The changing dynamic of purchasing shaving soaps and creams

Is there anyone else who has been wet shaving as long as I have, or longer, found that their buying habits of soaps and creams have changed over the years?

Maybe seven years? And yes & no. I still loves me some samples, and that's usually how I try new vendors.

...and I had got to the point of winnowing things down to a few scent/base combinations that I particularly liked & would be more likely to buy than a new experiment...

...but now it looks like artisan creams are starting to get really good. Stone Cottage has a cream formula that I probably like better than any soap I've tried, and WSP Tobacco Cream is my all-time favorite shaving product...

Ironically, for the first time in quite a few years, I purchased a mainline shaving soap, D.R. Harris Marlborough.  I love the Marlborough scent in the aftershave and cologne but was always worried that the soap wouldn't measure up.  I used it for the first time this morning and was very pleasantly surprised on all counts.  The scent was strong, whipping up a decent lather was easy, the lather was protective, and post shave my skin wasn't dry.  Obviously, I'm pleased with my purchase but I believe D.R. Harris to be the exception to the rule of the lowering standards of British mainline soaps over the years.  Today's artisans are amazing and come in at a variety of price points.  Just to name a few, Wickham Soap Co. 1912 series, Stirling Soap Co., Barrister and Mann, Mike's Naturals, Chiseled Face, and, in the aftershave, eau de toilette, perfume category, Chatillon Lux, as well as so many more.

Finally! Freddy has partaken in the wonder that is DR Harris.  I have been a fan for a long time.  Long enough in fact to have bought back ups thinking Harris would go the way of other British houses and swap,formulae to new and untenable products.  Thankfully thus far they are standing firm in the performance category.

We are truly blessed today. Perhaps overly so?  Literally hundreds of choices for soaps and creams these days.  Been wet shaving since about 73 and for the longest while used canned soap (there are some pretty good ones) but about 8 years ago I dove back into soap/brush.  Then the options were much fewer and most gents had “a soap” they used, liked, and knew.  Many of those old soaps (Tabac, Harris, Trumpers pre-scew-up)I still adore.  But there are some amazing performers now that really changed the landscape.  Crummy performance is harder to find so i find myself chasing the experience rather than the soap and it takes a lot to move my hand to my wallet in the soap category.  It’s all about scent now for me.  If the soaps scent tells a story, Or conjures old memories, or breaks new trail, you have my attention.  If it’s another Aventus clone or some other dupe I really don’t get interested.  For me, soaps need not smell nice (pine tar) to be in my wheelhouse.  I don’t buy nearly as often as I used to and really don’t see a huge gulf in performance from the top shelve new stuff and good old Tabac.