Van Der Hagen Scented Luxury Shave Soap Review Website: vanderhagen.com I have long been a fan of the Van Der Hagen Deluxe shaving soap. It is a top performer at a bargain price. Over the past year or so, I noticed that it has been replaced by the Van Der Hagen Scented Luxury Shave Soap. Not only that, the Luxury Shave Soap seems to be everywhere now - drugstores and supermarkets of all sorts. My guess is this expanded distribution was due to the purchase of Van Der Hagen by Universal Beauty Products. Since I ran out of shaving soap a few of months ago, I thought I would try a puck. Hey, for the dirt cheap price, what did I have to lose? It turned out to be a good choice, as the results were very gratifying indeed! The soap cake is 2-3/4 inches (70 mm) dia on top, 2-1/4 inches (57 mm) dia on the bottom, and 1 inch (25.4 mm) high. I like the tapered diameter, as it makes the soap fit particularly well at the bottom of my shave mug. It comes packaged in a thin plastic container. The soap could probably be used right out of the container in a pinch. An added bonus is that the box is very handy for storing loose razor blades and razor blade packs. Packaging that can be repurposed is always a good thing. Ingredients From the box: Propylene Glycol, Water, Sorbitol, Sodium Stearate, Glycerin, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Myristate, Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Mangifera Indica (Mango Butter), Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Titanium Dioxide, Fragrance Lather This soap is very easy to lather, but does need a lot of water in the brush. It takes no time at all to whip up enough rich, creamy lather for at least four passes with the Vie-Long horse hair brush, and three passes with the Omega boar brush. Lather longevity for this soap is quite good, even if not infinite. I lathered my face and waited. The lather disappeared a little after 30 seconds, and more noticeably after 1 minute. At that point, the lather still worked perfectly well. The lather had disappeared a little more at 2 minutes. It dried out very slightly by then, and was just a wee bit sticky when shaving. I was still able to get a final shaving pass that was both comfortable and close, however. The lather is reasonably long lived as far as I am concerned, so the soap gets a good mark in this category. - Ease of lathering: (9/10) - Life span of lather: (8/10) Brushes used Left: Vie Long Epsilon Model GC13900/3 horse hair brush Right: Omega 50014 boar travel brush Both of these brushes have a good measure of backbone Performance The lather is very slick, as in Teflon on wet ice, and easily gets a 10 out of 10 in this category. The lather is protective, although not overly so. I occasionally got a weeper or two when shaving, but nothing more. I got no more than the usual irritation with different razor and blade combinations. With a good blade, I could do five passes with no irritation. Even with blades that were close and a little irritation, the irritation was less than with many other soaps. Skincare for this soap is very good. My face feels soft, supple and all around great hours after shaving. - Lubrication: (10/10) - How protective: (8/10) - General skincare: (9/10) Scent The scent on this soap seems "cologne-y" to me. It is vaguely reminiscent of the Ralph Lauren Polo soap-on-a-rope I had back in the day. The fragrance is a winner as far as I am concerned. The scent strength is just right, not stinky and overpowering like some shaving soaps, but still strong enough to be quite noticeable. Please keep in mind that as with all scents, beauty is in the nose of the beholder. - Scent: (9/10) Value for the money A 3.5 oz./ 99.2 gram puck cost me $5 at the local CVS drugstore. Given the quality of the soap, that is a great deal. I would definitely buy this soap again, as it is very good and widely available at local brick and mortar stores. Zero shipping time is nice. I have also seen this soap sold online. After three months of daily use, the soap is about three-quarters gone. I figure it will last about four months total. - Price: (9/10) - Would you buy again: (10/10) Conclusion Van Der Hagen Scented Luxury Shave Soap is da bomb! An excellent performer, easy on the wallet, and very readily available is a winning combination IMHO. It looks like the acquisition of Van Der Hagen by Universal Beauty Products did not harm quality one bit, and made the soap even easier to find than before. - Overall: (9/10) My water hardness 42 mg/l as CaCO3 (soft) The water hardness was taken from my utility's latest water quality update. The scale below was used to correlate water mg/l to the soft/hard rating, and is from the US Geological Survey website. Water hardness scale (as CaCO3): 0-60 mg/l: Soft 61-120 mg/l: Moderately hard 121-180 mg/l: Hard Over 180 mg/l: Very hard mg/l is milligrams per liter Some utilities give water hardness in parts per million (ppm) 1 mg/l = 1 ppm (not exactly, but very, very close) Disclaimer I have no connection with the Universal Beauty Products, Inc. or their Van Der Hagen brand / subsidiary other than as a retail customer. I paid full price for this soap at a CVS drugstore, with which I also have no connection except as a retail customer. Nobody asked me or compensated me to do this review. In fact, nobody knew this review would be done, or its contents, until it was posted here on The Shave Den.
Hmm very inciteful. I got the same soap with the shave kit from VDH. It works good. In fact as a slight side note most of the supplies I rather like. Their stuff isn't bad.
Thanks for the review @Shaver X. I have both Deluxe & Luxury in my cabinet. Time to dust them off and revisit my roots.
Great review. Hey isn't Col. Conk, and Vanderhagan under the same ownership. I saw this soap on the shelf at my local Walmart for under $4, might have to try it. Clayton Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
Col. Conk is a brand name used by the oers of World of Knives, a cutlery store in Albuquerque, New Mexico.. To the best of my knowledge, Col. Conk never had any connection to Van Der Hagen or Universal Beauty Products. Edit:. Here is info about Col. Conk's ownership and history: http://www.theshavingedge.com/2014/12/col-conk-natual-shave-products.html?m=1
Great review. I've never had an issue with either the Luxury or Deluxe disappearing. Try loading more soap.
Heck of a review! I have a puck of this that was given to me by my uncle a few months ago. Other than the occasional sniff of the soap I've not done much with it. I'm now definitely looking forward to using it as the smell is really quite nice.
I let my VDH Premium set linger in the cabinet for a while. The aloe vera & shea butter formula of Deluxe still shaves well, but the scent has faded. These bowls are the mark of Modern Wet Shave Revival. One day they will be sought after like Old Spice mugs.
I don't have my VDH brush since it became a shedder. The Luxury soap and mug are still around. Not a bad scent, and goes well with P&G Old Spice.
The VDH was my first brush mug and soap combo. I still use all three of them. The brush is starting to shed though. The soap has a good scent and lathers up well, even with how hard the water is here. It does work very good especially for the price. It's one of only two shave soaps available without ordering online.
Next time there's a Soap Pass Around, think about investing $20 (the cost of shipping to the next person). There's no requirement to trade & you can sample many different makers products. When the box got to my house it weighed just over 10 lbs. I got thirty samples, swapped out one full tub of a soap I'd never tried - Mystic Water, and added enough products to push it up to 14 lbs.
Both the VDH Deluxe and Luxury soaps are easy to find locally and they remain in my rotation because I really like their performance.
I really like the VDH soaps that I have tried. Readily available and reasonable prices. I hope they remain on the shelves of the local brick & mortar stores. That is really convenient. And like RyX says, you have to admit, there is something to those little blue/green lather bowls that used to come in the kit. I have given away more than a few of those.
