Barrister and Mann Excelsior opinions & my take

Thanks, Will. I will try that tomorrow as it looks like it will be a Leviathan day.

I have to say that the performance of Excelsior during the shave is really good and I get shaves with no irritation so that is great. I guess what I’m missing a bit is the ease of use of the White Label base or even Glissant.

Really appreciate you striving for the best for us and your candid talk. Keep up the good work!

I usually load soaps for about 30 seconds but today I tried loading for 20 and it made a noticeable improvement to the lather. Excelsior is the thirstiest soap I’ve ever used. For tomorrow’s shave I’m going to try loading for 15 seconds to see if it improves post shave and will report back.


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I used Leviathan excelsior again today... loaded less but with a slightly less protective lather and not much less time to lather, I’m still not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Really wish this base was easier to use like White label or Glissant (or Caties Bubbles or Declaration Bison Tallow). I don’t like having to take 5-7 minutes to dial in the lather! Why can’t it be mindless like those other great soaps?!

I used Leviathan excelsior again today... loaded less but with a slightly less protective lather and not much less time to lather, I’m still not sure what I’m doing wrong.

Really wish this base was easier to use like White label or Glissant (or Caties Bubbles or Declaration Bison Tallow).  I don’t like having to take 5-7 minutes to dial in the lather!  Why can’t it be mindless like those other great soaps?!

If it's taking you 5-7 minutes to lather, then something is definitely wrong. I lather Excelsior in about 25 seconds, maybe a little more if I play with the lather a bit.

Tell us more about your routine. What sort of brush are you using? Why spend so long; does the soap not look right? I've been meaning to put together a video tutorial, so I'd like to replicate your setup as much as I can to help out.

Thanks, Will. I think I take longer to build a lather than I should, but here goes from after I get out the shower and dry off:
1. Drip some water on the soap puck. It sits like that for a minute while I do other stuff (timer not started yet).
2. Start timer. Wet my face and my brush. Brush is a Razorock beehive 28mm plissoft synthetic. I shake most water out of the brush.
3. Start loading directly from the soap puck by swirling in circular pattern for 18 - 20 seconds. I change directions a few time will doing this.
4. Wet my face a drip some water into the soapy brush.
5. Paint the soap over my face with back and forth motions.
6. Drip some water in brush and paint through on face and Agitate the soap over my cheeks and neck.
7. Drip some water in brush and paint through some more. I pretty much repeat this until the soap feels slick and looks shiny and makes curly peaks when I slap it in my face gently.
8. Pick up nice lather from bottom of brush and put it on top then set brush down and start shaving.

Thanks, Will.  I think I take longer to build a lather than I should, but here goes from after I get out the shower and dry off:
1. Drip some water on the soap puck. It sits like that for a minute while I do other stuff (timer not started yet).
2. Start timer. Wet my face and my brush. Brush is a Razorock beehive 28mm plissoft synthetic. I shake most water out of the brush.
3. Start loading directly from the soap puck by swirling in circular pattern for 18 - 20 seconds. I change directions a few time will doing this.
4. Wet my face a drip some water into the soapy brush.
5. Paint the soap over my face with back and forth motions. 
6. Drip some water in brush and paint through on face and Agitate the soap over my cheeks and neck.
7. Drip some water in brush and paint through some more. I pretty much repeat this until the soap feels slick and looks shiny and makes curly peaks when I slap it in my face gently.
8. Pick up nice lather from bottom of brush and put it on top then set brush down and start shaving.

Are you in some sort of contest or boot camp? Also, do NOT dry your face off after exiting the shower. 

I lather Excelsior in about 25 seconds, maybe a little more if I play with the lather a bit.

25 seconds to load and lather? !!

I’ve been getting great results with the Excelsior Base, and I used it again this evening after reading this thread. I’ve owned and used White Label, Glissant, Reserve, and now Excelsior with Excelsior and Reserve being the best performers for me. I’ve gotten good results with all bases, but the Excelsior and Reserve give me the best performance. This may have something to do with the fact that I’ve got hard water, and Excelsior and Reserve were designed to work with hard water. I swirled a damp DG Jeffo in the tub for about 30 seconds and bowl lathered for about two minutes while adding water until the lather exploded. Excellent three pass Shave. B&M is definitely one of my very best performing Soaps.

I swirled a damp DG Jeffo in the tub for about 30 seconds and bowl lathered for about two minutes while adding water until the lather exploded.

That sounds more like what I do tbh. 25 seconds or 5/6 minutes - I am very curious about those.

No boot camp... was just trying to indicate that the time it’s taking me to lather didn’t include step before when I wrote “ start timer.”