My most recent purchases

[Fletch]

Today I opted to try hitting the mall to see if there were any places I could find some shaving cream/soaps. As it stands right now I only have one soap I use. I thought I had a Crabtree & Evelyn at the one I went to but I was mistaken. The only place that looked promising was "The Body Shop" so I figured I'd give it a shot. Upon walking in a woman asks me "Do you need help finding anything" I asked if they had any shaving creams and she replied yes and led me over to a spot where I grabbed this which I believe I saw in one of Mantic's vids for $10:

Then when leaving my wife said "Oh let's drive to The Christmas Tree Store/shop (I forget what which it is). While wondering around seeing if I could possibly find another shave bowl to use I noticed this where the shaving stuff was:

It was 5 bucks so I figure why not give it a shot, it's made by Van Der Hagen. I know nothing about this one I figured I'd ask you guys, maybe junk or maybe I can mix it with the Bigelow and get some kind of super lather??. I figure for a total of $15 it can't put too much of a dent in my shave den budget so I'd add it to my meager collection.

Anyone have any input on either of these? Thanks in advance.

 

[rhmills]

You got a pretty good deal on the VDH with the bowl.

 

[Xezmer]

Agreed. I love my VDH bowl

 

[Masterblaster]

You should have some great fun with your purchases.

For an extra thrill put some of that C.O. Bigalow cream in with the VDH soap.

makes a great superlather.

 

[Fletch]

Agreed. I love my VDH bowl

Do you use the bowl for just holding a puck or do you use it to lather?

I also grabbed an oversized mug while I was at The Christmas Tree store for 2 bucks that I was going to use for a lathering mug as well.

This leads me to another question for those of you who use soaps.... Do you gave multiple bowls/cups for each puck? The one I have now I "glued" in place with some water before I used it so not exactly sure how easy I'm getting it out should I want to use a different puck. There is basically no "wiggle room" around the sides of the puck and the mug so getting it out seems a challenge.

So I'm wondering if I get different soaps do I need to have "x" amount of mugs holding each soap ?

Also for anyone who happens to have those stores nearby them you can grab some supplies. Christmas Tree store also had another brand of cream in a container but I forgot the name of it unfortunately, but again it was only like 5 bucks as well, and the same company also had shave oil at the store.

 

[Xezmer]

Different soap, different cup. AoS goes in the wood bowl. MWF goes in the VDH bowl. Tabac goes in the old spice mug. So on- and so forth

 

[Fletch]

So basically the way it works is different bowls/mugs for every product? If my den keeps growing I'm going to have to take over some part of the house I guess to hold everything.

 

[Umbranaut]

Next time you'r in Bath & Body Works check out the C. O. Bigelow aftershaves Fletch.

 

[HoosierTrooper]

Or, a much cheaper alternative if looks aren't important is to pick up some small Gladware/Tupperware type containers with lids to store your pucks in. They work just as well as the more expensive bowls and stack well if you store them under a cabinet. And they're shatterproof.

A decent sized coffee mug or soup bowl works fine to make the lather in. Look around the local thrift stores, these things can be found there if you dig around a little.

 

[Fletch]

You should have some great fun with your purchases.

For an extra thrill put some of that C.O. Bigalow cream in with the VDH soap.

makes a great superlather.

I did a shave tonight doing that same thing. Although I don't know if it qualified as a genuine super lather. I just loaded the brush and then put some C.O. in the bowl and went to town. Building a decent lather seemed a bit more challenging for me than when I used my usual soap. Then after getting it to be fairly good I didn't realize I had too much water in the sink. When I set my bowl down into to keep it warm it tipped too far and got too wet so I had to start over again. I will say I did enjoy the shave with the C.O. though, seemed to have a nice menthol type of feeling after I was done.

Next I'll have to try it mixed with my usual soap (Provence Sante Green Tea soap) and then run it on it's own.

 

[Judge Kemp]

Both the C.O. Bigelow and the VDH soap are great. Someone earlier mentioned mixing them. I agree with that. load up the soap on the brush, put a dabo of C.O. Bigelow on there and go to town building your lather. Awesome stuff.