O.K. heres my story, we are new to the backcountry skiing thing and not fully understanding skin treatment. With this being said we skinned up the mountain and around to a lake at the lake i began to notice my left ski seemed to drag.hmmmm we rested and i cleaned the skin which had a small build up on the inside edge, very shortly after it built up worse and im sure you know where this is going. With 5 kms to go i had a ski with 3 inches of snow and ice from pretty much front to back. What is the proper method of application for glob stopper i bought the wax stick and the liquid? The label says one way to apply it and on line forums suggest a different way.

I use the purple skin wax found at MEC.

I just lightly rub on to my skins before a day on wet gloppy snow, applied with the grain of the skin, not against. I keep it with me in my pack should i need to apply more.

Glop Stopper Wax by BD! (Any glide wax will do, but it's a handy shape/size...)

ok here is where i am confused (a little)you way to apply with the grain of the skin and BD glop stopper "says rub the wax into the plush of the climbing skin"? i intrepret that as rubbing in all directions to get the shit inside all over.
And the BD freeglide skin care says start at the front of the skin and work liquid into the fibres and allow to dry. No mention on any of going with the grain?? I'm leaning more to listening to my fellow skinners out there more than the label.

Your overthinking this. Just rub the shit (wax) on, works fine.

^^^ with the grain! (Just to had to, sorry!)

With the BD wax I go both ways....has been working great, luckily we only have to use it in spring around here.

Too easy. Waaaaaay too easy.

I haven't gone against the grain, have to try it this spring. Yes, luckily we only use it in the spring.

I better get some of this shit and rub it in too [)] our freezing levels are like a freaking yoyo again. Never had a skinning problem yet, but I rarely get out and try to avoid clumpy snow.

It's imperative to avoid contacting any water with the skins: sometimes lakes will have water near the edges, or skinning up a logging road there's a small stream running across... once your skins get wet with water it's extremely difficult to stop them from balling up & a major pain in the ass to deal with at that point.

Whatever product you choose, the trick is that for it to work well, you have to decide at the start of the day whether you think you will need it or not. As Biffybee says, once your skins get too wet and start to glom up in the middle of a tour, it's pretty much too late.

Putting it on for every tour covers you, but it's easy to forget on a cold morning, or the night before, that you may be skiing in warm, wet snow later in the day.

I hope you're gentle when "going both ways". I've always been concerned with damaging my skins in the grip direction so I abstain with "going both ways". I've found the skin wax to work fine for me, but I do keep the little blob with me in my pack to re-apply, have only needed to do this once.

I use it for spring mostly, even on the coast, our powder isn't always that wet, at least its deep and bonds nicely to steep pitches!!!

I hope you're gentle when "going both ways". I've always been concerned with damaging my skins in the grip direction so I abstain with "going both ways"
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I've heard suddenly going both ways without any practice can be very painful in the backside!

From your description, it's not clear if the actually wetting and subsequent freezing of your skins occurred after skiing across the lake or a portion of the lake...Even in very cold temps, pressure cracks in lake ice often allow some water to move up onto the top of the ice and beneath the snow. I've seen people pick-up some water this way and all the wax in the world won't help in that situation.

Otherwise, I'd go with the folks who suggest being gentle on the against the grain application. Some skins are much tougher than others...

I have to wonder if I'm the only one blushing while reading this??? lol