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

gwsmallwood I'm happy to hear that, truly, though I'm not sure it will have any effect given the model of the forum itself.

I think I should add that if one looking at the under the $2.50/oz mark, there are ways to get there or close to it by just searching for sales. I don't want to pay full price. Who does?

A few examples. Trumpers is usually a $30 tub. At the moment, its under $19 on Amazon. Thats $2.68/oz. That's close enough to make the call (possibly) of being budget? We are talking pennies here.

However, the most significant thing to me is catching this stuff on sale, without doubt the best time between Black Friday and New Years. I know people like to buy things year round but I've seen resellers selling things for 25% off, and in one case, everything in the store for 33% off.

33% off is a massive sale to me. Stock up.

I'm sure everyone here knows Perfumunia is giving Tabac away today. $7.49 a refill. Pretty sure you can get free shipping and $10 credit on the next buy just by getting their newsletter. That's $1.70/oz for the first refill and free for the second. Anyone going to pass up on free?

Trumper's comes close to that mark on sale, however I personally (IMHO, YMMV, and so forth) would not consider it a budget cream due to the high price per use. The cream is very soft and light. When I used Trumper's exclusively for some time, I'd use up an entire jar in a fairly short period of time. On the other hand, a tub of the more dense Castle Forbes (which is more expensive up front with a better cost per use calculation) lasted me nearly a year, and as a nice bonus, it performed much better.

That Tabac price is excellent by the way. One might be able to justify stockpiling that stuff.

In any event it shows how subjective all of these things are. One man's budget product is another man's luxury product. It all depends on how one wishes to view the financial calculations involved.

You make a great point on the importance of sales. I've gotten some great deals on some high quality products with sales or even differing vendor prices. When the difference between a puck of Antica Barbieria Soap is $30 vs $60 between vendors, it's worth doing some serious research.

I think I should add that if one looking at the under the $2.50/oz mark, there are ways to get there or close to it by just searching for sales. I don't want to pay full price. Who does?

A few examples. Trumpers is usually a $30 tub. At the moment, its under $19 on Amazon. Thats $2.68/oz. That's close enough to make the call (possibly) of being budget? We are talking pennies here.

However, the most significant thing to me is catching this stuff on sale, without doubt the best time between Black Friday and New Years. I know people like to buy things year round but I've seen resellers selling things for 25% off, and in one case, everything in the store for 33% off.

33% off is a massive sale to me. Stock up.

I'm sure everyone here knows Perfumunia is giving Tabac away today. $7.49 a refill. Pretty sure you can get free shipping and $10 credit on the next buy just by getting their newsletter. That's $1.70/oz for the first refill and free for the second. Anyone going to pass up on free?

I consider Trumper's cream a budget cream for sure. It's $19.89 on Amazon with free Prime shipping which is about normal on Amazon these days. Also, at shaving.ie it's only $17.81 plus shipping, which can fluctuate a little due to currency exchange but it's always around $18. They beat Amazon on must European products but with free shipping Amazon is the best deal for GFT.

Hobbyist Whoa really? LOL I'm in the minority on every sub-topic of this thread O_o.

I forget, do you have experience with Castle Forbes (using an entire tub)? I know you noted earlier in the thread that it can be found for ~$27 at Shaving.ie. The Forbes/Trumper's comparison is what brought me to begin thinking in terms of price per shave versus initial investment - I got so much more mileage out of Forbes that it no longer made sense for me to keep buying Trumper's. That said, I do love the smell of Trumper's West Indian Limes.

Hobbyist Whoa really? LOL I'm in the minority on every sub-topic of this thread O_o.

I forget, do you have experience with Castle Forbes (using an entire tub)? I know you noted earlier in the thread that it can be found for ~$27 at Shaving.ie. The Forbes/Trumper's comparison is what brought me to begin thinking in terms of price per shave versus initial investment - I got so much more mileage out of Forbes that it no longer made sense for me to keep buying Trumper's. That said, I do love the smell of Trumper's West Indian Limes.

Actually it was you that mentioned CF, I just broke down the prices on all of them and said I don't consider any of them budget products. I don't use GFT but my bought me one and a T&F. The two looked identical and reviews said they performed almost identical so I sold GFT and kept T&F sandalwood because I like the scent. When I said I call it a budget that is based on the fact that you get 200g, nearly 7oz for as low as $18.68 shipped, which comes to $2.66 per ounce. I have been going with anything under $3 per ounce as budget priced.

