Review - Pheonix & Beau

Evening all,

Thank you everyone for your thoughts, reviews and comments on our soaps. To be discussed in the same company as Mystic, CRSW, etc is heady praise indeed and I'm genuinely humbled. Thanks also to Oli (WindsorCitrus) for sharing the above. I'm currently sat surrounded by various iterations of Star Noir, Baskerville and Borealis and the three combined makes for quite a mix!

With kind regards,

Kerry.

Welcome Kerry - great to have you at DFS!

WindsorCitrus Great review. I've recently gotten into tallow soaps, and have a Solaris which I'm looking forward to trying.

In your pictures, the lather you got is beautiful. That's the consistency and look I want to achieve (I'll evaluate the performance once I can create a lather that looks that good).

I was wondering if you would share the technique you used to achieve that. Also, with this soap, do you think there would be a difference among hand, face, or bowl lathering?

Thanks!

Michael P thanks for the kind words

I use the Merkur Man method to create lathers. Here's the link - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IHHYN3Do9ns

In terms of bowl vs face vs hand I couldn't say as I have only face lathered, if someone else wants to jump in they can.

Michael P thanks for the kind words

I use the Merkur Man method to create lathers. Here's the link -

In terms of bowl vs face vs hand I couldn't say as I have only face lathered, if someone else wants to jump in they can.

I have face lathered exclusively for ages and can confirm that the Nathan MethodTM is an easy path to great lather. I have also palm lathered using the same approach in testing soaps and you can get a great lather this way.

Not sure on bowl lathering but would imagine you could achieve similar with same technique, although have never tried.

WindsorCitrus kwsher  Thank you so much! Yes, I've watched Nathan's Merkur Man videos, and they are great, but I haven't mastered it yet, at least not when I've attempted to either palm lather or bowl lather.

Face lathering is so easy, and I get great results just loading the brush in the container and taking it to the face, adding water in both stages if and when needed.

However, I've been a failure lately with my tallow soaps and practice attempts with bowl lathering. I'll have to keep at it.

Today, for example I used a big brush (Kent BK 12) with B&M Seville and, as expected it took some time to load it. Face lathered with very good results. Then I decided to practice bowl lathering, started fresh, and I just couldn't seem to create a decent lather. So, I guess the simple answer would be just face lather, stop fussing and enjoy.

But any feedback from you bowl and/or palm lathering fans would be much appreciated.

I think I'll be using the Phoneix and Beau tomorrow.

Michael, you just need to spend more time if you bowl-lather, unfortunately. This is one of the reasons why I have been face-lathering, exclusively, for the past 6 years, as I knew early on that I would rather spend all of that time on my face, instead of in the bowl.

Here is a video I found on Youtube with someone bowl-lathering Mystic Water. Hopefully, this will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8BQXk0D1Rg

Very helpful video, celestino thank you. I'm with you on face lathering, that's all I do any more. Still, I'd like to learn how to bowl lather effectively because it irks me that I'm not able to do it! So, onto some more practice!

Practise makes perfect as they say, keep it up

Three soaps acquired, this week, and my third shave with P&B, this morning. Fantastic shave each time. Superb product.

Three soaps acquired, this week, and my third shave with P&B, this morning. Fantastic shave each time. Superb product.

David, I am glad you are enjoying them. There is a real boom of good UK artisans at the moment. I will probably end up trying Wickhams 1912 soap when I see a few reviews.