Van Der Hagen - Scented Luxury Soap

[Jimsr]

I used to use VDH Luxury. I would melt it in the microwave wand thenblend in about two inches of C P Bigalow. I like the Luxury but this made it even better.
Then I siacovered Haslinger. I still like the VDH, but just like the Haslinger better. The VDH would last about 3 1/2 months. I'm getting 6+ months on a puck of Haslinger.

 

[Squirrel]

I always keep a puck on hand. Just a good reliable no nonsense glycerine soap.

 

[BigJ]

Well worth the $ IMO, in fact it punches above its weight.

 

[icimachine]

This is a great (economical too) product. Wet the soap and brush, go about stuff for 10 minutes, return & it just works.

 

[riverstyxxx]

Found a new one at the flea market last weekend for $2 and said why not. Swirled the puck with my brush for, about 30 seconds, and it lathered on real nice. It smells great too. But the performance was not up to standard. Tried using it with thickness and then with more water, more water helped but it didn't fix the problem. I had dragging issues and after the first pass just gave up and switched. I felt some noticeable burn on my face which I thought was unusual. For a couple of dollars its worth the price of admission, if it works great, if not then whatever.

 

[jaxstraww]

With all the great options available no way I'd try VDH again.

Sent from my S8+ using Tapatalk

 

[steelhead52]

When I'm in a hurry, I can get a pretty good two pass shave from VDH. Most days I shoot for a 4 pass BBS and just can't do it with VDH. It is one of just a couple of soaps that ended up getting used up in the shower. For the price, I guess I could't complain.

 

[heyello]

I think it's a very good soap, pretty nice light scent, very slick as and easy to lather, decent post shave. For the price i don't think you can really beat it.

 

[jaxstraww]

I think it's a very good soap, pretty nice light scent, very slick as and easy to lather, decent post shave. For the price i don't think you can really beat it.

Sure, for the price it's a good soap. But for $15 you can buy a great tub that will last 4-6 months depending how you shave.

The satisfaction I get between $3 and $15 is not enough to save $12.

Sent from my S8+ using Tapatalk

 

[heyello]

Sure, for the price it's a good soap. But for $15 you can buy a great tub that will last 4-6 months depending how you shave.

The satisfaction I get between $3 and $15 is not enough to save $12.

Sent from my S8+ using Tapatalk

There are definitely better soaps out there, and by all means they're worth every penny, but if you're trying to save money you're not going to be disappointed with this soap. VDH will definitely last you 4-6 months as well, it's a very hard puck and doesn't require a lot of lathering.

 

[skibik]

Sure, for the price it's a good soap. But for $15 you can buy a great tub that will last 4-6 months depending how you shave.

The satisfaction I get between $3 and $15 is not enough to save $12.

Sent from my S8+ using Tapatalk

And for $15 you can buy lousy tub of soap and VDH Luxury will beat those hands down, ask me how I know! A couple of those lousy soaps I bought cost over 15 times the amount that puck of VDH did and for me they could not compete with this soap. Again, ones own opinion.

 

[heyello]

And for $15 you can buy lousy tub of soap and VDH Luxury will beat those hands down, ask me how I know! A couple of those lousy soaps I bought cost over 15 times the amount that puck of VDH did and for me they could not compete with this soap. Again, ones own opinion.

I wouldn't call those tubs of soap lousy, they are definitely far and beyond better than VDH. They have very clean ingredients with no nasty preservatives or whitening agents, sometimes essential oils instead of manufactured fragrances with strange chemical compounds. VDH isn't bad by any means, but when you look at what your getting, you are definitely getting what you pay for.

 

[tipster_621]

Yes, the VdH Luxury soap is great! Nice and slick, and the scent won't compete with your aftershave. I use it when I want to use my Aqua Velva Musk AS, or The Veg! I don't know exactly how to describe the scent, but the word peppery comes to my mind when I smell it.