As for how many shaves it provides, I can't say because I haven't used it. However, I've used my T&F a few times and I do not have to use much cream to build plenty of lather. Comparing CF to T&F is apples to oranges. It may be called a cream but it is more like a soap.

So yes, I would call GFT at $18 shipped a budget cream. If you consider shipping a 7oz cream would cost at least $5.00 due to weight, then it's like paying $13 plus shipping. But keep in mind, I do not care about number of shaves personally because everyone loads differently. I load a lot actually, but have so many soaps it doesn't concern me.

Hobbyist Whoa really? LOL I'm in the minority on every sub-topic of this thread O_o.

I forget, do you have experience with Castle Forbes (using an entire tub)? I know you noted earlier in the thread that it can be found for ~$27 at Shaving.ie. The Forbes/Trumper's comparison is what brought me to begin thinking in terms of price per shave versus initial investment - I got so much more mileage out of Forbes that it no longer made sense for me to keep buying Trumper's. That said, I do love the smell of Trumper's West Indian Limes.

One more thing I forgot to add. I have not used a CF soap to finish but I have used a sample up. I probably load a lot more soap than you based on what you have said, thus I highly doubt it would last as long for me.

Hobbyist, I know I brought up Forbes, but you reminded me that it could be found for a bit cheaper from Shaving.ie. In any case, it's true that everyone loads differently. Some like to load Forbes from the bowl since it is more dense (it is sometimes described as a croap), but I scoop out a smidge of the soap and build lather in a bowl. Using this method (which is the same I use for Trumper's and Truefitt) I get much better mileage out of Forbes. A clear case of YMMV, but it's true that if you prefer a price/oz cap, Forbes probably wouldn't qualify.

Posted here are just a few budget creams that have worked very well for me.  I am especially partial to the MEM from Israel and the Men's Estoril Sports Line from Portugal. Because I have had the good fortune to travel to Europe, I am able to pick up some of these for almost nothing.  Although I do not use shave sticks, I used to bring back the tallow based Polmolive and Erasmic ones to give to friends.  In some places in Scotland I was getting them for as little as 65p each (US93¢) but even at places like Boots I was only paying 99p (US$1.41).  Likewise for creams like Palmolive and Erasmic. Other very affordable creams that I think do a fine job are The Real Shaving Co. and Kiss My Face. I have progressed on to other (and more expensive) soaps, croaps, and creams but still occasionally return to these old stand-bys and they don't disappoint.

**snipped the photos**

I like MEM, but man does their cap suck on their tubes of cream. I think I lost half of my tube of MEM because of their poor cap and having it leak inside my shaving drawer. this stunk at the time because it was hard to find within the states...I'm not sure if this is still the case though.

ironically enough, didn't we do a group buy of MEM shaving cream back when DFS was around 4-5 years ago?!

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

unfortunately I do not own any MDC.

I'll just throw my 2 cents in. As a newbie and someone that is financially challenged, ie poor, I have to base my buying decisions on the initial cost. While cost per shave may make a particular soap a budget soap, unfortunately you cannot purchase the soap and pay per shave, you have to pay for the entire life of the soap at the initial purchase. That initial price is what hits me. I can afford to pay a cheap price for a soap, even if it doesn't last very long. The initial price is within my budget whereas a longer lasting but more expensive soap is out of my reach.
Did that make any sense or am I rambling?
To boil it down, the initial price is what determines a budget soap to me. Regardless of how long the soap lasts.

I think $15 for a tub of soap/croap/cream would top out my opinion on a 'budget' soap. but does this include shipping or the soap on its own?!

I just received a puck of Hasslinger Honig soap and did my first test-lather... WOW!!!! I have a few very good soaps, and must admit that this little yellow puck performs (lather-wise) as good as many of them.

I initially put forth the 3P as my best budget soap, but now I have two champions - Hasslinger and 3P.

I will shave with it tonight and will comment on its aftershave performance shortly thereafter.

ANG69 what high praise! You folks are making me want to go completely out of my way to get that soap lol.