My dad used De Vergulde Hand soap as long as I can remember. My granddad always used Tabac. Both were "one razor, one brush, one soap, one aftershave" men.
Klopt, sommige mensen klagen dat DVH hun huid uitdroogt. Ik heb er zelf geen last van maar ik vind het een beetje schraal schuim. (Yes, some people complain that DVH dries their skin. Not an issue for me, but the lather is a bit thin and not very slick).
I have used Ivory hand soap and found the lather to feel drying, and to not last very long. Currently, I am experimenting with Dove. Even among more expensive shaving creams made for straight razor shaving, I haven't found anything that I like better than Barbasol.
I've found that Dove mixed with Williams, makes a great lather, but I wish they would bring back the Old Spice Puck
I remember my Mom getting together with her oldest sister making what they called lye soap. It was a bar soap and I have no recall of it being use for anything other than a laundry soap. It was tan in color.
I am not sure, but my grandfather had a Gillette adjustable and used Old spice aftershave and a stick soap - probably the same or possibly palmolive - with a boar brush. I'm very much a fan of the Arko stick now.
My grandmother and mother used to make soap for doing laundry and washing dishes. As I recall it was all of the cooking fat collected, plus wood ash, and then lye to form a saponification between the lye and wood ash, that's what broke the fat down to form the soap. There may have been other ingredients added but I don't know what they'd be. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe all soaps are made this way and if not? I'm sure there will be someone more educated in the ways of making soaps to correct me.
I think the bar 0f Brown lye laundry soap was called Oxydol, It also came in flake form. I remember a wood framed glass ribbed wash board with the bar of soap resting at the upper part of the washboard. Mom used it to scrub the dirt out of our play cloths before putting in her new washing machine (she somehow convinced Dad to trade in her old wringer washer LOL) But I regress. Getting back to Shaving Soap. Does anyone of us remember what other hand or bath soaps our Dads slipped into their shave mugs. We used Yardley soap for a time but I do remember Ivery allot.