Don't let the low price, or where it's sold deter you from trying it. Even if you don't like it, you're only out about $4.

 

[skibik]

I wouldn't call those tubs of soap lousy, they are definitely far and beyond better than VDH. They have very clean ingredients with no nasty preservatives or whitening agents, sometimes essential oils instead of manufactured fragrances with strange chemical compounds. VDH isn't bad by any means, but when you look at what your getting, you are definitely getting what you pay for.

If I was to look at what I was paying for then I really should have expected miracles with MdC Fougere but at $60 it was no better(actually worse in my book as far as performance/slickness) than that puck of VDH Luxury at around $3.50. I certainly expected MdC to be the soap of all soaps but what a let down. Latest premium purchase that was a big waste of money was Xpec Original, I have to admit that was a pretty good soap but the scent reminded me of my dentist office. How would I compare it to VDH? About the same in performance and I can say I don't mind the scent of VDH, but can't say that about Xpec. Luckily I only paid $40 for it and at that price it still wasn't worth it.

If VDH had put a $10 or a $15 price tag on it and, I repeat AND, put it in a nice tub I don't think people would be knocking it as much as they do. In my book it is a good soap period, it just happens to be cheap. It makes for a good starter soap, it is easy to lather, it has nice slickness(if it doesn't try loading it like you stole it), nice post shave feel and to top it off it has a great price tag.

So, if I am getting what I am paying for in VDH I can say I am getting a lot more for my money than the 20+ other shave soaps/creams on my shelf.

 

[heyello]

If I was to look at what I was paying for then I really should have expected miracles with MdC Fougere but at $60 it was no better(actually worse in my book as far as performance/slickness) than that puck of VDH Luxury at around $3.50. I certainly expected MdC to be the soap of all soaps but what a let down. Latest premium purchase that was a big waste of money was Xpec Original, I have to admit that was a pretty good soap but the scent reminded me of my dentist office. How would I compare it to VDH? About the same in performance and I can say I don't mind the scent of VDH, but can't say that about Xpec. Luckily I only paid $40 for it and at that price it still wasn't worth it.

If VDH had put a $10 or a $15 price tag on it and, I repeat AND, put it in a nice tub I don't think people would be knocking it as much as they do. In my book it is a good soap period, it just happens to be cheap. It makes for a good starter soap, it is easy to lather, it has nice slickness(if it doesn't try loading it like you stole it), nice post shave feel and to top it off it has a great price tag.

So, if I am getting what I am paying for in VDH I can say I am getting a lot more for my money than the 20+ other shave soaps/creams on my shelf.

nobody was talking about something that's literally 57 bucks more than VDH, we were talkin about the 12-14 dollar range. Which in my book is definitely where the best soaps out there are, barrister and mann, stirling, PAA/crown king, MWF, etc. all of them definitely do perform better than VDH and you certainly get what you pay for.

As for thinking no one would knock VDH if it was 15 bucks and in a nice tub, i completely disagree. The ingredient list doesn't even compare to that of artisans, and while the performance isn't bad by any means, it certainly wouldn't be worth 10-15 bucks. I'm not trying to say VDH is bad, because it's not, but it's not as good as the artisan soaps out there; it's even as good some classics like, tabac, and arko, proraso. VDH is the bare minimum done nearly perfect, but these other soaps are doing so much more, and are absolutely worth it in my book.

 

[skibik]

nobody was talking about something that's literally 57 bucks more than VDH, we were talkin about the 12-14 dollar range. Which in my book is definitely where the best soaps out there are, barrister and mann, stirling, PAA/crown king, MWF, etc. all of them definitely do perform better than VDH and you certainly get what you pay for.

As for thinking no one would knock VDH if it was 15 bucks and in a nice tub, i completely disagree. The ingredient list doesn't even compare to that of artisans, and while the performance isn't bad by any means, it certainly wouldn't be worth 10-15 bucks. I'm not trying to say VDH is bad, because it's not, but it's not as good as the artisan soaps out there; it's even as good some classics like, tabac, and arko, proraso. VDH is the bare minimum done nearly perfect, but these other soaps are doing so much more, and are absolutely worth it in my book.

