AOS and Essential Oil

[Sterling Cooper]

I've really been enjoying my Art of Shaving Sandalwood soap. I'm rather curious about their use of essential oils. As I understand it, sandalwood eo is incredibly expensive; whereas, lavender and lemon are pretty cheap.

Now all three soaps cost $26 for a refill puck. My question is, is so little eo used that the production cost difference between the sandalwood soap and the lemon/lavender is negligeble? Or, is there a substantive cost of production difference, and the lemon/lavender soaps are in effect subsidizing the use of sandalwood eo in the sandalwood soap?

Also, and on a more depressing note, having known many P&G people in my time, I can not under any circumstances imagine their continuing to use real sandalwood eo down the road. That is just such a huge red flag jumping out at a junior bean counter looking to impress his superiors.

 

[Phog Allen]

Hi Sterling. I think you are right about the minimal amount of EO being used in AOS soaps. I bought the lavender and lemon last week and to my nose they are almost unscented. You can tell the EOs play some role because the lavender is a very light butterscotch/tan colour while the lemon is creamy white. Still, they have no scent to me which is a big disappointment. They shave like nobody's business but lack a real scent experience. As for the P&G thing, they will either leave them alone or ruin them. Probably not much in between. The silver lining may be that P&G realises the people who buy AOS are not the average Fusion user. Even if they tried to source a cheaper fragrance or soap base to lower prices they would have two big problems. A; the current customer base would take one use of a cheaper product and quit buying it altogether or B; they try to do an end run and cheapen the source product, leave prices the same, and try to tell everyone it is the same product in which case the results will be the same as above. Remember, this is a HIGH end product. They knew this when they bought it. It is not a market saturation brand. You will likely not see $26 shaving soap refills or $45 shave soap w/bowls being sold at Walmart. It is funny. AOS took so much bashing (not from me, I like them) on these forums for years for being 'too corporate' and phony, etc. Now we have a bunch of guys who are worried they may lose their favourite soap or cream or have something less than what it was. We shall have to see but I am cautiously optimistic. For now.

Regards, Todd

 

[michiganlover]

I really hope the guys at P and G are smart enough to realize that AOS is a high end brand, and part of what differentiates it in the marketplace is it's use of of Essential Oils, rather than the more synthetic smelling ,and cheaper to produce Fragrance Oils.

As stated above, without the EOs, there is nothing that sets this brand apart from TOBS for example, which can be had for fare less money (at least for the shaving cream).