap and pull it back up. 3. Push/Pulling. Tilt the handle toward you slightly and push the brush across the soap in a straight motion directly away from you. Then tilt the handle slightly away from you and pull the brush straight back. Do both actions whilst putting moderate downward pressure on the brush. Alternate between these three methods several times to load soap. You won't damage the brush by pushing down on it unless you get carried away. You'll know you are loading properly when you have a thick, creamy goo in the brush and very little foam or bubbles. If you do have bubbles or foam, your brush was too wet at the start. Move the brush to your bowl or your face and begin building lather. I wish you the very best and let us know how it's going. Happy Shaving!!
I had that problem with the new C&E Sandalwood too. I just couldn't get a later from it that wasn't foamy and it had very little slickness to it. After about a dozen attempts with varying amounts of water in the brush and longer and longer loading times, I gave up on it and used it in the shower. I have a puck of Sienna that was made after the reformulation (no tallow) and it makes a better lather than that newer sandalwood puck did. So I'm not sure if they've reformulated yet again and made their soaps even worse but I don't think I'll be buying any more of them.
Yeah I have the same problem with c&e sandalwood. I'm just sticking with D. R. Harris, fantastic shave from the marlborough
I have had reasonable success using C&E West Indian Lime by 1) Soaking puck in hot water while I shower 5-10m 2) Load the brush using lots of water and letting the watery-thin lather run into mug 3) Add an unscented cream, I use Reals Shaving Co Sensitive and mug lather 4) Whip it up until a decent consistency
I've had two of the Nomad soaps and I have an old, vintage Mysore Sandlewood and they are among the best performing non-tallow soaps I've ever used along with PdP and MdC. I do nothing special to lather them, I do nothing special to lather any soap I use. Just lucky I guess.
I shaved with the C&E Moroccan Myrrh this morning - I LOVE the scent of this soap but also have not been able to get a great lather despite my best efforts. Pre-soaking the puck & using my stiffest brush has produced the best results...but I'm still not planning on ever buying another C&E soap unless they change.
I also really like this soap. A feel like a true minority. I might have to review it. Yes it is a bit drier than other soaps and the lather is not as thick as say Tabac or Cella but it's an English hard soap and those type of soaps have a different character. I rather like it though.
They were reformulated as the contract manufacturer went into administration and the production was moved to another company...
I haven't tried C&E in over a year but if the formulation is still the same as it was then, I'd say less of a good thing. It seems to be a bath soap shaped like a shaving soap puck.
Besides the two Nomads and the Mysore Sandlewood I have a couple of the old Siennas. I have absolutely no complaints about any of them.
C&E has some great smelling shave soaps. I can't remember which one I bought but I eventually cut it up into smaller pieces and used it to scent my clothes drawers. Now my socks smell fabulous. There's too many good soaps that produce a great lather to waste time on crappy ones. Edit* I just went to the C&E website and saw that their Moroccan Myrrh is on sale so I ordered the shave cream. That's the scent that's in my sock drawer so hopefully the cream is a better performer than the soap.
