List all your VDH experiments here....

I'm sure I posted this before, but it is so good it is worth rementioning. My homemade sandalwood vanilla shaving soap: 1 puck VDH, 1/4 bar Mysore Sandal bath soap (lathers like crazy on its own), and 10-20 pumps of KMF vanilla. Grate Mysore Sandal and mix into melted VDH, stir and add in KMF. Let cool. Easy. The Mysore Sandal is very strong on scent and 1/4 bar is quite enough to carry the sandalwood scent through the whole puck of VDH.

I wanted to add some glycerin to my Proraso Sensitive shave soap and make it effortless for every shave, so I cut about 1/4th piece of soap out and filled that gap with VDH Glycerin shave soap. Works well for me.

I just don't understand why people will combine this awesome soap with other sub-par performers? It's like you are diluting the goodness of the VDH Deluxe with an inferior product! All I have ever done was melt it into an empty QCS tub and thats all. I have been tempted though, to re-melt it, and then ad some L'Occitane Eau des Beaux cologne. It's a nice cedar scent.

ODJ said:

I just don't understand why people will combine this awesome soap with other sub-par performers? It's like you are diluting the goodness of the VDH Deluxe with an inferior product! All I have ever done was melt it into an empty QCS tub and thats all. I have been tempted though, to re-melt it, and then ad some L'Occitane Eau des Beaux cologne. It's a nice cedar scent.

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I look at it that I'm putting multiple soaps together that have different strengths. By putting them together, I am creating a soap that performs better across the overall spectrum. VDH is very good, but it is not perfect. I can add a couple of ingredients to it and make a better product. YMMV, but I've used both side by side, and the mix is better than VDH alone in my den.

Have you guys ever though to start with a melt and pour shaving soap base and enhance it?

http://www.brambleberry.com/Shaving-Melt-And-Pour-Base-P4384.aspx

$3.30 a pound sounds like lots of cheap experimenting.

Has anyone tried melting VDH and adding a little Sandalwood essential oil? Would one just use a drop or more?

Just tuned in to this thread. A little late but all I can say Is WOW. You guys got this down to a science. Its has me thinking of what Grey Flannel cologne smells like now, cause I like the way VDH smells.

Nothing but VDH!! Great lather and a wonderful shave.

I have mixed VDH Delux and Williams to come up with Van Der Williams. I didn't much care for it.

I have tried adding Old Spice After Shave to VDH Luxury Unscented. I microwaved the VDH and added the aftershave while the soap was liquid. The scent only lasted a very few days.

I have mixed equal parts of VDH Luxury Unscented 50/50 with artisan non-shaving soaps bought on vacation to turn them into reasonably good shaving soaps. Two of the three were tallow soaps, but after grating both and mixing them together, they microwaved fine. The tallow didn't melt, but the VDH did and seemed to protect the tallow soap. This yielded three terrific scents, Lavender (a very bold Lavender at that), Pineapple, and Tropical Berry. All three are wonderful to use. I will do this again if I find another artisan soap that seems promising.

And lastly, VDH Luxury Unscented, is clear, and looks great in my President Lincoln clear glass mug. The mug has gold leaf decoration, so I need to melt the soap and pour it into the mug instead of microwaving it.

Van der Velva inspired by Tim Miller on YouTube.

I'm resurrecting my own thread to post something new.

I know a lot of guys like the performance of VDH Deluxe but not the scent, so they make frankensoaps, etc. In my case, I really LOVE the scent of VDH, but don't really care for the performance much.

So what I did was take a half a puck of VDH Deluxe and a sample puck of Mystic Water "sensitive skin" soap (unscented); I grated them both and smashed them together.

This morning I shaved with this soap mixture. It was pretty nice. The scent was a little weaker, obviously, but the lather was actually a bit better, and the face feel was definitely better.

Still not an outstanding soap by any means (IMO). I kind of wish that a talented artisan soap maker would make a scent that is similar to VDH Deluxe, maybe lean even more towards Grey Flannel. I wonder if I would be the only person interested in that soap?

