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Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 4:17 am
by fallingwickets
Gary we love you and your enthusiasm and it's with an appreciative awe that we ( or at least, I) comment on your usage. :D :D

clive

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2016 9:18 am
by brothers
Clive, thanks for the kind words! Some guys have said they dread the day when the "circle of doom" appears in the bottom of their soap's bowl. To me it's like the yellow, yellow, yellow, GREEN lights on the "tree" at the drag race track. Time to feel the adrenalin start to flow and the engines roar as the cars come to life and the finish line is coming up fast! I love it. If they made a scent called "nitrous oxide" I'd be all over it. (Just had a thought - maybe I could ask the master of fragrances at one of the numerous artisan soapmaking operations to create it for me.)

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:44 pm
by brothers
Mike's Lime has passed the stage they call the "ring of doom". This refers to the little hole we see in the bottom of the tub when the soap finally gives way and exposes the bottom of the bowl. I've been keeping records on the usage of this soap (and the others). The numbers always tell the tale in uncontradicted terms. Mike's is no different, and the numbers don't lie. The Monster synthetic or the Thater badger are loaded for a strict 10 seconds as I look at the seconds ticking away on the digital clock. After that I face lather one pass and shave one pass against the grain. This soap has exactly 31.1 grams left at this very moment. The soap is wet when I start loading and my loading is intentionally vigorous. My brushes consume about 4g of soap with every 10 seconds of use. I don't misuse the brush and soap is just soap, and when it's wet, it's strictly on its own - it's free to refuse to dissolve if that is possible (Williams for sure) or it is free to jump on board the fast moving brush of doom and then onto my face, just minutes away from going down the drain. As of now, my calculator tells me I have 8 shaves of Mike's Lime soap to enjoy before It goes tango uniform in military jargon. [32/4=8]

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 12:31 am
by Ouchmychin
Gary, that's spooky. I have a fettish about counting other things like 48 squeezed of the brush under the tap to rinse; 8 rotations of 5 taps each to dry the brush; 10 strokes per tooth to brush; etc. But I don't keep track of shaving soap. Too many replacements waiting in the wings.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2016 8:29 am
by brothers
Pete, if you say so! :D But it might be confusing to those who have dreams of their soaps lasting virtually forever. Of course a chunk of soap will last a very long time if it seldom gets used. My soaps are not held in high regard. They're dusty little disposable globs of wax to me. I love using my soaps, and I have them for the sole purpose of using them. I do not take a secret pleasure in "having" them as some kind of shrine or icon. They're only a source of revenue to those who make them, and those guys hope they get used up so they can sell more! Who wouldn't? I am providing a service to the soapmakers by buying and using their wares, and advocating the joy to be found in the use of soap. There's a 100+ page thread on "another" shaving forum that has been going strong since 2010, and now it has been viewed about 1.4 million times and has received more than 17,000 posts, and still gets a large number of posts every day. Those guys are having a blast using up their soaps (and creams) one after another and keeping track of it. (As you can tell, I get a kick out of sharing the experience with my SMF buddies.)

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2016 4:48 am
by Ouchmychin
I guess I don't have the experience of using up the last of a soap or cream because I rotate between three products and it takes a very long time to use one up and there are still the other two. I do look forward to the ARKO shave stick in the deodorant case you gave me, Gary. And I can watch as I shove more and more of the stick out. I have one more stick in reserve plus a lot of creams thanks to you. Strangely, I like the days with the stick better than those with the Valobra cake I got.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:19 am
by pausted
After accumulating too many creams, I have been on a quest to use them up before buying more. This morning I finished a tub of Truefitt & Hill West Indian Limes cream. I think I'll move on to a half used tub of Taylor Coconut next. When that is gone, I will have pretty much exhausted my British creams. Of course, then we need to deal with the Italians and Americans. :lol:

