Van Yulay - Soap of the Gods - Hercules (Russian Tea)
BSB-Ti w/HMW Extra Dense
1912 Type Star | Gem by Personna (2)
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This was my first go with Van Yulay's goat milk and glycerin hybrid formula, Hercules. It's an interesting process to order Hercules. There's a drop-down menu with an inordinate list of fragrances from which to choose. Without checking the scent profile which is on a different page, I selected "Russian Tea". I'd never heard of Russian Tea, but I'd assumed it would smell something like tea. Little did I know that there are essentially two types of said tea. One that's actually tea with rum and served with lemon, the other being a sweet concoction made of Tang, instant tea, instant lemonade, cloves, and cinnamon. Van Yulay's Russian Tea is based on the latter. Not even a hint of tea. It turns out, despite it's absolute contradiction to what I was expecting, Russian Tea was quite pleasant. Off the puck it was orange heavy. As I lathered it, the orange had sharp and dark features such that my first impression was perhaps blood orange. I then detected a light effervescence that suggested mint. As the shave progressed, the scent got heavier and more complex with cinnamon, cloves, and finally musk. The orange never left front stage, but it was hardly single-faceted. It is a very pleasant scent that has a bit more depth than many citrus-scented products I've experienced.
I've had excellent experience, performance-wise, with Van Yulay. However, browsing their website, I can clearly see that I've not even come close to experiencing all of their soap formulas. I was interested in Hercules (and Aquarius) due to its segregation on the website along with its denotation as a "hybrid". It was unclear as to the "hybrid" nature of it, but I was drawn to it in light of its inclusion of goat's milk. It also contains glycerin, as do many artisan soaps. However, the site's description states, "Formulated with Goat milk Soap & Glycerin Soap (Half Human & Half God) [sic]". I interpreted this to mean that it is half melt-and-pour glycerin soap and half goat's milk traditional shaving soap. In my experience, glycerin is great for slickness, but not much for cushion or post-shave. While glycerin is used as an
ingredient in upper end soaps, I generally relegate glycerin-
based soaps on the cheaper, poor performing end of the shaving soap spectrum. Given that, I should also note that among a plethora of skin-friendly ingredients this "hybrid" contains a few of my favorites: Kaolin clay and kokum, mango, and shea butters. (A complete list of ingredients can be found at the end of this writing). Skepticism aside, my experience with Van Yulay meant it deserved a try.
The other Van Yulay soaps I've used are piped into the jar into star-shaped molds à la cake icing. Hercules does appear to have been poured into the jar instead of being injected. While it still probably qualifies as a croap, it's firmer than most. It loaded into the damp badger knot easily without the need for blooming. I added quite a bit of water to the loaded knot at this point and began to face lather. I soon had an extremely thick, dense yogurt-y lather. I really had to push it around. I'd clearly loaded too much product. That's a first for me, as I prefer to bring the knot to max capacity since I'm working on a head and face shave. I chuckled at myself and was grateful I'm a shower shaver, because I did have a bit of a mess. This soap does seem to stretch farther than most of my other soaps. I just added a bit more water to achieve a more manageable lather, and all was well. The slickness was quite impressive, and the protection was top-notch. The inclusion of clay was evident both with regard to the unique slickness and density. I was able to loosen up a bit while taking the vintage SE out for its second full run. I took long frontal to parietal sweeps while only barely feeling the blade. Two passes with some clean-up was all that was required to achieve BBS. I didn't have to reload the brush between my face and head shave either. Part of this is attributable to the efficiency of the 1912 Star, accomplishing the equivalent of a three-pass DE shave in two.
I considered forgoing an after shave since the post-shave of Hercules left my scalp and face feeling soft and moisturized, but it's hot out here in East Texas, and I just like to use a splash. I obviously chose the paired "Russian Tea" scented splash which is alcohol free, and has aloe and witch hazel among other goodies. I'll note that despite my detection of background cinnamon and clove notes, my skin did not react with redness as I usually experience with those two oils. They may not even be present in the soap or splash, but rather my brain may have filled it in out of association with the other notes.
Despite the scent being a curveball, I enjoyed this shave very much. I highly recommend Hercules and even the Russian Tea scent as long as you know you're getting citrus and not tea. I count myself among the snobs that avoids melt-and-pour glycerin shaving soaps, but I do not put Hercules in that category. This is an exceptional soap as has been my experience with other Van Yulay soaps.
Hercules Shaving Soap Ingredients: Deionized water. Glycerin. Sorbitol. Sodium cocoate. Sodium stearate. Saponified oils of soy bean and safflower. Stearic acid. Kokum butter. Mango butter. Coco butter. Shea butter. Amino acids. Chamomile. Calendula. Polyquats. Liquid silk. Marshmallow root. Allantoin. White Kaolin clay. Silica powder. Vitamin E. Fragrance.
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