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Vander Hagen Soap Review

I bought this just because it's what is available at the grocery store down the street. It was 2.50 so I didn't have high expectations. I had no idea what I was fling or what to expect.

I am just very impressed with this product. It makes a good lather and is pretty slick. Easy to load on a brush from the puck and builds lather pretry quickly.

It seems to be high structure and holds stiff peaks.

Major drawback is its rather drying to the skin.

Major pluses. Price. Omg so cheap. Also longevity. This puck refuses to die. I keep using it and using it and it's still like not even half way done.

Of you don't use moisturizer I would not recommend if you use this, but everyone should use moisturizer

I followed a lather tutorial and got this.

That's a lot of lather!

The razor was so so meh, but their soap is impressive. It is not significantly different than the PAA which cost 10 times the price.
I am comparing unscented of both though, and I assume that like candles a lot of the price is in the scent. Which I didn't buy.
 

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I keep the puck in an old tea tin. This is like still going strong after a a couple months of playing.
 

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I keep the puck in an old tea tin. This is like still going strong after a a couple months of playing.
Hi Oliviamaynard, Looks like you have a puck of the Van Der Hagen (VDH) Luxury shave soap from the picture, please confirm.

If so this is good soap. It lathers well and produces excellent slickness. I have a puck and get great results with my plissoft Monster shaving brush so not surprised that your Yaqi synthetic also works well with this soap.

Van Der Hagen added glycerin and mango butter to their original Deluxe soap formula to create the Luxury soap. They then reformulated the lower cost Deluxe version that produces good lather with less slickness. Most retailers replaced the Deluxe with Luxury in their assortments moving customers from a $2-2.50 to roughly $4 price point. Where I am Deluxe can only be ordered from Walgreens or Amazon on-line. I use it in a blend with Williams and Ivory (40% VDH, 40% Williams, 20% Ivory) called IvanDerWilliams to deliver great lather from the VDH surfectants with excellent slickness from the Williams and Ivory.

My post Van Der Hagen can be found via the link below (scroll down the thread to find it) and is part of a larger thread regarding the Deluxe soap


IvanDerWilliams post that explains how I arrived at the above recipe is here:

Ivan Der Williams Shave Soap Blend for Ideal Lather and Slickness - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/ivan-der-williams-shave-soap-blend-for-ideal-lather-and-slickness.605633/

Note that since I acquired my first good boar brush a few weeks ago (believe you saw my post on this) I'm now generating lather from Williams alone that is as good as my IvanDerWilliams. Williams is a bargain here at 99 cents at our local Wegmans. Same with the VDH Deluxe at $1.72 when on sale at Walgreens.
 
Hi Oliviamaynard, Looks like you have a puck of the Van Der Hagen (VDH) Luxury shave soap from the picture, please confirm.

If so this is good soap. It lathers well and produces excellent slickness. I have a puck and get great results with my plissoft Monster shaving brush so not surprised that your Yaqi synthetic also works well with this soap.

Van Der Hagen added glycerin and mango butter to their original Deluxe soap formula to create the Luxury soap. They then reformulated the lower cost Deluxe version that produces good lather with less slickness. Most retailers replaced the Deluxe with Luxury in their assortments moving customers from a $2-2.50 to roughly $4 price point. Where I am Deluxe can only be ordered from Walgreens or Amazon on-line. I use it in a blend with Williams and Ivory (40% VDH, 40% Williams, 20% Ivory) called IvanDerWilliams to deliver great lather from the VDH surfectants with excellent slickness from the Williams and Ivory.

My post Van Der Hagen can be found via the link below (scroll down the thread to find it) and is part of a larger thread regarding the Deluxe soap


IvanDerWilliams post that explains how I arrived at the above recipe is here:

Ivan Der Williams Shave Soap Blend for Ideal Lather and Slickness - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/ivan-der-williams-shave-soap-blend-for-ideal-lather-and-slickness.605633/

Note that since I acquired my first good boar brush a few weeks ago (believe you saw my post on this) I'm now generating lather from Williams alone that is as good as my IvanDerWilliams. Williams is a bargain here at 99 cents at our local Wegmans. Same with the VDH Deluxe at $1.72 when on sale at Walgreens.
I am.actually not sure if it's the luxury version or not. I bet it is cause I bought it at the fancy grocery store.

Yeah it's prerry good
 
I had a couple of pucks of VDH Luxury that I'd been ignoring but decided to try them again so I could use the Old Spice mug I inherited from my dad. I built up the lather in a Captain's Choice shave bowl and was very impressed with the results. I don't remember being able to achieve the same volume and creaminess with VDH before. I'm getting a great shave with it, though, as others have noted, the skin conditioning could be better. But for the price it's really hard to beat.
 
So after trying Arko I must say I am very Very impressed by Vander Hagen. Aronofsky cost significantly more and outperformed other than dryness.
 
I have been using Van der Haagen, except for a puck of something a little more expensive. I could not tell the difference and went back to the Van der Haagen. I like that it is microwave compatible. If the puck does not fit my dish, I put it in the microwave for 15 or 20 seconds and it molds itself to the dish. I get a year or so from a puck, but I do not shave everyday, either. And, I squeeze suds out of my brush to use again another day.
 
The VDH Luxury at $2.50 is a good price. Unfortunately, most places sell it for quite a bit more than that, which takes away the value aspect of the soap.

Still, I really like the scented Luxury soap as the scent is reminiscent of Grey Flannel. In fact, I bought a bottle of Grey Flannel EDT because I liked the VDH Luxury's scent* so much! 🙂

*It definitely smells better than (and nothing like) an urinal puck! 😉
 
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