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.

Price-2 euro to $8 is a bit of a mark up but it's still a good price for this soap.

Quality-Great, come in a nice plastic container. Although it opens easily, a rubber band could fix that. Mine came with a nice bowl to lather in. Considering that you could easily pay $8 for a shaving mug or bowl, it's not a bad deal.

Scent-Ok, here we go. It smelled like the Godrej shaving soap. If you haven't tried the Godrej, think Irish spring with a hint of cologne. It's pretty strong when you smell straight from the puck but fades a bit when you lather it up. Bad or good is subjective. I prefer more of a natural scent myself. However, I wouldn't kick this soap to the curb just for the scent. It's not terrible. I might try the other scent the next time I buy. It's suppose to be a lemon/pine like scent.

Lather-The thickest I've gotten from a soap or cream. It was very easy to lather too. I used the same lather routine I do for all my shaves and I had no problem. I only bowl lather so I can't comment on whether it face lathers good or not.

Efficacy-Great shave! It performed very similar to a tallow based soap. I didn't see tallow listed on the package but I could of missed something. Not as slick as a glycerin soap but I feel it had very good amount of slick, especially since it provides a sick amount of cushion.

Moisturizing-My face felt fine afterward. Not dry at all. I always splash a bit of Thayer's Lemon Witch Hazel as the last step in the shave routine to bring a bit of moisture back to my face. I don't know whether or not if this soap would dry my face out minus the witch hazel.

The best shaving soap which you can buy from a Dutch brand and also one off the few classic shaving products that you can buy in the Netherlands.

I found the soap lathers very good and the scent is really nice and soft.

If you may be on holiday in The Netherlands, I recommend you to buy some off these because its cheap, can be bought under the € 2.

It is really better then tabac. What more I can say ? Scent is better then tabac, not to strong or "old man " at all. It reminds me English blazer Aftershave, if you like EB its perfect match.

I bought this shaving soap a few weeks ago and I'm shaving with it for last few weeks.

Its sold in the Dutch supermarkets for a low price, I bought this one in Jumbo supermarkt, it costed me € 1,70.

It got a nice scent, but the scent does not smell strong, and its just a normal perfumed soap smell. The brand is quite old btw.

I think the lather I from it is fine, not as much as I have seen people get with Arko. Overall this is a really good soap for the budget shaver like me and very cheap to

Just wanted to put this out on your soap radar. De Vergulde Hand has been making soap for over 450 years. They know what they are doing. While this soap is very, and I mean very inexpensive in Holland (think Arko prices) it is of high quality (again, think Arko)! This soap also has a fairly strong scent which I find much more appealing than Arko, but it is not overpowering nor does it have a long lasting effect. It's a veggie based soap so no tallow but I think the kaolin clay in it makes up for that quite well. While it may be hard to find in the USA you should definitely pick it up if you ever get the opportunity!

De Vergulde Hand Review:
Packaging: The puck comes in a nice sized yet pretty flimsy tub. It's very easy to load in the tub, just don't be very rough with it.

Texture: This is a hard soap that loads easily. Not sure if it's triple milled or not.

Scent: One of my favorites for scent. It is a bit stronger than most. Not overpowering and not terribly long lasting. It does not interfere with my aftershave or cologne.

Latherability: Superb. I don't think I have another soap that lathers this easily.

Cushion: A creamy cushiony lather is very easy to obtain and it protects my face very well. Only severe user error results in blood.

Moisturizing: Definitely not the best in this regard but it also doesn't dry me out or leave my face feeling tight.

Price: Less than $2 I believe in Holland. Getting it here in the US is a bit more costly.

Overall Impression: This soap is definitely one of my top-tier soaps. It easily competes with bigger names and heftier price tags. I'm very thankful to have this soap in my den and will do all I can to keep it stocked so I won't run out.

I think this product is a love or hate product perhaps a bit like tabac in that regard.

I recently became obsessed with wet shaving and on a shopping outing with SWMBO i found this product in a local Dutch pharmacy.

I personally love the scent, though it is an odd one.

The lather is outstanding and I find the overall quality of the soap excellent.

The only down side for me on this soap is it leaves my skin fealing a little dry, but as I try to moisturise after a shave, its not a huge deal for me, but YMMV. Over all for around 3 Euros, this is possibly one of the best soaps for the buck if your into wet shaving as a cost effective way to shave.

I used this when I started wet shaving, some 35 years ago. Back then I could not get a decent lather out of it, and I really disliked the scent. Now I am back into wet shaving and picked up some DVG pucks and sticks. At first I ditched them (only wanted the free mug that came with the puck), but then started to use the soap. Now it lathers like crazy and I get a good shave out of it. I even can stand the scent now. No problems with drying here. Worth a try, tho outside Holland that might not be that easy.

Firstly this is not a tallow based soap lets make that clear, neither do I believe a soap of this price point is likely to be triple milled.
However it does contain Kaolin and Glycerin plus coupled with other fats make this a good performer with plenty of slip and cushion
Personally I love this scent...the Coumarin, Linalool and Limonene give this a lovely spicy floral fruity scent plus a little freshly cut hay. If you can get this soap for a couple of Euros you are lucky but even if you can't it and have to pay a bit more its definitely worth it. Sure the packaging sucks so stick or grate the puck into a better container.

This is a good-performing triple milled soap. It is slick and cushioning. The scent is similar to MWF. My only complaint is that the puck is extremely small and comes in a really cheap popcorn cup.

De Vergulde Hand shaving soap. It comes as either a little plastic tub or a stick. The price is rock bottom: €2 ($2.25) for a 75gr tub. With a price like that, you'd expect the worst.

