List all your VDH experiments here....

BroJohn said:

I fashion it into a shave stick.

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Curious, do you grate or melt, and how do you form it?


I have tried a couple VDH experiments. The addition of Old Spice cologne went well, and was just a nuke, add and stir affair.

I was gifted a puck of Burt's Bees Bay Rum soap. For those of you who don't know about this soul-sucking, nasty, deceitful and demoralizing abomination parading about as shaving soap, let me describe it.

It has a wonderful, intoxicating Bay Rum scent that acts as a siren song, luring you close enough to be driven to gibbering insanity by it's inability to lather, or even produce a film that could be useful for shaving. Imagine that sadistic killer bees made a hive out of old congealed oatmeal and infused it with waxy hardness, and then lured prey close enough for the kill with a nice Bay Rum aroma.

I decided to fix this by adding VDH. I melted my portion of VDH, and then made the critical error of putting the Burt's Bees Slice O' Hell Marketed as Soap in the microwave...It burned and releases a noxious, choking cloud that is hard to describe. Let's just say that when I was able to return to the kitchen hours later, I found the floor littered with cockroaches, tiny pistols still clutched in their claws, brains blown out and noses pinched shut.

There are some things that mortal man is not meant to mess with.

gollum83 said:

Experience unfortunately. AV and Williams don't mix.

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I was in a local drug store just an hour ago, and saw a puck of Williams for $0.99...I was tempted to pick it up, then I remembered the smell of the puck. And I walked away.

Topgumby said:

Curious, do you grate or melt, and how do you form it?

There are some things that mortal man is not meant to mess with.

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Seems like I remember 82R100 saying he melted his VDh into a shave stick.

Topgumby said:

Curious, do you grate or melt, and how do you form it?

...SNIP!!

There are some things that mortal man is not meant to mess with.

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I melt it with a couple of very short bursts in the microwave, pour into a twist-up stick container. Refrigerate for an hour or two.

VDH is one of the things mere mortals can mess with. Works well as a shave stick.

-- John Gehman

i melted vdh and chelsea's soap garden shave soap together and it shaves pretty good.

BROWNS said:

Earlier this week I melted a puck of VDH Deluxe down and poured it into an empty deodorant tube and made my first shave stick. I'm hooked on sticks now!

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Funny, I just got hooked on sticks myself after getting the lavender and peppermint stick from Mama Bear. I'd bought an empty stick just so I could try using VdH Deluxe this way and I melted an extra puck I had laying around into the stick last night. I haven't tried shaving with it yet, though, probably will tomorrow.

Now if only L'Occitane would offer Cade as a shave stick, I'd be in heaven.

DougK said:

Funny, I just got hooked on sticks myself after getting the lavender and peppermint stick from Mama Bear. I'd bought an empty stick just so I could try using VdH Deluxe this way and I melted an extra puck I had laying around into the stick last night. I haven't tried shaving with it yet, though, probably will tomorrow.

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VDH shave sticks rule!

guitarslinger said:

mixed it with Col. conk bay rum soap in a double boiler type setup.

Smells like Dr. Pepper. Shaves pretty well.

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Now THIS is intriguing!

Dave

1/2 VDH glycerin with 1/2 VDH delux melted in a microwave then added some splashes of Clubman bay rum (stirred not shaken ). This was so-so

My favorite is a shaving stick : Grated 1/2 Tabac, 1/4 VDH glycerin (this is dificult as it turnes gooey with grating) + 1/4 VDH delux . Mix them together with my hands and pack into stick container. Lathers fantasticly and is super slick.

col conk said:

1/2 VDH glycerin with 1/2 VDH delux melted in a microwave then added some splashes of Clubman bay rum (stirred not shaken ). This was so-so

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Any reason why you chose to use half Deluxe half Glycerin?

I had a leftover sample of Krissy's #15 (not her final formulation, but a pretty good tallow soap) and a sliver of TGQ Provence Lavender. I grated both of these and a VDH Deluxe puck and pressed it into a Mama Bear container. Made what I call "ugly soap." It looks terrible.

However, it provides a really nice shave!

