Hi everyone, this is my first post after creeping around the site for a while. I've yet to find a straight razor at an antiques store that would work as a "clean up and use" project but I decided to try out the shaving soap arena anyway. I hadn't seen a review of the Van Der Hagan Luxury set or soap so I decided to add these observations.

I found Van Der Hagen shave soap in Walmart but didn't know much about it so after some research I decided to go ahead and get the Men's Luxury Shave Set and 3 extra bars of shave soap from Amazon.

Wow.

First, the scent is VERY similar to a cologne I used in college called "Candie's cologne for men" which was very popular with the ladies. My wife still gives it a thumbs up. The soap lathers well and shaving with it and with a normal cartridge razor is a great feeling. I went WTG and ATG and both felt fine.

It doesn't foam up as much as my canned foam but it feels much better. I didn't take a shower first but I did get my face wet. It seemed thicker and much more moisturizing than the canned foam. It does have 10%+ glycerin which I guess is the deciding factor.

The brush is a very nice badger hair brush which comes with a clear plastic stand. The cup is of course perfectly shaped for a soap cake.

I'm very happy with the set and it looks very sophisticated sitting on my bathroom sink.

If anyone is on the fence with this set and/or soap, I would certainly recommend it. Keep in mind that this is my first experience with either but I'm strangely excited to shave again.

Happy shaving!