Hi,
I have been working on breaking in some new brushes and wanted to use a less costly soap alternative. I ordered 12 sticks of Arko, partly because it is the only soap I remember my father using in his early life. When it is first opened, the scent reminds me of laundry detergent. That dwindles down to the scent of a mild lemon soap after a few days. It works very well, but I found that it dries my face a bit. Based on the initial smell and this observation, I think that Arko has a high detergent content. A few days ago, I finished my first Arko stick and pressed a new one into my soap bowel. This time, however, I added about 1/4th of a puck of Van Der Hagen soap. I just cut the VDH into small pieces with a butter knife and pressed the pieces into the Arko.
The lather this combination produces is quite impressive. It is thicker and slicker than the standard Arko lather and much thicker than the VDH lather. It does not dry my face to any degree.
I got into wet shaving about 7 or 8 years ago and spent a significant amount of time optimizing the combination of my DE razor and blade. Recently, I started reading this forum again and became very interested in boar and synthetic brushes. In the past few weeks I have purchased more soaps and brushes than I will be able to use in the foreseeable future; the folks at Connaught are probably tired of shipping things to my address . Basically, I am now experimenting with the "badger" and soap component of wet shaving.
In any case, 12 sticks of Arko can be purchased for around $16 and a puck of VDH Deluxe is around $2.50. If your interest in wet shaving is based on economics, I would recommend trying this combination. Alternatively, other people here have mentioned the exchange rate between the Dollar and the British Pound is near all-time lows. You can get great deals on shaving supplies from the UK. Connaught has given me so much free shipping, that I really do owe them some amount of promotion.
I have been working on breaking in some new brushes and wanted to use a less costly soap alternative. I ordered 12 sticks of Arko, partly because it is the only soap I remember my father using in his early life. When it is first opened, the scent reminds me of laundry detergent. That dwindles down to the scent of a mild lemon soap after a few days. It works very well, but I found that it dries my face a bit. Based on the initial smell and this observation, I think that Arko has a high detergent content. A few days ago, I finished my first Arko stick and pressed a new one into my soap bowel. This time, however, I added about 1/4th of a puck of Van Der Hagen soap. I just cut the VDH into small pieces with a butter knife and pressed the pieces into the Arko.
The lather this combination produces is quite impressive. It is thicker and slicker than the standard Arko lather and much thicker than the VDH lather. It does not dry my face to any degree.
I got into wet shaving about 7 or 8 years ago and spent a significant amount of time optimizing the combination of my DE razor and blade. Recently, I started reading this forum again and became very interested in boar and synthetic brushes. In the past few weeks I have purchased more soaps and brushes than I will be able to use in the foreseeable future; the folks at Connaught are probably tired of shipping things to my address . Basically, I am now experimenting with the "badger" and soap component of wet shaving.
In any case, 12 sticks of Arko can be purchased for around $16 and a puck of VDH Deluxe is around $2.50. If your interest in wet shaving is based on economics, I would recommend trying this combination. Alternatively, other people here have mentioned the exchange rate between the Dollar and the British Pound is near all-time lows. You can get great deals on shaving supplies from the UK. Connaught has given me so much free shipping, that I really do owe them some amount of promotion.