I have blended Williams with Corn Huskers Friend to make a better soap then I add the Bigelow cream on top to super lather.

Deltaboy said:

I have blended Williams with Corn Huskers Friend to make a better soap then I add the Bigelow cream on top to super lather.

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And your shave den didn't explode?

Deltaboy said:

I have blended Williams with Corn Huskers Friend to make a better soap then I add the Bigelow cream on top to super lather.

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I would think that you have to be very, very careful of melting Williams. It is a soap of tallow and large fatty acids, and I've heard that those burn easily. Do you mind me asking how you did it and how it worked? (Edit: I thought that said melted, my bad, that explains why it didn't burn).


Also, I prepared my own van der spice last night. Had an HDPE container with a cap that I melted the van der hagen deluxe into. Cut it into quarters, gave it 8 and then 10 seconds added the ivy club and let it solidify after stirring vigorously. I haven't tried it yet. Actually, funnily enough today I shaved with Williams, and amazingly it was good (except for the smell), I guess that only adds to my curiosity about Deltaboy's concoction.

Swampfox said:

And your shave den didn't explode?

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Nah, that only happens when you mix Corn Huskers, Williams and bacon. And even then I think the resulting mixture collapses upon itself, resulting in the formation of a miniature black hole. Either way it'll still take out a small chunk of the old shave den.

gollum83 said:

Nah, that only happens when you mix Corn Huskers, Williams and bacon. And even then I think the resulting mixture collapses upon itself, resulting in the formation of a miniature black hole. Either way it'll still take out a small chunk of the old shave den.

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Does it then appear over Norway?

Swampfox said:

Does it then appear over Norway?

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Close, Mercury.

Swampfox said:

Any reason why you chose to use half Deluxe half Glycerin?

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I just like the slickness of glycerin soaps. VDH dlx has shea butter and aloe vera (great moisterizers) but could stand some glycerin IMO.

synapticmisfires said:

Also, I prepared my own van der spice last night. Had an HDPE container with a cap that I melted the van der hagen deluxe into. Cut it into quarters, gave it 8 and then 10 seconds added the ivy club and let it solidify after stirring vigorously. I haven't tried it yet.

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Have you tried your Van der Spice yet?
Give us a report
Wp

Well, I don't have VDH to experiment with. Can't find any decent soap here in town, so when I ran out I grated up some ivory soap and melted it in with some hand lotion containing aloe and cucumber something and eucalyptus. Worked ok, but smelled like hand lotion.
So for my next batch I decided to add scent. I went WAY outside the box on this, but just couldn't help thinking that it would be great if my lather smelled like coffee. I used actual ground coffee, and a bit of vanilla extract thrown in. The result was an ugly mess, but it works ok and smells great.


It doesn't lather up quite as nicely as my first batch, and I'm not sure if that is due to too much lotion or the addition of coffee and extract.



I use an aggressive razor, so the grounds don't clog things up. It's a little unappealing - ok, a lot unappealing to look at all those black specks on your face. I'm also not sure of the shelf life. Will it rot? Guess I'll find out. Next time I think I'll have to use coffee extract. Yes there will be a next time, I really like that smell in the morning.

amishmotorboat said:

Well, I don't have VDH to experiment with. Can't find any decent soap here in town, so when I ran out I grated up some ivory soap and melted it in with some hand lotion containing aloe and cucumber something and eucalyptus. Worked ok, but smelled like hand lotion.
So for my next batch I decided to add scent. I went WAY outside the box on this, but just couldn't help thinking that it would be great if my lather smelled like coffee. I used actual ground coffee, and a bit of vanilla extract thrown in. The result was an ugly mess, but it works ok and smells great.

It doesn't lather up quite as nicely as my first batch, and I'm not sure if that is due to too much lotion or the addition of coffee and extract.

I use an aggressive razor, so the grounds don't clog things up. It's a little unappealing - ok, a lot unappealing to look at all those black specks on your face. I'm also not sure of the shelf life. Will it rot? Guess I'll find out. Next time I think I'll have to use coffee extract. Yes there will be a next time, I really like that smell in the morning.

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dude that looks rough