Stop right there, don't buy that! or Shave goods best avoided...

I like the VDH shave set. I love VDH Deluxe and the the little soap bowl is pretty nifty. I'll admit that the brush is kind of a waste, but it gets the job done in a pinch.

 

Do you have the one with the blue and green bowl or the black bowl with the little handle?

Someone told me that the VDH with the black bowl and brush stand is a bit better. Correct me if I'm wrong but is the blue handled brush boars hair?

 

I have the basic set (which is marketed as the "Van Der Hagen Premium" shave set), with the blue and green bowl. VDH Deluxe is the pink soap that comes with the basic set, and yes the brush is a boar hair...but not a very good boar hair. The Van Der Hagen Luxury set comes with a VDH Luxury soap (which I have never tried, but have not heard many favorable reviews), the black mug with handle, and a badger hair brush with a stand. The Luxury set can be found for $25-$30.

I think that for around $7 or $8 that the VDH basic set is an OK deal. It has a great soap, a spiffy bowl, and a usable boar brush. For many folks it's their introduction to traditional shaving. It's OK if you don't like it, VDH isn't for everybody, but a lot of folks (myself included) really like the VDH Deluxe soap...you'll have a harder time finding someone to stick up for the brush. The brush isn't the worst one out there, but there are definitely better choices for the money.

 

The current Erasmic stick, sold in the UK and does have tallow in it but it is very poor. I've had better lather off hand soap but it does smell quite nice. I suppose it could be useful for throwing at burglars but I can still think of better things!

 

I have an Erasmic, and though it doesn't lather spectacularly I find it to be an OK performer, but it is YMMV

 

I received one of these sets as a gift. The brush in my set had no backbone at all so it was almost impossible to make lather with. I now use it to dust of my cabinet. The stand, mug and soap imo are fine, just need a better brush. I think these sets are meant to bring people into the wet shaving market. But if I were a newbie and used this set for the first time I would have most likely given up. I wish they would at least put a $20.oo boar brush in the kit so one could at least make a lather. I'm glad you didn't give up.

 

You're talking about the Luxury set, which has a badger brush, a stand, a mug, and the Luxury VDH soap (a soap which I haven't heard great things about).




The poster was referring to the Premium set, which has a boar brush, a soap bowl, and the Deluxe VDH soap (a soap which many of us, myself included, love). The brush in the Premium set is actually extremely stiff, almost unusably so.

 

You are absolutely correct. The set I received was the Luxury set shown in the top photo. It came with a very cheap badger brush and it was awful. I'm not so sure it is badger, maybe Squirrel, lol. I stopped by my local Walgreens today and bought one of the boar brushes that comes with the Premium set just to give it a try. I just used it about a hour ago and I have to say I was pretty impressed with it. It did lose 4 hairs the first go round but I would expect that from an inexpensive brush. I made an excellent lather using the VDH premium soap. I'm with you Jabberwock concerning the Luxury soap. I don't care for it at all but I do like the Deluxe soap (pink) and use it almost every day.

 

Ive actually been using the soap and bowl for the past week since I posted this.. The dish is whatever, but the soap is actually ok. It makes a thick, creamy lather - you just have to work at it. Maybe my inexpierence with building lather has something to do with it.

On a side note, whats a good non menthol simple soap you guys like to use? I've heard mixed reviews of Arko (but the graphic designer in me loves the label", and while I like the menthol feeling of Proasso/Bigelow, I'd like to try a more high end soap.

 

I liked Arko shave sticks, I ended up buying a 20 pc case of it.,

 

I think the only thing people complain about with arko is the smell. It's YMMV thing. To me it smells better once lathered and I hear the smell lessens if you leave it sitting out open to air. Great performer! Mike's Natural Soap is excellent stuff.

 

There's a lot of good non-menthol soaps. I tend to like the italian style soft soaps, which would include Proraso sandalwood and Vito's red label which has a light almond scent and is only sold in 1 kg blocks. Mitchell's Wool Fat gets a lotta love here at TSD. TSD has some great lanolin soaps, if you join the soap-of-the-quarter club you'll get a 2 oz lanolin soap every 3 months in different scent, and Joanna's very inventive with her scents.

 

Tandi's Naturals. Unusable, I tossed an entire puck into the garbage because I couldn't in good conscience pass it on to another. It's just not made right.

 

Agreed. I find the lather, once mixed with the correct amount of water, so be top notch excellent. The only reason I have other soaps is out of curiosity and that SWMBO really hates the scent. So for the sake of the house-peace I don't use my Arko everyday

 

Rather than Arko, I would suggest the Palmolive stick. I very much prefer it over the Arko.

 

I like the lime spice... I hear the wool fat is crap. My .02 worth anyway.

 

I have found face applying/lathering can improve the performance of many "lesser" soaps. On a recent vacation I took a Classic Brand Bay Rum I had laying around, thinking it it was lost or stolen I would not be heart broken. I face lathered for 7 days using a Tweezerman, and it performed much, much better. Good enough to keep for traveling.

 

I haven't tried bowl lathering Classic Brand. Perhaps that's where it turns to crap. I didn't care for Col. Conk Almond until I turned it into a stick now it's adequate. Perhaps a sub group should be added to this... one person's never use again... turns into YMMV quite often given a different set of circumstances. I didn't like my EJ 89 until I improved my technique. It burned too much, now it's my #3 but seems a bit too mild.
Perhaps once a comment is banished to YMMV... a comment on how it was used would be in order.

I'm not overly enthused about my LO Cade. Easy lather, smells wonderful... takes a heap of water to make it slick. I don't suppose I'll ever try Arco. Someone suggested it smells like a urinal puck. Ewwwww... why you put something like that on your face?

 

Arko (?) doesn't smell like a urinal thingie... Not at all! It's a fresh lemony oldish barbershopish smell.

You either love it or hate it. Lather-wise it's stunning though.

 

Arko smells like Ivory soap to me. It's not my favorite smell but it's not urinal puck smell by any means and the lather is wonderfully slick. The first few times I used it, I kept expecting my face to be dry and itchy the way Ivory soap makes my skin feel. That wasn't the case at all though.