Shave Nation Unbreakable Artisan Lather Bowl

Heavy shaving bowl and looks beautiful than the picture. Love the logo for that extra grip when holding the bowl with my thumb. I have the other Shave Nation bowls and this one feels Premium for sure! Can't wait to use it when I shave and get generous amounts of uber lather like Geo says. Thank you again Shave Nation for making amazing products for the everyday man's shaving needs.

This bowl has quickly become a most essential tool in my shaving routine. It's also a key tool in brush maintenance. It's the last bowl I'll ever need and now the only bowl I'll ever use.

As a boar-brushed obsessed face-latherer that uses harder tallow-based soaps (like Stirling, Mike's, and WSP's Formula T), I was initially reluctant to spend $65 on a bowl (I thought) I'd seldom use; in the end, I'm quite pleased I did, and I no longer miss those sixty-five bucks. You won't either, gentlemen, because Geo designed the perfect lathering bowl that will elevate the performance of your tallow soaps. I now use it daily with each shave.

For context, I use three brushes: an Omega Pro 48, a similarly-sized and styled Zenith boar with a heavy aluminum pro handle, and my daily driver, the 31mm Stirling/Zenith collaboration boar with the oversized pro green resin handle. It's a beast.

It goes without saying that this bowl will whip up Proraso cream (and Mr Selby, DR Harris, GEO F Trumper, Speick, Palmolive, TOBS, etc, & etc, ad nauseum) fast and effectively. I've tried all those listed above and each performed brilliantly coming out of this bowl after a 30-40 second whip & swirl with a boar brush. Because of the shape of the bowl itself, and the gentle lip at the edge, I no longer annoyingly bang the handle of my large brushes when doing an aggressive whip & swirl. And even if I did bang the bowl with my heavy-handled brushes, it wouldn't matter because this thing is indestructible. I watched Geo maul it was a hockey stick and baseball bat for 20 minutes on YouTube before he ran it over with a Jeep. It will handle your brush-handle abuse with grace. The pedestal is also a key design feature, and allows for any number of grip combinations while looking cool and gentlemanly on the sink in between shaves. I purchased the red one, and it adds a nice pop of color to my otherwise dark and windowless bathroom.

I've used this bowl extensively for brush cleaning and maintenance. A quick swirl in a tub of Zingari Man brush cleaner and then a 60 second romp around the Shave Nation Unbreakable Artisan Lather Bowl does the trick. I then follow that up with a few sacrificial bowl lathers of either Proraso or Palmolive to restore the fats to the bristles stripped away during the cleaning. The enameled ridges and the thousands of very subtle and shallow "micro-bumps" in the bowl help generate plenty of friction and air between the metal and the bristles and the soap - it's the perfect combination to effectively clean your brushes, gentlemen, and so this alone is well worth the price point. Given how much time and money we invest in our shaving brushes, they deserve the best kind of cleaning experience, and you'll fine none better than this bowl.

And yet the reason I felt inspired to write the review is how this bowl has elevated my tallow soaps, like the Stirling soap I shaved with yesterday. I'm a big fan of Stirling Soap, and I use their products weekly. The first time I employed the method I describe below was easily the best performance of their soap I've experienced. The lather felt tighter, better-constructed, and thick, soft, and a pleasure to use - it felt very nearly perfect the moment it touched my face and didn't need as much tinkering. The lather was great before, but the bowl elevated the performance to a level I'd not thought previously possible.

I load my brush in a kind of Marco-style that begins by agitating the soap with the sides of a boar for 15-20 seconds, a trick I picked up watching a YouTube video featuring the Scapicchio family of barbers. In this video, Mr. Scapicchio squeezes his Pro 48 to remove excess water and then agitates the soap with the sides of the bristles before taking the brush to the client's face. While the initial side-agitation generates a lot, I continue the load for another 60-90 seconds, whipping and swirling just the tips of the boar - dipping the tips in hot water exactly twice early in the process - which creates a lot of lather in the brush and the jar.

It was at this point that I usually took the brush to the face.

However, I've begun taking the brush to the Shave Nation bowl for an aggressive 30 second whip & swirl. Aggressive means aggressive, gentlemen: whip the brush in the bowl as though you were making mayonnaise from scratch while adding just a touch of hot water to the tips of the brush to dial in the sheen. Doing so will generate an extraordinary amount of thick, yogurty lather that now has a velvet-like and airy softness and texture - it looks like it's ready to explode from out of the brush. I then do a face lather, making final adjustments to the water level before taking the safety razor to my face for a perfect shave. Once the shave is complete and clean-up begins, the rinsed-out bowl serves as the perfect cleaning vessel for my safety razor.

Thanks Geo and Shave Nation for a great product!

Boy was i upset. I broke my ceramic lather bowl. It ruined my day. After I calmed down I ordered a new unbreakable bowl. I like it better then the old one. Over all its a little smaller then the old and It fits better in the hand. The base is a little smaller making for a better grip. Plus with fast shipping i was happy again.

First off, I love Shave Nation. This artisan shave bowl misses the mark. It’s very difficult to build a good lather without losing it over the sides of the bowl. The inside of this bowl is small and not very deep which causes lather to continuously flow over the sides. I regret buying

Shave Nation and Geo are the absolute best and I enjoy supporting such a unique small business. This bowl…so nice I ordered it twice! I’ve been enjoying this quality bowl for a while and recently ordered a second to give as a gift. Super tough quality and works so well. Spend the little extra and get this quality shaving lather bowl. Highly recommended!