Barrister and Mann Excelsior opinions & my take

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? !!

Good point, and I misspoke. Including lathering time (I face lather), I'd say it's about 45 seconds to a minute. I am not the kind of guy to really mess with it that much. Additional time, if you want to count it, is added by relathering between passes.

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.”

That's a big brush. Have you tried anything smaller than 28 mm?

---

Will, for your question, the 28mm brush is the one I use the most and then my one I’ve tried with Excelsior.

I have a 24mm plissoft tuxedo knot, a silvertip badger, and a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in the den also.  Thee Beehive is kind of my go-to.

For the routine I mentioned above, I should say that for Declaration Bison Tallow and for Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk bases, I took the loading time down to 10 seconds because those soaps load crazy fast.

---

Will, for your question, the 28mm brush is the one I use the most and then my one I’ve tried with Excelsior.

I have a 24mm plissoft tuxedo knot, a silvertip badger, and a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in the den also.  Thee Beehive is kind of my go-to.

For the routine I mentioned above, I should say that for Declaration Bison Tallow and for Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk bases, I took the loading time down to 10 seconds because those soaps load crazy fast.

Yeah, they're both softer than Excelsior, so they tend to load much faster. Overall, it sounds like the water-to-soap ratio is off, so I'll see if I can do a quick video this week to give people a good idea of what it should be like.

---

Will, for your question, the 28mm brush is the one I use the most and then my one I’ve tried with Excelsior.

I have a 24mm plissoft tuxedo knot, a silvertip badger, and a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in the den also.  Thee Beehive is kind of my go-to.

For the routine I mentioned above, I should say that for Declaration Bison Tallow and for Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk bases, I took the loading time down to 10 seconds because those soaps load crazy fast.

Yeah, they're both softer than Excelsior, so they tend to load much faster. Overall, it sounds like the water-to-soap ratio is off, so I'll see if I can do a quick video this week to give people a good idea of what it should be like.

Maybe if you make a video you might make a quick one for face lathering and one for bowl lathering too. Who better than the guy that made it.

---

Will, for your question, the 28mm brush is the one I use the most and then my one I’ve tried with Excelsior.

I have a 24mm plissoft tuxedo knot, a silvertip badger, and a Semogue Owners Club boar brush in the den also.  Thee Beehive is kind of my go-to.

For the routine I mentioned above, I should say that for Declaration Bison Tallow and for Wholly Kaw Donkey Milk bases, I took the loading time down to 10 seconds because those soaps load crazy fast.

Yeah, they're both softer than Excelsior, so they tend to load much faster. Overall, it sounds like the water-to-soap ratio is off, so I'll see if I can do a quick video this week to give people a good idea of what it should be like.

I’m sure there’s something I need to do better.

That being said, this new base is just harder to use than the Glissant and White Label and probably harder to dial in than the Reserve base too.

I actually get good lathers with the Reserve and love the post-shave of that base. I kept using it and felt like it was a little harder to use than Glissant and little less slick (secondary especially) but has better post-shave (like on par with Catie’s which is saying a lot from me) and therefore rewarding. Excelsior just seems like it isn’t really an improvement.

Just to come back to this... I used Glissant Promises this morning. I’m pretty certain that, if asked to try these blind in a back-to-back test, I’d pick Glissant as the better performing base.

Had a bit of a break through with Excelsior this morning. I left the water that dripped the top off the pick longer than normal... like 10 minutes versus 1-2 and then loaded like a typical golden load and this mornings leather and ease of use was very similar to Glissant! Promising development.

Had a bit of a break through with Excelsior this morning.  I left the water that dripped the top off the pick longer than normal... like 10 minutes versus 1-2 and then loaded like a typical golden load and this mornings leather and ease of use was very similar to Glissant!  Promising development.

Glad to hear that progress is being made. I've been under the weather (and have lost my voice), so I haven't gotten to do videos yet, but I promise that it's in the offing!

Had a bit of a break through with Excelsior this morning.  I left the water that dripped the top off the pick longer than normal... like 10 minutes versus 1-2 and then loaded like a typical golden load and this mornings leather and ease of use was very similar to Glissant!  Promising development.

Glad to hear that progress is being made. I've been under the weather (and have lost my voice), so I haven't gotten to do videos yet, but I promise that it's in the offing!

Excelsior seems to love my water, brushes and lather bowls - I used the Captain's Choice copper lather bowl this morning with a Semogue boar (model 2000) brush and Lyssa lathered incredibly well.  The lathering video you made a while back was really helpful for me with all of my soaps.

For me, nothing beats the Reserve base.