But no! It lathers up great, rich, creamy, very smooth. The scent is fairly present, and is something you'd either love or loathe. I love it, its a pleasure to my nostrils.

Yes, the lather dries relatively quickly if you don't use enough of it, like said before, use a tad more product and a tad more water. I agree that after the shave it dries the skin a bit. This is where a good balm comes in.

For me it works well, smells good, is ubiquitously available and comes at a price of 1/5 to 1/10 of certain posh brands. There is much to like here, and in addition to that NO animal testing was involved, also a big plus.

It does what it should and does it well, smells really good to me, its cheap and available - It's my mainstay.

I have to say that I feel lucky to live in the Netherlands. I can get this great soap at almost any supermarket for less than 2 euro a puck. This combined with the quality of this products, clearly makes 'De Vergulde Hand' a winner for me. Some folks claim that this soap does not lather very well, my answer to that is simple; use more product. Some other folks claim that this soap dries out on your face very quickly, my answer to that would be to use more water. More product and more water is the key with this soap. Though it is supposedly hard to find outside of the Netherlands, I highly recommend buying it if you can find it.

Ingredients;

sodium stearate, potassium stearate, sodium cocoate, potassium cocoate, aqua, kaolin, glycerin, parfum, sodium chloride, benzyl salicylate, o-tolyl biguanide linalool, amino-tri, limonene, tetrasodium EDTA, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, hexyl cinnamal, coumarin, CI 77891.

I started straight razor shaving quite recently. I started of with using De Vergulde Hand, but it wasn't very good to me. I mean the price is great. It just dries out quickly and even worse, it dries out my skin. As a result I just stopped using De Vergulde Hand.

It costs about €2 in the Netherlands and it gives a very good shave.
The scent is a bit strong and does not fit me (I like natural scents.) but its not a problem.

I recently decided to revisit this old tub of soap---it was the first soap I ever tried (and failed at the time since I had no idea how to use it), then it was the soap I learned my lathering skills on (but I still couldn't shave properly, so it was mostly for naught), but now that I'm more experienced, I could give DVH an honest go.

Scent --- clean and unremarkable. Not awe-inspiring, not addictive, but not as revolting as some members make it out to be either. It gets the job done.

Lather --- excellent stuff. Full, fat, rich, and creamy. It's all there.

Efficacy --- I'm not much of a soap man as I tend to get a little less close shaves with soaps as I do with creams. But if I compare to other soaps I know (not many, I should add), it gets the job done without hassle.

Moisturising --- the rub of this product. It has a tendency to leave my skin a tad on the dry side, undoubtedly because it simply cannot contain as much hydrating agents and other emolients as a cream. Since I do not use balms, there is a bit of uncomfortable tightness which lasts for about an hour or so.

Price --- ~ €2 for 75 grams. That's a steal.

Quality --- Very, very good quality for money. In terms of shaving performance this product leaves nothing to be desired. Unfortunately, it gets 1 point deduction because of the moisturisation problem. Were I forced to select a product costing less than €5 a puck or tube, this would be on the no. 1 spot.

Price -- Can't beat 2 Euros.

Quality -- The quality of the product is fine. Nothing extraordinary, not shoddy.


Scent -- I actually really enjoyed the scent, but I appear to be in the minority on this. My wife also like the scent.


Lather -- The later for me was good, not excellent, but good. Dense, cushiony, proctective.

Efficacy -- Serviceable, but again, no reason to go out of your way to buy this soap. Far better than other low price options, aka Williams.

Moisturizing -- Here is where the soap really breaks down for me. It does not moisturize well, and seemed to irritate my skin a little. Even after applying a very moisturizing aftershave balm, my neck still felt a little irritated and poorly shaven.

All in all a nice tallow soap, but when compared to Tabac, MWF, Trumpers, it simply doesn't stack up. Although cheap, it's rarity in most markets will mean that for most people, it is not worth it to go out of their way to get this soap. When in Amsterdam however, it may make sense to take a little side trip, at ~2 Euros you have not much to lose.

I lived in Leiden for several years, and don't remember ever seeing this stuff anywhere. Actually, I'm not sure why I even decided to order a tub, but saw it on TSD's storefront and added it to my order.

The first that struck me was this stuff is packaged like Cup 'O Soup: a small, round Styrofoam container with a breakaway plastic lid. Very odd, and I don't think it will hold up well to moisture.

Unlike the other reviewers, I like the clean, soapy smell. Nothing that outstanding, but not the nasty scent that others have commented on. I tried several times to make and use a bowl lather, which whipped up well but dried so quickly on my face that I went to good old face lathering. The face lather seemed a bit richer but didn't really last much longer and had to be refreshed with a damp brush several times during each pass.

It's reasonably slick, but not overly so and the shave (with a twice-used IP blade) was average. Frankly, it doesn't seem to provide a much better shave than my $1 puck of Williams (tho I like Vergulde's scent MUCH better).

I'm glad I tried it, but at $10 I won't ever be replacing this soap.

I bought one of these soaps when I saw them on the shelves in a "Kruidvat" store over here in Belgium.
My first impressions were not that good, the packaging seemed a bit weird but nevertheless I tried it with an open mind, certainly as I saw that this soap has been around for more than 430 years !!.
The first thing that I noticed was the smell, I must admit that I was not quite fond of it, but in time it sort of grew on me, and I actually enjoy it now.
The soap lathers up great, but you need to put in a little more effort to find a nice water/air balance. The thing that really bothers me with this soap is that it doesn't moisturize your face, but then again I have really sensitive skin, also I find that your shave lacks some slickness with this product.
All in all it's a decent budget soap that will not let you down if you don't suffer from sensitive skin.