I lather directly on my face and don't make a mess; the secret is not to have a very wet brush. I've stopped lathering in a bowl because that's where things really get messy for me. Each to his own.
The soap I'm using usually determines whether I lather on my face or in a bowl. Mama Bears and HBS I can lather in a bowl, L'Occitane Cade and Ogallala bay rum soaps I tend to get a better lather if I build it on my face. IF I'm lathering on my face, I use my Simpson Major, albeit it sheds like mad. I find the short loft and small knot helps keep the messiness down to a minimum. So I'm sure it's obvious, but a small brush helps w/face lathering messiness. ~Joshua
I'm pretty much the opposite... I usually always lather in a bowl, but when I do lather on the face I prefer to do it with my glycerin soaps.
I have tried both methods. I achieve best results using a bowl mostly due to the fact that I prefer creams not that you can not lather creams on your face. I do spend time lathering on my face once I create my lather in a bowl. In addition, all of my brushes are soft and fo not work well with soaps. I am working on getting a new brush more suitable for soaps. Raf
I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but I tried a combo of KMF unscented and ogallala bay rum soap this morning. While I showered, I soaked my brush in a bowl and added water to my soap container so it was just slightly above the soap puck. Then I poured the water off of the soap, shook out almost all of the water from the brush, and then charged the brush up really good. Then I moved over to a bowl where I added 2 pumps of KMF unscented and more water a few drops at a time. All in all, it was an excellent shave. After the second pass I did have to add another pump of KMF b/c the lather was still disappearing a bit once I put it on my face. But outside of that I got a great shave. Much denser lather than with just the soap, but still had the great scent and excellent slickness. The only thing I would've changed would be to ONLY add a few drops of water to the top of the puck while I showered, instead of covering the entire puck w/water. The water I poured off the puck was brown like the soap, probably wasted a bit. I also have some bay rum w/lime cream from SCS and some bay rum cream from Olivia that I might try w/the Ogallala soap in the future. But honestly, the scent of this soap is THE best part, and I didn't want to muddy up the scent by adding another bay rum product. I have several bay rum products, this soap (combined w/KMF to help w/its performance) and HBS bay rum soap are my favorites. The scents and performance are very different, but they both smell great in their own way. I can't put my finger on what's in the ogallala stuff that makes it smell so good, but it's definitely on the sweeter smelling side than the HBS. Another guy over on B&B gave me the idea, I think he brought this soap back from the dead for me. Yes I know the idea of superlather's been done before, but I don't think anyone's tried it w/this specific soap. I know only a few people have actually tried this soap and were quickly disappointed b/c of it's poor lather. Hopefully this will help out those of us that have already bought it. I also have some ems place unscented liquid shaving cream. I'll try a combo of Ems and this soap as well and report back. ~Joshua
I agree with you Joshua. I had posted in another SOS thread that this is a great superlather candidate and had done that in the past. It's a dead lather soap unless you help it out. Glad it worked for you.