I'm about to give up on the fat

thisISjoel

thisISjoel

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2015
Location
Australia
Lads, I bought a puck of Mitchell's from connaught shaving, along with P&B Sanskrit, which lathers beautifully, but that's another story, towards the end of last year and I just can't lather it.

I've tried different combinations of damp brush, dry puck, soaked puck, wet brush, watched videos online, tried to lather on the puck, just about everything, but to no avail. All I get is bubbly foam that dissipates very quickly on my face.

I can't seem to load enough soap into the brush no matter how long I load for. Even my new 30mm whipped dog synthetic, which has tremendous backbone, can't seem to rip off enough soap.

I dunno boys, maybe the fat just isn't for me.
 
Just had a fantastic shave with the Fat this morning. I just picked up the puck and rubbed it on my wet face a la shave stick style ( it's just a really wide shave stick!) and then the puck was softened up nicely for loading my proraso brush (short lofted omega 49) as well.

Oodles of lather on the face as a result. Although you still have to work it for awhile to get the right consistency. It always starts off thin but thickens up nicely with a bit of work... love it!
 
thisISjoel said:
Lads, I bought a puck of Mitchell's from connaught shaving, along with P&B Sanskrit, which lathers beautifully, but that's another story, towards the end of last year and I just can't lather it.

I've tried different combinations of damp brush, dry puck, soaked puck, wet brush, watched videos online, tried to lather on the puck, just about everything, but to no avail. All I get is bubbly foam that dissipates very quickly on my face.

I can't seem to load enough soap into the brush no matter how long I load for. Even my new 30mm whipped dog synthetic, which has tremendous backbone, can't seem to rip off enough soap.

I dunno boys, maybe the fat just isn't for me.
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If you have other soaps you're happy with, probably no real loss. If you want to give it a last go, you can always grab some distilled water and try the merkur man method of lathering (if you haven't already).

Best of luck if you give it a go, otherwise I'm sure you'll be able to shift it.
 
Whereabouts are you located? Some people who live in places with hard water seem to struggle with mwf. Others suggest it needs a slightly different technique.
Worked fine for me with the couple of shaves I tried with it before moving it on (for scent reasons).
 
I've had exactly the same experience with the fat. No matter what I do it is always too airy and dissipates too quickly. It's not just you.
 
eggbert said:
Whereabouts are you located? Some people who live in places with hard water seem to struggle with mwf. Others suggest it needs a slightly different technique.
Worked fine for me with the couple of shaves I tried with it before moving it on (for scent reasons).
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I'm in Western Sydney (Penrith area), no idea about water hardness here.
 
I bought the fat as well from over the pond, i watched a vid by some shaving u tuber that was pretty good, soak it in Warm water, not hot water while you have a shower and then away you go, not sure what the water hardness is like here in Townsville but i am having a great old time with the fat, still working on getting the right lather i want but not as bad as what @thisISjoel is saying.
 
I find that I get lots of bubbly lather as I load. Even with a dry brush. My trick is to throw that out and keep loading. The fat does not like too much water too quickly so go slow. It feels like. Thick paste at first but will develop into shiny yoghurt with the slow addition of water.
The above is also why it works really well as a shave stick as @RazorPlay suggested.
 
Sounds like The Fat is as much hassle as Mystic Waters, ie not worth the hassle when there's soaps on par with post face fee and far easier to load and lather!
If you don't get any love from it, you could always use it as a body soap to use it up.
 
borked said:
Sounds like The Fat is as much hassle as Mystic Waters, ie not worth the hassle when there's soaps on par with
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Mystic Water soap lathers effortlessly, even more so now with citric acid added to the new formula for novice shavers. I never understood the idea that Michelle's soaps were hard to lather, it seems to me like a small but vocal minority who struggled.
 
Well to be fair, i'm yet to try either...
Going off their reputation and the specialised formulas required to lather them.
 
borked said:
Going off their reputation and the specialised formulas required to lather them.
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I load and lather Mystic Water in exactly the same way I load and lather Barrister & Mann or any other soap....

