Williams is significantly better than VHD's offerings, for it has a scent, is true soap - and triple-milled - lathers very nicely and is even less expensive.
Well....I love my VDH Deluxe. It's a cheap soap and gets the job done. I actually prefer the scent to other strong scented soaps. My nose just doesn't appreciate the overpowering scents. Plus, my skin doesn't like all the fragrance oils.
The more that I keep adding this into the rotation, the more I love it. I melted a puck of Deluxe down into a shave stick container and it's one of the few soaps I've got where I can actually feel the moisturizers, etc. It's a great soap to use the day after a rough shave...used everyday it may prevent those rough shaves.
I love the VDH brand for the most part. They make some of the best bang-for-the-buck offerings out right now not only in soaps, but brushes as well. I prefer to melt a puck of the glycerin in a puck of the deluxe or select, which gives me a soap greater than the sum of its parts. I like Williams, too. Hell, when a soap is less than a dollar it's hard to be picky about it! I'm a lot more critical of a soap that I've sunk twenty-thirty dollars on only to find it performs less than or as good as VDH or Williams. Sadly, this is the norm more often than it is the exception.
Used VDH Deluxe SS all last week. Got great shaves with no problem. Got to many others to not use them but I keep going back to it.
I also am loving the VDH deluxe. It works for my face. I put it on over olive oil and get a great smooth shave. I tried CO Bigelow over olive oil and it was horrible, for my face. The VDH is definitely a great bargain. I have about 5 pucks stored just in case. :ashamed001
I have had about 20 shaves so far with the VDH Deluxe: it's simply phenomenal stuff that is eons better than your typical canned goo. Other products I have tried so far include the C.O. Bigelow (Proraso) shave cream, and TOBS St. James. All the products I have tried so far have been wonderful!! I have VDH Select, Williams, The Real Shaving Company, and Kiss My Face in stock at the moment to try as well. Next purchase will be a tub of TOBS Lavender or Rose.
I really like this soap. For a $1.54 at Wal-Mart, I keep a few pucks stocked. It's a great soap, but the brush is, for me, so-so. It's what I started with as I didn't want to invest $50+ an a brush only to decide shaving with a brush and soap wasn't for me. It (the brush) was good enough to convince me to upgrade. Bang-for-buck you just can't beat VDH products! Great starter stuff for those who want to try it (as I did) with an investment of less than $10.
The soap is a pretty good deal, and I like it more than my poraso green or williams ( I prefer the williams scent, but williams gives em a less protective lather in my experience). For the heck of it, I tried the brush ( had some extra cash to blow on a walmart gift card). I couldn't get it to lather the first few times I used it. It was so bad that I didn't even shave with the "lather" it made, I just dumped it. Try five or so, yielded a decent lather with my poraso green. I prefer my EJ best badger brush obviously, but I think that my little vdh boar may just become a servicable travel brush.
Keep using the VDH boar brush, it'll come around. Mine is a few years old now and is soft, lathers anything (cream or soap), and works very well. Just used it the other day and asked myself why I didn't use it more often.
I've been using the vdh green handled boar brush for the past 7 days. If I never bought another brush, this brush would be fine thank you. But you know that would never happen.
VDH was my introduction to wet shaving. Products worked well as one learns. Used the brush religiously for 7 months. Brush softened up and performed well considering price. Sometime you may realize that by spending slightly more on a brush its performance is significantly upgraded. Since this is a fan club thread I shall not post details. Enjoy!
