The Very Best Budget Soaps / Creams Where Money is The Object!

NeoXerxes I believe this is the thread you were referring to

Thanks jsanchez for finding this - only 2 weeks old and I couldn't find it. So 136 shaves from a tub of Stirling soap

While I agree that cents-per-shave is the true cost of a soap if you afford the purchase price, I agree with hrairy. Telling someone with little disposable income to buy MdC because it's affordable in the long run is like telling him to buy an entire side of beef because the price per pound is less than by the package at the supermarket. When I was having lean times, there never was $70 lying around for something like imported French shaving soap.

And to clarify my previous post on Arko vs MdC, I meant ignoring price, too. Just comparing performance.

This has been an interesting discussion highlighting, as always, that it depends on your own definition of "budget" vs "luxury" , while luxury is certainly subjective - I find my shaves to be luxurious regardless of the soap I may be using, its just the time and the process that I enjoy. I think, therefore, we'll have to use initial cash outlay as the indicator of whether a soap / cream is budget or not and leave the whole price per shave discussion to other threads.

Right now Italian Barber has IB brand soaps for as low as $4.99 and the Arko stick for $2.99 - thats got to be one of the best bargains out there. I might have to give Arko a try and see what all the fuss is about. By fuss I mean that for such a budget priced item it sure gets a lot of discussion. Its seems that the shave sticks are generally among the cheapest options out there. I've got a few but usually only use them traveling - I'm considering doing a comparative test, maybe do a week of stick shaves and see which among my stick collection is best IMO. I currently have Speick, Tabac, Ogallala, DR Harris and La Toja sticks.
Marko

Somebody posted recently that they did an experiment with a tub of Stirling soap in a scent that they either got by mistake and didn't care or bought on spec and didn't care for the scent - in any case they decided to use it exclusively to see how many shaves they could get from it and I think the total was 130 or something like that.  I've searched high and low to try to find the post but to no avail - if the poster reads this please paste in a link to your post.  So I can buy Stirling soap in Canada for around $17.50, divided by 130 it comes to about $0.135 per shave or approximately US$0.10 per shave.  That sounds cheap.  Can either NeoXerxes or andrewjs18 or anyone else with some MDC perform the same experiment with a new tub of MDC to determine whether it really is a budget soap based on a cost per shave basis?  We must apply scientific rigour to our assessments of budget or not.  Wouldn't it be shocking if the MDC had to be struck from the list of luxury soaps to take its place among the budget Arko soaps of the world?
Marko

primotenore did something like this last year for a month with a Brain Bowl of MdC.  I can't remember what his actual results were but he put a serious dent in the MdC in a single month (I want to say he calculated that he used around 2g per shave). Perhaps Primo can chime in on this one.

I did use a MdC Brain Bowl daily for a month. I loaded it heavily and did knock down the soap level significantly.
Before:
After:
I used more than 2g/shave; indeed I used almost 3g. The BB has since been PIF'd. I do still enjoy my MdC Fougère.

Heres my list:
1-Italian Barber Amici- amazing performance in or outbof its pricepoint. Lathers easily, provides outstanding protection, excellent post shave, and less than $1 per ounce.

2-super lather with Williams and Nivea Sensitive. Its not a single soap or cream, clearly, but even combining the costs, its only about $5 for both products, and when combined the performance is top level. Outstanding protection and one of the best post shave feels I have ever exlerienced.

3-Van der Hagen Luxury. About $1 per ounce for a hard puck, super easy to lather, outstanding performance, excellent post shave...what more could you ask?

Arko, is a good performer, but is not better than any of the above, and is not so much cheaper to knock any of the above out of place. Its a runner-up that stays in rotation, but not something I look forward to using like the above choices.

Never used Cella, so no input on that.

Now...for my definition of budget:

I am not "well to do", but I can occasionally splurge. However, I have to choose what I splurge on, and soap rarely makes the cut. Splurging is for hardware, and non-shaing toys like my motorcycle.

With that said, initial cost is the biggest factor. Can I afford to put out $XX.XX for Xoz of soap at this time? If I do, will this soap be a reliable product choice?

There is no room in the budget for spending $50 on a tub of soap, no matter what the cost per shave breaks down to. I dont budget my motorcycle tires at a cost per mile, I buy the best performing tires with a pricetag inside my budget.

Conversely, there is no room in my budget for "cheap" soaps that cost almost nothing initially, but lack performance to the degree that they sit unused, taking up valuable real estate in the bathroom.

For my evaluation, "budget" refers to a low-cost inveestment with a high rate of return...inexpensive cost, high value perfirmance, and a shaving experience I look forward to. 2 out of 3 does not make the cut, in my humble opinion....

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BadDad came in under the wire as I read through this great thread:

VdH Deluxe- readily available at markets and pharmacies, solid performance and only $3.