It is your opinion that Stirling, PAA, MWF perform better than VDH, I say they don't which is why I either sold them or threw them in the trash. Again ones own opinion. I have one B&M soap I just acquired, is it better than VDH, no, is it worse than VDH. Only difference is the price. And I certainly would rather lather up a puck of VDH than a puck of MWF any day of the week.

What does it matter the cost difference between soap whether it be $10 or $60? You and everyone else thinks you need to spend your savings account to buy a so called good soap when in reality you don't. Again ask me how I know!!!!! VDH seems to be ridiculed for being so cheap yet it seems to out perform a lot of soaps from $8 to $60 from my experience.

Signing off so pick this response apart all you want. I'm out!

 

[heyello]

It is your opinion that Stirling, PAA, MWF perform better than VDH, I say they don't which is why I either sold them or threw them in the trash. Again ones own opinion. I have one B&M soap I just acquired, is it better than VDH, no, is it worse than VDH. Only difference is the price. And I certainly would rather lather up a puck of VDH than a puck of MWF any day of the week.

What does it matter the cost difference between soap whether it be $10 or $60? You and everyone else thinks you need to spend your savings account to buy a so called good soap when in reality you don't. Again ask me how I know!!!!! VDH seems to be ridiculed for being so cheap yet it seems to out perform a lot of soaps from $8 to $60 from my experience.

Signing off so pick this response apart all you want. I'm out!

I get where you coming from, it's all YMMV, use whatever works for you. It is factual though, that the ingredients in stirling, paa, and B&M are better and cleaner than those of VDH. There's also quite a large difference between 10 and 60 dollars lol, so i don't really know what your point is. I can't personally say anything about MDc since i've never used it and never will because it costs 60 bucks. I also don't think you're gonna be breaking the bank by spending 12-15 bucks on a tub of soap that'll last you a good 6 months or so.

 

[Rich lathers]

I personally like this soap. It has a silky smooth lather. It always gave me a close comfortable shave. In fact I would be using it now if I was not taking part in the Williams challenge. It is the only soap sold locally here besides Willy.

 

[skibik]

I get where you coming from, it's all YMMV, use whatever works for you. It is factual though, that the ingredients in stirling, paa, and B&M are better and cleaner than those of VDH. There's also quite a large difference between 10 and 60 dollars lol, so i don't really know what your point is. I can't personally say anything about MDc since i've never used it and never will because it costs 60 bucks. I also don't think you're gonna be breaking the bank by spending 12-15 bucks on a tub of soap that'll last you a good 6 months or so.

Not sure why I am responding thought I clicked unwatch, but maybe I need to explain it better.

Factual, unless you are a chemist you wouldn't know whether any of those soaps ingredients are better than VDH. I actually don't think you even compared ingredients in any of the soaps you mentioned. I picked Stirling as I had a couple samples that I tossed in the garbage and the ingredients are very similar and the difference being with VDH is vegan based and Stirling being a tallow based(the one I picked). You can't say one soap has better ingredients than the other. When I started with shave soaps/creams I was documenting ingredients in a few soaps because VDH didn't give me what I would say felt like a chemical burn on my face when a couple soaps did and I noted all ingredients in a number of soaps I had bought. That got tiresome trying to find the one ingredient and narrowed it down to the fragrance being used and now if I get even a tingle on the face I just don't use them, collect them up, throw them in a box and sell them as a lot here.