I melted a half-used puck of VDH Luxury and let it cool some before adding some Nivea post shave balm and several squirts of cologne. The cologne is Unforgivable by Sean John and it has a clean masculine scent, kind of like Grey Flannel but not as in your face. It worked out pretty well.

Gentlemen of This Thread, I both commend you and thank you. I read the whole damned thing from start to finish and enjoyed it all. I laughed, I cried (from laughing), I shared one post with SWMBO. And I made plans.

I shall return!

<shuffles off to dig out some VDH, lime EO and a suitable container>

I ran across this thread a few months ago and found it intriguing. I hit on it again this afternoon and decided to give it a spin. I had some VDH Deluxe laying around so I decided to try my hand at a VDH variant. Like a mad scientist I gathered everything and headed to the stove. I used a pasta pot (with insert) and some 1 cup Pyrex glass bowls to melt the VDH Deluxe by the "double broiler" method. The insert worked awesome and made removal from the water easy.

Buccaneer Brisk Citrus
3/4 puck VDH Deluxe
1/4 grated puck Marvy Deluxe Shaving Soap (almond scented)
10 drops Sweet Orange Essential Oil
5 drops Lime Essential Oil
1 teaspoon glycerin
Crushed menthol crystals
A dash of Pinaud Lime Sec was added during the cool down

Buccaneer Almond Freeze
1 puck VDH Deluxe
3/4 grated puck Marvy Deluxe Shaving Soap (almond scented)
6 drops Peppermint Essential Oil
1 teaspoon glycerin
Crushed menthol crystals

I shaved with the Buccaneer Brisk Citrus this evening and I was very pleased with it's performance. The VDH Deluxe and the Marvy Deluxe complimented each other very nicely. I may go a little stronger with the orange/lime next time only because I like a very strong scented soap. I plan to give the Buccaneer Almond Freeze a spin tomorrow. I hand lathered it this evening and it seemed to lather very nicely and the scent seemed solid as well.

OK, now I am hooked on this. I decided to add some more citrus scent to my Buccaneer Brisk Citrus that I sampled last night. While digging out my lime and orange essential oils I ran across me ol' bay rum and clove oils....and then I vaguely remembered someone on this thread mentioning adding their favorite Avon scent so I grabbed a bottle of Tai Winds from the den and headed to the stove. So here is my updated Buccaneer Brisk Citrus and two new VDH variants

Buccaneer Brisk Citrus
3/4 puck VDH Deluxe Soap
1/4 grated puck Marvy Deluxe Shaving Soap (almond scented)
15 drops Sweet Orange Essential Oil
10 drops Lime Essential Oil
1 teaspoon glycerin
Crushed menthol crystals
A dash of Bootlegger's Arctic Lime Blast was added during the cool down period

Buccaneer Bay Rum & Lime
1/2 puck VDH Scented Luxury Soap
1/4 grated puck vintage Yardley Shaving Soap
1/4 grated puck vintage Colgate Shaving Mug Soap
10 drops Bay Rum Essential Oil
5 drops Lime Essential Oil
1 teaspoon glycerin
Crushed menthol crystals
A dash of Bootlegger's Bay Rum w/Lime was added during the cool down period

Buccaneer Tai Winds
1/2 puck VDH Scented Luxury Soap
3/4 grated puck vintage Colgate Shaving Mug Soap
10 drops Sweet Orange Essential Oil
10 drops Lime Essential Oil
1 teaspoon glycerin
Crushed menthol crystals
A few dashes of Avon Tai Winds were added during the cool down period

Just thought I would keep this 6+ year old thread going.

I read every single post and all the suggestions. I come across this within the last 3 weeks(how long I have been DE shaving) because I was doing research on this first soap I bought. After reading through the posts I thought about the Van Der Spice post. So it was time for an experiment. I have a bottle of old, I mean 20+ year old, Old Spice Cologne in the cabinet. I can't even remember the last time I used it. It was something I used in my younger party days. I don't even care to use any type of cologne anymore as is it too strong for me. I like AS lotions now, I think I have acquired a total of 5 in the last 2 weeks that can be had at any retail store and nothing special, but that is another acquisition disorder for another thread.

