Lathering Cella

[Marsom]

What is the most efficient way to lather this soap (in the little red plastic container)?

Best,
Marion

[druphus]

A nice stiff brush, either a 2-band badger, or a boar. I like to use a small brush (rooney 2/1 finest) and lather right out of the "little red pastic container".

[Marsom]

Maybe, one of those two band tulip 2 brushes would be good for that.

[druphus]

Now you are talking Marion. Sounds like a damn fine excuse to get one to me - 22 mm knot! In case you haven't seen it check this out:

http://www.vintagebladesllc.com/vshop/x ... 231&page=1

Or, even the T1, which is also on sale.

[CMur12]

Hi Marion -

I transferred my Cella to a one-cup Pyrex covered bowl, which makes brush access easier.

Regardless of the container, I prefer a boar brush with Cella (Semogue 1305), not because I require any extra backbone, but because Cella aerates more readily and boar aerates less than badger. I lather this soap gently in the early stages to prevent sudsing and to form a tight lather structure.

I can lather Cella with badger, but the process requires even more care early on, to reduce aeration.

I found that Cella is more difficult to rinse out of some pure badger brushes (Omega and Rooney, at least) than it is from boar or silvertip.

- Murray

[drumana]

I use Cella with one of my badger brushes (Rooney 3/1, Chubby 1, 56) and it works equally fine with any of them. I like a rather dense lather and I get it by slowly working the soap with the brush for probably about 30 - 45 seconds.

[m3m0ryleak]

Hi Marion -

I transferred my Cella to a one-cup Pyrex covered bowl, which makes brush access easier.

Regardless of the container, I prefer a boar brush with Cella (Semogue 1305), not because I require any extra backbone, but because Cella aerates more readily and boar aerates less than badger. I lather this soap gently in the early stages to prevent sudsing and to form a tight lather structure.

I can lather Cella with badger, but the process requires even more care early on, to reduce aeration.

I found that Cella is more difficult to rinse out of some pure badger brushes (Omega and Rooney, at least) than it is from boar or silvertip.

- Murray

A second to Murray's suggestion to transfer the Cella out of its Ferrari red plastic pot into a Pyrex bowl with a plastic snap lid, makes a world of difference in lathering.

[Blue As A Jewel]

Hi Marion -

I transferred my Cella to a one-cup Pyrex covered bowl, which makes brush access easier.

Regardless of the container, I prefer a boar brush with Cella (Semogue 1305), not because I require any extra backbone, but because Cella aerates more readily and boar aerates less than badger. I lather this soap gently in the early stages to prevent sudsing and to form a tight lather structure.

I can lather Cella with badger, but the process requires even more care early on, to reduce aeration.

I found that Cella is more difficult to rinse out of some pure badger brushes (Omega and Rooney, at least) than it is from boar or silvertip.

- Murray

3rd it... With the exception I haven't moved it into a different container - the red just looks good! The trick is not to over-aerate the loading of your brush - once loaded with what looks like "crema" from an expresso, you can go to town...

[Flash G]

Hi Marion -

I transferred my Cella to a one-cup Pyrex covered bowl, which makes brush access easier.

Regardless of the container, I prefer a boar brush with Cella (Semogue 1305), not because I require any extra backbone, but because Cella aerates more readily and boar aerates less than badger. I lather this soap gently in the early stages to prevent sudsing and to form a tight lather structure.

I can lather Cella with badger, but the process requires even more care early on, to reduce aeration.

I found that Cella is more difficult to rinse out of some pure badger brushes (Omega and Rooney, at least) than it is from boar or silvertip.

- Murray

3rd it... With the exception I haven't moved it into a different container - the red just looks good! The trick is not to over-aerate the loading of your brush - once loaded with what looks like "crema" from an expresso, you can go to town...

I guess this is what those who struggle with lathering The FAT are doing, too.

[drumana]

I've found that Cella is very easy to lather. It's one of the reasons that it's my go to soap. I don't have the patience for intricate lathering processes first thing in the morning. I just want to whip up a good lather nice and easy.

[95%]

I had Cella for a while. It lived in a coffee mug. Easy to lather; superb shaving performance. The fatty fragrance, however, annoyed and eventually disgusted me, to the point that I had to discard this otherwise excellent soap. I kept the little container, though, as a remembrance, and I use the top and bottom as lids for my other soaps in mugs.

