De Vergulde Hand shaving soap bowl

Introduction

De Vergulde Hand is the most famous and oldest Dutch shaving brand that still has the classic shaving soap for sale. De Vergulde Hand is next to the oldest Dutch shaving brand also probably the oldest registered shaving brand in the world, namely 460 years old.


De Vergulde Hand Nostalgia

De Vergulde Hand seems to be quite popular among foreigners and people are apparently willing to pay three times so much for it. I must confess that I have difficulty to understand why this shaving soap is so popular among foreigners.

By the way De Vergulde Hand is translated in English to The Gilded Hand.

Packaging

De Vergulde Hand Shaving Soap comes in a small cheap plastic tub containing the shaving soap puck.



I personally think the packaging of De Vergulde Hand is very practical to use, and it is also very easy to load the shaving brush full with shaving soap. I also find that the packaging has quite a retro look, and I personally find that nice.



The most beautiful thing about the shaving soap I think is actually the fancy-looking logo, and in a wooden shaving soap bowl that also looks very luxury.

Performance and scent

I personally find the performance of this shaving soap average and shaving soap is easy to whip into a thick rich lather, and a shaving brush fully filled with lather enough for three passes.



The quality of the lather is basically good and also doesn't dry on the skin, and also makes sure that the safety razor can glide smoothly over the skin. However during the shaves I noticed that the lather doesn't protect the skin good, and I think this is a very important feature a lather should have.

The scent is best described as a classic fresh soap scent with a hint of citrus, and personally I find the scent doesn't smell old fashioned and perhaps it is precisely the scent why De Vergulde Hand is so popular among foreigners.

Price and availability

Remark group the company behind De Vergulde Hand does basically not export De Vergulde Hand outside the Netherlands. However some vendors like West Coast Shaving sell it for $ 7,99 and you can always ask a Dutch guy like me.

In the Netherlands De Vergulde Hand is sold for € 1,79 in drugstores and supermarkets, and sometimes there is a promotion for De Vergulde Hand.

Conclusion

I personally consider De Vergulde Hand Shaving Soap as an average shaving soap, and that is mainly because this shaving soap doesn't protect the skin good during the shaving.

Despite the inferior performance of this shaving soap, I still think De Vergulde Hand Shaving Soap offers a good value mainly because its a long lasting shaving soap.

Price: It is not possible to get more for 2$.

Quality: Puck well presented, but is made of plastic. Soap in general is of good quality.

Scent: Very light scent. Not disturbing. Some people love it and some hate it. Slight citrus accent. It hardly lingers on your face. Thus, strength is fairly low.

Lather: It is pretty easy to lather. However, the proportion water/soap is critical. If you let it sit on your face, it dries quite fast, so one has to take a good control of water/soap ratio. Once is mastered, it is a rather good soap. As comparison, even though one fully loads the brush, lather will be less slick as that of Tabac.

Efficacy: You can get very good shaves with it. It depends of course of your razor/blade combination. But it provides enough slickness to protect your face while allowing your razor to easily glide along your face and cut all whiskers.

Moisturizing: It could have been an 8. When sitting on your face, lather can dry pretty quick. But with the right ratio of water/soap, I have not found this product lacks in moisturizing properties as compared to others.

Makes a good lather. The scent is nice, it has a smell that reminds me of Irish Spring, they smell nothing alike, but they are in the same category to me, a very deodorant fresh smell which is awesome. I wish the lid kind of snapped onto the container, that's a bout my only complaint. I don't think you can go wrong with this soap. Just take the time to learn how to use it.