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:42 am
by brothers
Basil, that s.ounds like an enjoyable project.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:03 am
by pausted
Gary, it is enjoyable. As others have noted, when using a product regurlarly, it gives one the ability to learn the best lathering technique for that particular product. It also lets yoi know if it is a product that you will replace at some point.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2016 7:04 pm
by brothers
Mike's Lime soap lasted 44 excellent shaves before running out three days ago. Now I'm working on a very good hard traditional classic soap - Penhaligon's Sartorial. I love the scent and it works quite well for me. I'm betting this soap will last as long or longer than any of the others so far. This is the current (reformulated) non-tallow version of the old tallow version that expired before Sartorial was available. The brush is loaded on the soap 15 seconds before it goes to the face for lathering.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2016 5:57 am
by Ouchmychin
I am alternating between an ARKO shave stick and a very hard Valobra. The Valobra gets rubbed for about 10 seconds to develop plenty of lather for 4 passes and a polish. The shave stick gets rubbed until I have a thick layer of soap on face and neck before I go to the Monster. A lot more soap than I need; but it feels so good, and for a couple of bucks it lasts a very long time. I was going to give my son one, but he shaves in the shower and is happy with any bar soap in there and no brush.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 5:42 pm
by pausted
My tub of Taylor Coconut cream bit the dust this morning. It was my last tub of British cream. Next up on the agenda are partially used tubes of Proraso Blue and Nivea Sensitive. I can't believe that, at last, I'm making a big dent in my cream supply! I think that by mid 2017 I will have used up all the creams that I have accumulated. Then what? Maybe we get to work on the 14 or 15 soaps waiting in the cabinet. :)

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2016 6:17 pm
by Ouchmychin
I am trying to use some Rose Coates cream that Gary gave me. It has dried some in the tube and is very thick which makes it hard to spread. I had the same trouble with some TOBS samples that I saved. So much for rotation, the soaps last so long that the creams suffer. Use them up first.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 7:41 am
by pausted
The tubes of Nivea Sensitive and Proraso Blue have been used up so now I'll move on to some tubs of US made creams that I have on hand. First up is a half used tub of AOS Ocean Kelp, a very good cream that I have enjoyed in the past. My quest to use all my creams continues.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:28 pm
by Tucker
It can be a challenge to touch all of the products in one's shave den. The creams don't last long, then the croaps, and lastly the hard soaps last the longest. I have about a dozen products in use right now, and don't intend on replacing all of them once depleted. It can be very satisfying to use up a product. My solution, it to often use two products at once. I will load my brush from two tubs of soap simultaneously which can tone down the scents and buffet them a bit. I get the best of both worlds, and both products see some use. I also have been known to add a little cream on top of a soap to create what Mantic59 dubs "Superlather." This can be a great technique to combat hard water lathering issues. So many products, so few shaves! It is a good problem to have.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:56 pm
by brothers
Tucker wrote:It can be a challenge to touch all of the products in one's shave den. . . . . So many products, so few shaves! It is a good problem to have.
Sometimes it seems almost impossible to imagine, but when a particular soap or cream finally does bite the dust, it's a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 7:35 am
by Ouchmychin
I found a far with a thick residue of TOBS Jerome St. in the bottom, that I had thought was empty . It was pretty dry and gummy but responded to a 15 second smear of my Monster with a very rich lather. I am cleaning out the stack of empty jars that I kept, "just in case".

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 10:24 am
by pausted
A week or 10 days will finish the AOS Ocean Kelp and a couple weeks after that to finish a tub of J. Peterman 1903 that I bought in 2014.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 8:59 pm
by cjc15153
I still have the tail end of my first tube of Proraso from 2007 or so! Right now I am trying to finish off the C&E Sandalwood soap that I bought shortly thereafter (I have a Trumpers Sandalwood waiting in the wings). I'm also pretty close to finishing off an Arco stick and some "White Tea" eShave cream that I use when I feel like punishing myself.

Re: Comment on using up products

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2017 5:08 am
by Ouchmychin
Oh, yes my Arco stick iis down o the last 1/8 ubcg, I'll use it till it falls our of the holder Might try putting it on top of the Valobra that I have in a wooden bowl.