- Joined
- Sep 4, 2012
- Location
- Coffs Harbour, NSW
Folks,
Just thought I'd pop a few thoughts up about 'De Vergulde Hand' which seems to be Hollands answer to Arko.
It comes in a cute little plastic tub and each one tips the scales at 75g a piece. I was lucky enough to come by mine through a trade with Pjotr. I have to admit I'd never heard of it prior to this but thought I'd pop some thoughts up as its a solid little performer. Apparently the company has been making soaps for over 450 yrs so whats this one like?
Packaging: As mentioned comes in a quite nice looking little plastic tub, this is a very nice touch as it allows you to use it without having to mill it down to fit in a cup or similar - the puck itself takes up less than 1/2 the tub so its very easy to load up inside the tub. Quite a classy looking lil tub, especially nice as in it's price range generally you don't get much with the soap, so full marks here.
Texture: Its really a very hard soap.....definitely one that needs a lil water put on it a few mins before use to soften the surface up so you can load your brush effectively. Nice creamy white colour to it.
Scent: One of the BEST I've smelt.....but its very much a cologne/fragrance rather than essential oil based...so I'd suspect it might have the potential to upset the skin for some folks. My wife kinda nailed it in that the scent is almost EXACTLY the same as the cheapish cologne 'Drakkar Noir'. Is a very nice masculine scent.
Latherability: Very good....you do need to put more work into it than say an Akro or P160 but eventually it does give a pretty good lather. I did find that the lather did lack that real slickness to it despite having a reasonable body. It's definitely an above average performer in this regard but isn't elite or luxury type level.....I could see the odd bad lather coming through as it does take a bit of work to get it to the standard I like.
Moisturizing: This is its real achilles heel.....it really offers nothing on the moisturising front and did dry my face out noticeably. Is big on coconut by products which could be a factor in this.
Price: Apparently its very cheap in Holland, is their equivalent of 'Arko' type pricing. But I've very rarely seen it for sale so not sure on this.
Overall Impression: Its a pretty good soap.....my first use I didn't like it at all, but I went back and tried again making more effort to load up and it gave me quite good results. It's definitely not as good as Arko but I'd expect a puck of this would go a long way and the combination of a nicer scent + packagain could sway some folks over to it instead.
Definitely a value oriented soap but alas due to its scarcity I'd suspect it may come at a premium to obtain meaning it's BIG advantage is lost. Don't pass up a puck if you can get it at a good price but I'd not pay top dollar for it. 7/10
Just thought I'd pop a few thoughts up about 'De Vergulde Hand' which seems to be Hollands answer to Arko.
It comes in a cute little plastic tub and each one tips the scales at 75g a piece. I was lucky enough to come by mine through a trade with Pjotr. I have to admit I'd never heard of it prior to this but thought I'd pop some thoughts up as its a solid little performer. Apparently the company has been making soaps for over 450 yrs so whats this one like?
Packaging: As mentioned comes in a quite nice looking little plastic tub, this is a very nice touch as it allows you to use it without having to mill it down to fit in a cup or similar - the puck itself takes up less than 1/2 the tub so its very easy to load up inside the tub. Quite a classy looking lil tub, especially nice as in it's price range generally you don't get much with the soap, so full marks here.
Texture: Its really a very hard soap.....definitely one that needs a lil water put on it a few mins before use to soften the surface up so you can load your brush effectively. Nice creamy white colour to it.
Scent: One of the BEST I've smelt.....but its very much a cologne/fragrance rather than essential oil based...so I'd suspect it might have the potential to upset the skin for some folks. My wife kinda nailed it in that the scent is almost EXACTLY the same as the cheapish cologne 'Drakkar Noir'. Is a very nice masculine scent.
Latherability: Very good....you do need to put more work into it than say an Akro or P160 but eventually it does give a pretty good lather. I did find that the lather did lack that real slickness to it despite having a reasonable body. It's definitely an above average performer in this regard but isn't elite or luxury type level.....I could see the odd bad lather coming through as it does take a bit of work to get it to the standard I like.
Moisturizing: This is its real achilles heel.....it really offers nothing on the moisturising front and did dry my face out noticeably. Is big on coconut by products which could be a factor in this.
Price: Apparently its very cheap in Holland, is their equivalent of 'Arko' type pricing. But I've very rarely seen it for sale so not sure on this.
Overall Impression: Its a pretty good soap.....my first use I didn't like it at all, but I went back and tried again making more effort to load up and it gave me quite good results. It's definitely not as good as Arko but I'd expect a puck of this would go a long way and the combination of a nicer scent + packagain could sway some folks over to it instead.
Definitely a value oriented soap but alas due to its scarcity I'd suspect it may come at a premium to obtain meaning it's BIG advantage is lost. Don't pass up a puck if you can get it at a good price but I'd not pay top dollar for it. 7/10
