My Shave With Van Yulay's Raise the Bar Soap and the Leaf Twig
Hi there. Welcome back to the Den. About a week ago I ordered a new shave bowl from Van Yulay, and it came in too. This is a bowl I’ve never seen anything like.
The Bowl
Look at the honeycomb texture inside it. That’s going to whip up a serious lather. The same texture runs around the outside edge too, right where you grab it, so it won’t slip in a wet hand. It’s made out of resin, and it’s durable. Let’s put it to work.
Raise the Bar
Speaking of lather, we’re shaving with Raise the Bar. This isn’t the jar it usually comes in. When I ordered the bowl, Monica at Van Yulay sent along a sample of Raise the Bar, so that’s what’s going in the bowl in this shave.
The Raise the Bar collection was created to support the Jake Baker 27 Fund during Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, which falls in June. JB27 is a 501(c)(3), and its mission is to encourage honest conversation around mental health and suicide awareness. Jim and Karen Baker’s lives changed in 2024, when their 22-year-old son Jake committed suicide. They started the fund to support people who are struggling, and to let people know they’re not alone. Proceeds from this soap go to the Jake Baker 27 Fund.
The Gear
The razor in this shave is the Leaf Twig, in the Glacier finish, that light blue one. Beautiful little razor. I love this thing. It also comes in a more aggressive exposure if you want more blade out, you can order it that way if you’d rather. Leaf’s a great company, I really love their products. This one’s loaded with a Leaf blade, which is really just a double edge blade cut in half for you already. You can buy them pre-cut like that, or take your favorite double-edge blade, leave the wrapper on, and snap it in half yourself. That’s a neat little Leaf thing. The brush is the Timeless Adjustable.
Building the Lather
I ran some water in the sink, scooped some of the soap out of the sample bag into the bottom of the Van Yulay bowl, and pressed it down a bit. This isn’t a hard soap, and it’s not really soft either. Somewhere in the middle, and that works out real nice. I wet the brush off my thumb first so it doesn’t skid around the bowl, then wet it properly, wrung it out, and started building lather.
This bowl is unique, I mean it. In the time it took me to read off the scent notes out loud-opening notes of rain-soaked ozone, fresh sea air, crisp bergamot, heart notes of lavender, mahogany wood, teak wood, light spice, and base notes of oak cask, cedarwood, amber, sandalwood, dark musk, and vanilla bean, we already had a full lather going. That’s how fast this thing works.
The Shave
Let’s get going. I’ll wet my face and start applying the soap. I haven’t used this one before, it just came in as a sample, and wow, what a great soap and a great scent. The lavender really comes through. If you like lavender, this one’s for you.
It built up fast with this brush, this bowl, and this soap. Didn’t take any time at all. I cleared the lips and sideburns, moved the towel a little closer so I wasn’t reaching so far for it, wet the brush again, and got started on the actual shave.
I like this razor from Leaf. It’s loaded and ready. I’ve also got the newer Leaf Two; I didn’t bring it into the den for this one. It’s a pivoting head razor built for all-over shaving, face, head, body, and it runs two blades instead of one. I’ve used it maybe three times. Face shaving with it still gets me a little intimidated, not sure why. I want to give it another real shot soon. I hear from other guys it’s great for head shaving. I don’t shave my head, not yet anyway, so I can’t speak to that firsthand.
This soap, Raise the Bar from Van Yulay, is a good one. I’ve used other Van Yulay soaps too, and they’ve all been excellent. When this one showed up, I went to vanyulay.com and poked around. Monica’s got a serious amount of stuff over there, soaps and more, you could spend hours just scrolling through it. She’s built a great business. If you haven’t checked out the site, it’s worth a look. Raise the Bar shows up in other forms too, an aftershave splash, an EDP, and if I remember right, a bar soap in the same scent. Worth checking for yourself.
I can already tell I loaded up too much soap. Good for more than one shave, that’s for sure.
Second pass now, mostly east to west. There’s enough residual slickness that I can go back over the cheeks with an upward pass without relathering. That’s a real plus. This razor just glides over this stuff. It’s a soap, but it feels like a cream. Slick, and I love it. This has been an outstanding shave. Van Yulay whips up into a yogurt-like cream lather in just a few minutes, so you get a rich, protective lather with vitamins and amino acids worked in. Good to know. I already take a daily vitamin, now I’m getting one for my skin too. They say on the site each soap is pH balanced with your skin in mind, for a smooth, irritation-free shave, and it comes packed into an 8-ounce container.
That was our second pass, and a real smooth shave. I’m calling it there, rinsing off, drying my face, and putting on some aftershave.
That was a great shave. Very close, no irritation, just wonderful, and that’s from a sample of Raise the Bar I got when I ordered the bowl from Van Yulay. That bowl is unique, and it whipped up a lather fast. If you want a lather that comes together quick, grab a Van Yulay shave bowl. It’ll do you well. I’m thrilled with it. Appreciate everything Monica does over there at Van Yulay.
Aftershave
For aftershave, I’m trying something I haven’t used much: Florida Water cologne. Taking the cap off now, it’s got a nice scent to it. Heads up, there’s no restrictor on the bottle, so pour carefully, or you’ll have it everywhere, and we want it on the face, not the counter. The first pour came out too fast and I didn’t get enough, so I went back for more. You can tell it’s got alcohol in it, a little burn that doesn’t last long, and it smells great. I picked this bottle up at one of the meetups this past spring, off the PIF table. Somebody dropped it there, and I grabbed it. Glad I did.
Thanks for joining me here in the Den. We shaved with Raise the Bar soap, and I’d highly recommend it. We used the Van Yulay shave bowl too, which comes in a bunch of colors. I picked light blue because I like blue. It also comes in red, black, and a bunch of others. The razor was the Leaf Twig, and I always get a good shave out of that little thing. Thanks for watching, and I appreciate everyone who’s subscribed to the channel, it genuinely helps. If you haven’t yet, I’d sure appreciate it. Until next time, happy shaving.