This all come about because I posted a thread about my VDH luxury soap had started a black spot, assuming it was mold, on the bottom of the puck. The suggestion was to toss it in the microwave and melt it sealing it into the mug. I had already cleaned the soap after I found the spot but decided to give it another cleaning and took a good layer off of it before nuking it. I have a weak or smaller microwave so it took 2-10 second bursts just to get it to the point of it starting to melt. A 3rd 10 second burst it was quite warm and I stirred it around with a plastic spoon and hit it again with another 8 or 9 second burst. Sat down in front of the TV and stirred some more, took a little stirring to get that chunk just about melted. Let it sit until it was starting to skin a little on top(I read not to shake in the cologne too soon or the scent would evaporate), now not knowing exactly how much to add I gave it 2 really good shakes. Instant cool down where the cologne hit, not sure if that was a good thing. Bad thing is I stuck the plastic spoon in at this point and the soap set up on the spoon quite fast. hurried up and scraped it off with my pocket knife and grabbed a thick round toothpick and started stirring before it got too hard. I stuck it in the freezer for about 5 minutes but pulled it out because I didn't want the Old Spice smell circulating in the freezer/fridge. I took it out and ran some cold water in the sink, not too deep, and set the cup it in and got the cup chilled. The bar was pretty much set up with the center a little soft. I wasn't planning on using it until this morning anyway.

Now, I kind of like the smell of the soap before but of there is always an improvement. Wow, it has an awesome smell now. Funny thing is all last night after I added the Old Spice it had a wonderful scent around the house as it set. I gave it a try this morning and it seems to lather the same and has a real nice scent now and it smells a lot better than the slight cucumber smell it had before which wasn't bad. Not sure why I really need a scented soap because it usually gets covered up by AS lotion but it sure is pleasant during the shave to use.

In my cabinet I have a bottle of English Leather, the old square glass bottle with the big wood chunk for a cap. Haven't paid attention if they even sell it with the wooden knob anymore. I thought I read the Old Spice is in a plastic bottle now. Well anyway, I was wondering how the English Leather would work with the VDH luxury soap. Unless I missed a post while reading through I didn't see where anyone had tried it. I bought a 3 pack of the VDH so maybe that will be the next experiment.

As another experiment, this is what I did...I melted (nuked), a puck of VDH luxury Scented, added about 8 drops of glycerin and 8 drops of vintage Clubman Club Royal then poured it over a grated puck of Arko,...'Überlather' I'm and loving it!

[FONT=&amp]"A good lather is half the shave". William Hone[/FONT]

So this thread peaked my interest. We all know van der Hagen is cheap and easy to find. And I've always had it around. So, out of boredom I decided to try something with it. I always apply cremo and then face lather VDH on top. Got home today and decided to try an experiment with the two. I melted the VDH in a plastic Razorock soap container(was allergic to Razorock) and added cremo and stirred. It actually blended well. I probably added 2-3 tablespoons( maybe more idk)to I'd say 3/4 a puck of VDH. I'm not sure how it'll harden, but if it's softer it'll be alright. I look forward to trying it tonight and seeing how it works. I don't think it'll replace my daily soaps, but fun to try anyway.

MichaelRB88 said:

So this thread peaked my interest. We all know van der Hagen is cheap and easy to find. And I've always had it around. So, out of boredom I decided to try something with it. I always apply cremo and then face lather VDH on top. Got home today and decided to try an experiment with the two. I melted the VDH in a plastic Razorock soap container(was allergic to Razorock) and added cremo and stirred. It actually blended well. I probably added 2-3 tablespoons( maybe more idk)to I'd say 3/4 a puck of VDH. I'm not sure how it'll harden, but if it's softer it'll be alright. I look forward to trying it tonight and seeing how it works. I don't think it'll replace my daily soaps, but fun to try anyway.

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Let us know how it went. Original or Cooling Cremo?

Guys, this is awesome that you have kept my thread going for this long. There have been some really creative experiments, too! Keep up the experimentation and make sure to share you results.