Tuesday Added a dollop of C.O. Bigelow to the mix. Had a very decent lather. AND the scent wasn't all that bad. I don't mind using a poor performing soap if I like the scent. I certainly don't have a problem with adding some cream to the mix to help it out. That's what I do when the Woods of Windsor comes around in the rotation; I just add a squirt of unscented KMF cream. Really boosts the lather without masking the scent of the WoW. Williams, on the other hand, is just a poor performing soap I don't like the scent of. But that's me.
I just had a great shave with Williams. I did add a nice squirt of Glycerin, a big dollop of TSD wheat cream. Nice very nice uber Lather. My hardware was: Turkish HH#6 , very well broken in and over 2 years old Gillette Super adjustable long handle, cranked wide open for the first pass. Then down to 3 to finish. Vintage Gillette Super stainless blade. (Ohhh what a good blade, they don't make em like this no more) Finished with Osage Rub, and then a little Stetson to smell pretty. (heck if it's good enough for Tom Brady it's good enough for me............) I find Williams an excellent shower soap at the gym. I really wouldn't use it at home because of the film it leaves in the shower.
Carry over from what the folks wanted last year. Honestly, it was one of the most replied to threads of all the Theme Weeks. And I can see it's been pretty popular this year, as well.
Tuesday Shave Soaked the puck in hot water , added 3 drops of glycerin , did 125 revolutions of the boar brush and an okay lather. Got a very close shave , 1 weeper ATG. The stiffer boar I used yesterday worked better , less effort needed to gin up the lather. Good shave .
I had a great shave with Williams this morning. I don't mind the scent one bit either. Little bit of work but it's dirt cheap and if you can master it - worth every penny.
Might I ask what was your lathering technique? Did you soak the puck, etc. How much water would you estimate was required and time to lather? In all honesty, I know the scent is not citronella...but the fragrance blend smells like it. I think its lemon and lavender if I am not mistaken.
I soaked the puck and brush in warm water for about 10 minutes or so (Just while I was making morning coffee), dumped it all but left the brush dripping, didn't even get rid of the excess. Loaded it for about 30 seconds or so, until it was getting thick on the brush and then went to town in the bowl. One thing I've noticed about Williams is that it's very finicky with water (Vintage Williams doesn't count here because that isn't hard to lather from what I've read )
Day 3 of Williams Week. Got a DFS and if I don't say BBS. I can't say that I love Williams but I am getting better at lathering this tricky soap. My method. Soak puck for about 5 minutes. Drain off water. Shake about 50% water of soaked brush. Spin on puck until nice and foamy this transfer to bowl. It started to thicken up a bit, but not really nice enough. So I would take some out of the bowl and lather in hand then apply to face. I found after you apply to face if you massage it in with your hand using relatively quick motions, it gets a bit more slick.
I would quibble a bit with your method. Transferring the soap to a bowl or your hand and giving the soap more water and exposing it to air doesn't help a lather already a challenge to get nice and dense. For example even in using Tabac and Cella when I bowl lathered them I wasn't successful , when I face lathered them they seemed like different soaps they did so well. Try this , soak your puck in hot water for 5 to 10 minutes. Lightly shake out the brush leaving it still nice and wet , make sure your puck is stable in your mug and WORK the brush over it 125 times, you can count it. Its important that you firmly work the brush over the a puck, dig in there . The water in your brush and the heavy working over of the brush will help to generate a lather that will transform from loose and bubbly to denser and creamy right in your mug, if there is overflow just let it flow out as waste. Then when the cream is made in the mug just take that lather directly to your face. You can even try a test lather and see if its better.
Wednesday Still sticking with the Williams. Today I added a squirt of TBS Maca Root and 3 drops of M Bomb. Great lather and hardly any scent of Williams at all Darn near BBS, to boot!
I am still IN as well. I really do not mind the scent at all. My lather was better yesterday than today but still very, very shave-able.
I'm having a busy week, so I hadn't had time to post yet. Mon, tue, wed: Same set-up: badger Wilkinson Sword brush Willimas New soap (like duh!) Gillette Old Style OC Punktal blade 3-pass shaves 3 times DFS, in spite of buggy lather. Boar brush tomorrow! The scent doesn't bother me at all. But the lather (or lack thereof ) keeps bugging me. Oh, well...