[cymric]

I guess this is what those who struggle with lathering The FAT are doing, too.

And you'd be very wrong.

That said, I intensely dislike the thought of having multiple brushes for different soaps, creams and containers; so in Cella's case I simply took out the soap and put it into a wider bowl where I could at least move the brush (a Rooney 3/1 st) around in circles wider than a few mm. That one should be careful not to over-aerate the proto-lather on the puck applies to all soaps; it isn't limited to Cella: if you consider that the purpose of loading is just to dissolve the soap and/or turn it into a concentrated cream which is then picked up by the knot, then the above statement follows automatically. Mashing, scraping, bashing, they're all signs of a lousy loading technique. Water, gentleness, and persistence are key here.

[Flash G]

I guess this is what those who struggle with lathering The FAT are doing, too.

And you'd be very wrong.

That said, I intensely dislike the thought of having multiple brushes for different soaps, creams and containers; so in Cella's case I simply took out the soap and put it into a wider bowl where I could at least move the brush (a Rooney 3/1 st) around in circles wider than a few mm. That one should be careful not to over-aerate the proto-lather on the puck applies to all soaps; it isn't limited to Cella: if you consider that the purpose of loading is just to dissolve the soap and/or turn it into a concentrated cream which is then picked up by the knot, then the above statement follows automatically. Mashing, scraping, bashing, they're all signs of a lousy loading technique. Water, gentleness, and persistence are key here.

How so? Isn't over-aerating the proto-lather the reason they don't get the cusion in their MWF lather?

[cymric]

Because there is no such thing as 'over-aerating'. You cannot 'over-aerate' a lather: water is always the limiting factor, not air. If you're not convinced, try putting lather in a kitchen mixer. That device is much better at pushing air through the lather than a mere hand-powered brush; it also creates much more powerful shear forces, meaning large bubbles don't stand a chance and are relentlessly torn apart into smaller ones (which is a good thing). You will notice that the lather does not keep on growing in volume beyond a certain point; only adding some water will cause that to happen.

The point about 'over-aerating' as you probably thought of it is that with MWF you easily create a lot of suds which go all over the place instead of staying in the knot and on the puck, thus causing what soap you pick up to leak away. In other words, you want to keep the amount of air down for now, and one does that by loading gently. That's different from 'over-aerating'. You may feel I'm just playing with words here, but a gentle touch will work with any brush, not just a boar or a synthetic one.

In addition, the problem with lathering MWF—at least with me—is not that I cannot get MWF to lather. Despite its gritty appearance, it loads just fine: when I'm done the brush is very unpleasantly soapy if I squeeze it between my fingers. The problem is that I don't agree with the properties MWF lather. If I make the lather dry, it stays bubbly; the stubble on my face then just stabs those bubbles to death, causing the lather to lose consistency and dry up in thin streaks. Any glide is gone at that point. MWF sounds different than most soaps too at this stage: I tend to think of it as 'crispy'. If I make the lather wet I get nice billowing clouds of white solid meringue which feel heavenly... but then it is so wet it just leaks apart on my face in no time. The only way I've been able to get a decent shave is by adding a small amount, about half a pea's worth, of cream (in my case, Musgo Real) to the bowl. This was not to get more soap into the mix, as I could only do about half a pass with the amount of cream I added, but rather to stabilise the lather to the point I could use it. The shave was nice, but I tossed MWF just the same. (Apologies, Wendell.)

I think what bothers most people who begin with MWF is that it simply doesn't behave like, say, Tabac or Speick or Palmolive or ..., in addition to definitely needing more water before the 'solid meringue state' is reached given equal loading times. I feel that if there is one rule about MWF it is that you should meet it on its own terms, and not on the terms of a sort-of common ground which seems to exists in most other soaps. Acca Kappa is another soap which follows its own rules (although I tend to think that product is rather botched), and the same goes for some of the soaps of Olivia's Seifen.

But we were talking loading Cella .

[Flash G]

I'm with you on that

And I totally agree with you about loading soaps. Thanks for the detailed explanation and clarification.

I have no trouble loading MWF with my Vulfix Super, and don't experience your trouble with the lather getting to wet.