As far as I can tell the idea that Mystic Water was in some way hard to lather started with a few typically vocal and opinionated Americans who had especially hard water (now rectified by the addition of Citric Acid to the soap) and/or who were inexperienced, novice shavers.
 
I am one of the minority mws didn't work for. Everything else I've tried made lather easier, quicker and better than that stuff diid.
It doesn't matter what they have done since, they are in the list of products (along with Norton antivirus) that I will never go back to. Life's just too short.
 
I find that the lather straight off the puck is really light and airy, I take that and slowly work water into it until it's at a shaveable state. Certainly takes a bit more work than Shaver Heaven or the likes.
 
It's my favourite soap by some distance and so easy to lather although I'm yet to try the legendary mikes or Stirlings. I've never tried loading it straight off the puck as it works so well as a shave stick on wet stubble.

My strong suspicion is that most people having issues with these hard triple milled soaps just aren't loading enough product the traditional way. Just like people who find shave sticks not working for them probably don't load enough - including with the brush as well off the stick. A lot of people still find mwf difficult even with distilled water so hardness is not the only issue...
 
RazorPlay said:
I

My strong suspicion is that most people having issues with these hard triple milled soaps just aren't loading enough product the traditional way. Just like people who find shave sticks not working for them probably don't load enough - including with the brush as well off the stick. A lot of people still find mwf difficult even with distilled water so hardness is not the only issue...
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My suspicion is a just a finnicky fucker of a soap. If I got to toot my horn, I'll say I've got loads of experience with lathering and brushes in the past, the only soaps I couldn't lather, couldn't be lathered - and it's a very short list.

The Fat is right down there with Crabtree soaps as the worst stuff I've tried. foamy light useless bubbles, no matter what I did or how much soap was in the brush. Fat clearly has a temperament for a certain kind of water. I have no time for gear like that.
 
Drubbing said:
My suspicion is a just a finnicky fucker of a soap. If I got to toot my horn, I'll say I've got loads of experience with lathering and brushes in the past, the only soaps I couldn't lather, couldn't be lathered - and it's a very short list.

The Fat is right down there with Crabtree soaps as the worst stuff I've tried. foamy light useless bubbles, no matter what I did or how much soap was in the brush. Fat clearly has a temperament for a certain kind of water. I have no time for gear like that.
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@Drubbing do I remember rightly that you're in Perth? If so, given we have the same water, it's hard to explain the difference in results. MWF is one of the easiest to lather soaps in my collection, although I must say I haven't had any real issues with any of them, once I worked out how they like to be treated. I've had poor lathers from proraso and cella but never from mwf... but then I've only ever used the shave stick method for it.
 
The fact you have to treat it as a shave stick or it won't work, says a lot. Like I said, too finicky. I've never had bad lather from any decent soap, even the cheapies like Proraso, and I'm pretty fussy about getting good lather...
 
I agree
todras said:
I load and lather Mystic Water in exactly the same way I load and lather Barrister & Mann or any other soap....

As far as I can tell the idea that Mystic Water was in some way hard to lather started with a few typically vocal and opinionated Americans who had especially hard water (now rectified by the addition of Citric Acid to the soap) and/or who were inexperienced, novice shavers.
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I agree @todras - Ive never had any problem with Mystic Waters either - seems to last for ages too.
 
I find MWF will be bubbly/airy as I load, but apply that to the face and build and it thickens up. Yes, I find it is water sensitive in the same way as MW in my experience so I start dry load heaps and add water slowly, couple of drops at a time.

The problem as I see it is there is the window for a good lather is not very wide and so easy to overshoot. For me, my water, brushes etc anyway, even see the same thing with Stirling.

Another issue I found with MWF is that the puck will soak up water and some folks use this to make it full the tub. For me however I found if over hydrated, you can load but can't add water to build because it's already at maximum hydration. I do not bloom MWF for this reason, actually I don't bloom any soaps now.
 
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