L&L Grooming/Tallow & Steel Lather Fail

As much as I have tried I cannot get these boutique soaps to lather worth a tinker's damn. I had the same problem with Mystic Water soap and the issue is that where I live the water is harder than a whore's heart. They all make a feeble watery goop that is worthless. I have no problem with B&M or any other variety of hard soaps that seem to be tweaked just for this very problem whereas some boutique makers do not. I only wished they put this disclaimer on their products to prevent troubles for others. Such is life. I am throwing in the sponge.

Try using distilled water. Inexpensive way to get great consistent lather

L&L should be easy to lather.......

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Hard water has got to be the issue for you then. Both of those soaps lather like a dream for me with T+S being the easier of the two. I guess try bottled water. I don't know if I'd be willing to go to those lengths just to use a certain shave soap though.

I thought L&L was designed for use in hard water?

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Using distilled or bottled water shouldn't be that big a deal - you really don't use very much water to soak your brush and produce a lather. Less than a cup I would think. Its really too bad that you can't get those soaps to work for you because they're top performers in my water softened opinion

Skip the tap and try them both with a bottle of your favorite water. Have a drink and throw some in a mug and hit the microwave. Hard water sucks for my skin and if you use natural hair brushes, give it a shot and you won't need to clean your knots as frequently or ever. Best of luck to your next shaves BPman.

I've got crazy-hard water and L&L lathers like a dream. Are you sure you're loading the brush sufficiently?
The old axiom "use more product" may apply here.
Now...T&S is a different formula altogether. I had issues lathering T&S also and had to load the brush a LOT and work the lather up from a paste (little water at a time).

BPman, I used to have very hard water. I can sympathize with the Mystic Water Soap issues, as it can be a “picky” soap. On the other hand, L&L Grooming and Tallow + Steel have always lathered like a dream for me, no matter what the water conditions.

I have just two suggestions: 1) If you haven’t already tried a synthetic brush and don’t mind doing so, give one a shot. 2) Load more soap than you ever think you might need, and then add only very little water at a time when building the lather.

(I’ve noticed that too much water at a time, or splaying the brush too vigorously, can thin out the lather or introduce too much air into it. Painting strokes and adding just a little water at a time may help.)

Sorry to hear about the issues. Hopefully some tips on this thread could provide a key for things to improve. In my book, they really are good soaps, all of them.

Skip the tap and try them both with a bottle of your favorite water. Have a drink and throw some in a mug and hit the microwave. Hard water sucks for my skin and if you use natural hair brushes, give it a shot and you won't need to clean your knots as frequently or ever. Best of luck to your next shaves BPman.

I want to second what zaclikestoshave says about brushes - I have soft water and I've never had to clean a knot. There just isn't any buildup of any kind that I can notice and I've been doing this for 5+ years.