Sebum+Badger=Good Lather?

I've used synthetics, badgers, and boars, with both bowel and face lathering, and always obtain an outstanding lather. As long as the soap is loaded with a nearly dry brush, and the lather is slowly built up by adding small amounts of water, the soaps will produce extremely well.

This is Sebum Tonka soap.  I used distilled water, a syringe, and a shavemac two band badger.  It seemed to work well.

Vr 

Matt

This was Sebum blue soap.  I lathered it with a syringe, a Paladin Phantasia badger brush, and distilled water.

Vr

Matt

Here’s something to try. I’m probably going to get laughed at, but that’s understandable. Check out the bowl. You’ll probably recognize it as a slow feeder pet bowl, the nubs on the bottom making it a slow feeder version. But Stirling sells these as lather bowls and boy do they. Those nubs really work the knot and I’ve found that I can usually do very well with noticeably less product, a very desirable trait for Pricey products. It’s cheap, around $7 IIRC, indestructible, and it collapses to about 1” thick should you want to travel with it. Oh, and that’s ABC balm in the Cointreau mini bottle, I’m using up my travel kit to replenish it with fresh juice. Miniature liqueur bottles are great to add a little class to travel, most are around 50ml so TSA compliant and they’re designed to hold alcohol.

Thanks Steve!  I love sterling soaps!  I am gonna have to check that bowl out if I start traveling for work again!

Vr 

Matt

I'm sure this is great stuff, but... the name...

YW Matt, I have one coming to experiment with. It of course does not present well in most shave dens, so I’m going to cut the bottom out of one and use contact cement to glue it to the bottom of a 16cm Sori Yanagi bowl. The 13cm Sori Yanagi is the one Aesop sells, the 16cm is the same diameter as the larger Symmetrical
Pottery bowls.

And... A pair of scissors and a little contact cement. Presents much better. Bowl is a 16 cm Sori Yanagi bowl, same as Aesop, and same size as a large Symmetrical Pottery bowl. Nothing is permanent.

I have gotten and seen great sebum lathers made with badger brushes.  That being said the proprietor does recommend synthetic brushes.  They do the trick well also, and I imagine it also has to do with his environmentalist values.

You can go to YouTube, and type in “Sebum Gold Lather,” and it will bring up video of the proprietor lathering his own product.

Vr 

Matt

First off, many thanks to Matt for all his posts on lathering the Sē'bŭm soaps, and to Ravi and others for their inspiring lather shots.

I had all but given up on the Sē'bŭm, because I couldn't get a great lather. Then I adopted Matt's technical approach, distilled water, syringe, loading 1 ml at a time, brush squeezes.


It worked very well, regardless of the brush, even the super dense Chubby 3 Manchurians.

Here are a couple of shots from that technique with an Envy White knot:



However, with a dense badger brush, I could only apply the lather on the face with paintbrush strokes. If I did any agitation on the face, the lather disappeared. I mean, gone.

I have my own theories on this, having to do with the modern artisanal soaps and the combinations of fats, but suffice it to say, lathering Sē'bŭm with a dense badger was very possible, but for me, I missed the face lathering. Props to those who have no issue with that.

I was watching Sē'bŭm's owner Rick on the video Matt mentioned in the quoted post above. Synthetic brush, shaken out. Loaded from the tub. Taken to the bowl, agitated, dipped the brush lightly, shaken out, more agitation in the bowl, etc. 

When I tried it, I not only got a very nice lather, I could take it to the face and agitate it-face lather-to build more cushion and volume if I chose to. I've done this several days in a row with different Sē'bŭm soaps and synthetic brushes.

Here's an example:


I'm glad I tried Matt's method so I knew what was possible with the soap and a badger brush. But I must admit, this method with a synthetic brush is a no-fuss alternative that I can use when I don't choose to spend the extra time and effort.

Nice photos Michael!  I haven’t tried that method yet.  Perhaps this week!

I think Long Rifle Soaps or SMN might be next!

Vr 

Matt