My point to the dollar amount: you are the one that said "But for $15 you can buy a great tub that will last 4-6 months depending how you shave", my point(all along) is I am saying no you don't whether you spend $10 or $60 it isn't the dollar amount spent it is how well it performs, thought I was clear about the performance point in the last response, but guess I wasn't. Just because you spent $15, $30 or even $60 doesn't make it a better soap because you spent more for it. Don't believe me just go ask a Williams Mug soap user and see if they need to spend more than a buck to get a better soap. This soap happens to cost less than $4 and has outperformed soaps costing 15 times or more than that(my comparison about this is soap I have bought and sold). My current inventory, besides VDH, of over 20 soaps/creams that range $8 to $35(having gotten rid of MdC and Xpec). Does any of them outperform VDH? Only a few of them and by the narrowest of margins that it would be hard to tell. Any new soaps I get if they don't compare in performance aren't worth having. Now before I read your response of "if VDH is so good why so many soaps" or some such remark I have all those other soaps for the same reason most do and that is for the scent. If VDH had a line of scents besides Scented or Unscented I would likely have a lot less of the more expensive soaps and have more VDH.

Conclusion, you are right when you say it is a YMMV thing. You are completely wrong when you say you need to spend $15 to get a "great" tub of soap.

I hope this explains what I am saying better, if not, oh well I tried!

 

[heyello]

Not sure why I am responding thought I clicked unwatch, but maybe I need to explain it better.

Factual, unless you are a chemist you wouldn't know whether any of those soaps ingredients are better than VDH. I actually don't think you even compared ingredients in any of the soaps you mentioned. I picked Stirling as I had a couple samples that I tossed in the garbage and the ingredients are very similar and the difference being with VDH is vegan based and Stirling being a tallow based(the one I picked). You can't say one soap has better ingredients than the other. When I started with shave soaps/creams I was documenting ingredients in a few soaps because VDH didn't give me what I would say felt like a chemical burn on my face when a couple soaps did and I noted all ingredients in a number of soaps I had bought. That got tiresome trying to find the one ingredient and narrowed it down to the fragrance being used and now if I get even a tingle on the face I just don't use them, collect them up, throw them in a box and sell them as a lot here.

My point to the dollar amount: you are the one that said "But for $15 you can buy a great tub that will last 4-6 months depending how you shave", my point(all along) is I am saying no you don't whether you spend $10 or $60 it isn't the dollar amount spent it is how well it performs, thought I was clear about the performance point in the last response, but guess I wasn't. Just because you spent $15, $30 or even $60 doesn't make it a better soap because you spent more for it. Don't believe me just go ask a Williams Mug soap user and see if they need to spend more than a buck to get a better soap. This soap happens to cost less than $4 and has outperformed soaps costing 15 times or more than that(my comparison about this is soap I have bought and sold). My current inventory, besides VDH, of over 20 soaps/creams that range $8 to $35(having gotten rid of MdC and Xpec). Does any of them outperform VDH? Only a few of them and by the narrowest of margins that it would be hard to tell. Any new soaps I get if they don't compare in performance aren't worth having. Now before I read your response of "if VDH is so good why so many soaps" or some such remark I have all those other soaps for the same reason most do and that is for the scent. If VDH had a line of scents besides Scented or Unscented I would likely have a lot less of the more expensive soaps and have more VDH.

Conclusion, you are right when you say it is a YMMV thing. You are completely wrong when you say you need to spend $15 to get a "great" tub of soap.

I hope this explains what I am saying better, if not, oh well I tried!

I have a feeling you don't understand what I've been saying at all, I never said that you NEED to spend more money to get better soap, that's not how the world works. I've also never said that VDH isn't good, it just has a lot of preservatives in it, as well as a whitening agent, whereas none of the artisan soaps have any of those. So you're paying for something with cleaner ingredients, the base ingredients are perfectly fine for VDH, it's the additives that are the problem, but they need to be there since it's sold all over the country and sits on store shelves, unlike artisan soaps.

Also, yes some soaps will give you a burn and irritate your skin, some fragrance oils, and even essential oils just don't agree with certain peoples skin, and there really isn't anything else you can do other than sell or bin it. My whole point is, VDH is great, very inexpensive soap that performs well, but there are soaps out there that are better IMO and only cost a bit more.