New Vintage Blades soap = T&H Luxury Soap

I haven't compared the ingredients

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what are your thoughts on Gold Dachs?

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alabamalawyer said:

I haven't used it too much. I have a puck in a travel container but don't travel much so I have only used it a couple of times. I will use it the next couple of days and let you know.

From memory, it is a quality soap that lathers easily. Will update you iafter a few more uses.

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alabamalawyer said:

I haven't tried it again. I have it in a travel container so will probably give it a go over the Christmas holidays. I will update after the first of the year.

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alabamalawyer said:

This similarities of these two soaps was raised on another forum a few weeks ago. As a result, I decided to do a direct comparison between the T&H and Vintage Blades soaps over the coming week. I intend to use the T&H soap Sat, Sun and Monday. I will then use the VB soap the next 3 days. Each day I will use a 38C, Feather blade and Rooney 1/2 Finest brush. I will post my impressions late next week.

I did a test lathering of each last and night and took some photos. It should be noted when viewing the pictures that I usually face lather so creating the lather in the bowl was out of the norm for me. If the lather appears a bit "off" then attribute that to me and not the soap.

The soaps -- please note that I had to shave the VB soap (on the left) down to fit into the AOS shave bowl.


The VB soap after 10 swirls with the Duke 1 brush


The brush after about 35 swirls over the VB soap


The shaving mug with the VB lather


The Duke 1 after 10 swirls on the T&H soap


The brush after about 35 swirls on the T&H soap


The T&H lather


The test lather run didn't reveal any significant difference between the two. Both lathered well and produced a nice, thick lather. The scent was basically the same with the T&H having a slightly stronger lavender smell. This is probably attributable to the fact that it was just opened and the VB was opened a couple of weeks ago. I had my wife smell both and she thought they smelled the same.

More updates on the comparison to come later next week.

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alabamalawyer said:

After using the T&H and Vintage Blades soaps the past week, I have come to the conclusion that there is little, if any, difference between them. I started last Saturday with the T&H and used it for 3 consecutive days with a Feather blade and Rooney 1/2 Finest brush. I would place a small amount of hot water on the soap to soften it while I showered. I would shave immediately after the shower. I used this same procedure with the Vintage Blades and did start a new Feather blade with it so each blade had 3 uses with each soap.

Each soap loaded easily on the brush. It would take about 20 seconds to load the brush (approximately 35 swirls) on the soap. This provided enough lather each time to complete my normal shave which is two passes plus touch-up. One day with each soap, I did a full 3 pass shave. I found each produced a nice lather. I did find that the lather with the Vintage Blades soap held up a bit better for the full 3 pass shave. By the 3rd pass on the T&H shave, the lather had thinned out a bit and lost a bit of its cushion. Both lathers did tend to dry out a bit by the 3rd pass but this could easily be remedied with a bit more soap and water added to the brush.

The scents of the respective soaps were nearly identical. Each has a light lavender scent which is barely present during the shave. Neither had any lingering scent following my standard warm and cold water rinse.

Each soap provided ample cushion and gave me a comfortable shave with no irritation. I had no sensitivity to either soap, but it should be noted that I have not traditionally had any sensitivity issues with soaps that I use.

Overall, I could not determine any strong distinguishing feature between the two soaps. The only noticeable difference was the consistency of the VB lather during the 3rd pass as noted above.

A 100g puck of the Vintage Blades currently costs $9.99 while the puck and shaving bowl costs $20.99 at Vintagebladesllc.com. It is noted on the Vintage Blades site that the cost will be $12.49 for the puck and $24.99 for the bowl/soap after the first of the year. The 99g puck of the T&H will probably run $17 with the shaving bowl option generally costing about $40.

For the price, I feel the Vintage Blades soap is an excellent option. The cost is considerably less but the soap quality equal. If you have wanted to try out T&H but hesitated due to cost, the VB soap would be an excellent alternative.

I will continue to use both soaps in my rotation and update my comments with any additional info I get from on-going use.

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Suzuki said:

I asked Jim the same question and he didn't know the answer.

...

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So ... there's the hard way and the easy way ...

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