Others already mentioned:

I also am a fan of Razorock and IB soaps. I personally get very solid performance- many different scents and the price is hard to beat as well.

Stirling is a great option too.

I also view budget soaps on more of an absolute than relative cost.

Somebody posted recently that they did an experiment with a tub of Stirling soap in a scent that they either got by mistake and didn't care or bought on spec and didn't care for the scent - in any case they decided to use it exclusively to see how many shaves they could get from it and I think the total was 130 or something like that. I've searched high and low to try to find the post but to no avail - if the poster reads this please paste in a link to your post. So I can buy Stirling soap in Canada for around $17.50, divided by 130 it comes to about $0.135 per shave or approximately US$0.10 per shave. That sounds cheap. Can either NeoXerxes or andrewjs18 or anyone else with some MDC perform the same experiment with a new tub of MDC to determine whether it really is a budget soap based on a cost per shave basis? We must apply scientific rigour to our assessments of budget or not. Wouldn't it be shocking if the MDC had to be struck from the list of luxury soaps to take its place among the budget Arko soaps of the world?
Marko

Marko that's a great idea, but I would take issue with the methodology of such assessments. It is too difficult in my view to assess price per shave precisely due to differences in things like technique and brushes used. The best we can hope for is a rough estimate, or at least a historical view on the subject. It's a bit like asking "how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" We can expect the number to vary wildly from user to user.

In this very thread, andrewjs18 pointed out why this is the case - some users will load more heavily, while others (like myself) will load just enough for the shave. But if I feel like it, I'll load more, and in the context of a scientific assessment, these small variances would bias the data in one direction or another.

On Martin de Candre specifically, I do think it is a luxury soap. But at the same time, it is a luxury soap with a fantastic value proposition in terms of price per shave. The price of the product is quite high at ~$60, however many users have been quite surprised at how long the soap lasts. In other words, if one considers "expensive" soaps to be out of the budget category by definition, Martin de Candre is obviously not a budget soap. On the other hand, if one considers price per shave as part of the value proposition of what it means to be a "budget" product, Martin de Candre (along with similarly dense and resilient soaps) just might have something to offer.

jsanchez Thanks much for the link! That kind of examination is very helpful for generating rough estimates, but I don't think it is scientific or universally applicable due to variations in technique and the like. Some folks will not get nearly as many shaves from Stirling - others might get even more.

I agree with many of the comments. I try to balance total cost with cost per shave myself. Ultimately, I think long term, but I'm pretty sure my wife would be unhappy if I busted the budget with a $70 soap purchase.

That being said, I also agree, that it's difficult to compare actual number of shaves / oz from person to person due to the differences mentioned above. I think it's much more accurate to say that soap A will last X times longer than soap B. That should be fairly consistent from person to person, regardless of how much they load. With just under two years of experience, and being a head shaver, I've found that I have gotten 2.5 to 3 times more passes from triple milled soaps, as opposed to the typical softer artisan soap.

That gives me a much better price/shave estimate when choosing my next soap.

I haven't (but will) used Arko or Palmolive sticks. But I think that almost any traditional wet shaver in my country has used La Toja and Lea sticks. Dirt cheap and good performers. I prefer Lea over La Toja as I find it more protective and the mineral salts content in La Toja give me itches sometimes. La Toja's scent is much, much better, though.

I think several folks now have made a good case that "affordable" often means, primarily, the upfront cost, not necessarily the long-term cost. That makes very good sense, especially with something like shaving soap (whereas I can imagine other categories where even the budget-strapped may finagle a way to make a bigger investment short-term when it's clear it will save them money long-term).

Given this, I agree that Martin de Candre is not a budget shaving soap. I only brought it up as an interesting point of discussion, and to stretch our conceptions a bit as to where the costs of this hobby really go. Despite its higher up-front cost, I'd say MdC remains notable for a little bit going a long way, so perhaps we can say it's neither budget nor overpriced: you get a lot for what you pay for.

That aside, this thread has already given me a few things I'd like to try, especially since it's so, ahem, cheap to do so. I see some Nivea Sensitive and Palmolive Classic lathering up my face in the near future. Not that I need more soap, but knowing how they do will potentially give me new options to recommend to wet-shaving friends and possible converts.

I'll go with Stirling as well. Really close behind is Soap Commander. Third is RazoRock.

Is almost 3$/oz still considered as budget? If so, my first choice would be WSP. Slightly better than Stirling IMO.

About initial cost - isn't it just a matter of patience? If you don't HAVE to buy the soap RIGHT NOW, you can save for it while using other budget soaps with lower initial cost. After you save enough to splurge on the expensive but budget soap, you'll have enough time while going through it to save for a replacement.