Expensive vs cheap.

[Roy]

I've shaved for a week using MdC and proraso white tub soaps per week.Both are at the opposite ends of price range.
My conclusions are that there is very little difference between their performance, in fact proraso may beat mdc on after shave skin feel.
Both are excellent with very good ingredients and I have no irritation with them, unlike many other products of varying prices.
Long live both soaps.

 

[Rhody]

Interesting

 

[rbscebu]

I limit my soap purchases to nothing over $10 each. I agree that I find the expensive soaps ($8 to $10) no better performers than the cheaper soaps.

 

[Shaun asleep]

I haven't tried mdc because I find it too expensive.
I have several other brands, Proraso, Zingari, Stirling, Phoenix Artisan, Cella, Palmolive, Tobs and I kind of agree with you.

I could be perfectly happy using one of the more affordable options. The only one that really stands out to me is PAA ck6, but I force myself to only buy one 'puck' of them and order another only after I have finished it.

On the other hand, there is so much joy in having the ability to chose something different every day...

Besides the joy of variaty I do agree that performance seems to be similar or very close together.

/edit I Just realised you werent making the point that we should not over spend on soaps, your point is actually that both are good.

 

[NorthernSoul]

I have some expensive soaps, but I was able to buy them cheap! It works out pretty well and I get more variety that way. Most of mine were $10 or less. The majority are hard milled soaps.

Remember if you are considering cost, it should be figured in terms of cost to use it, not to buy it. IOW, cost per shave, not cost per gram.

 

[macintoshBR]

Fully agreed. I will never again buy an expensive soap or cream.

 

[demaro]

I personally find Proraso to be among one of the best apps out there , I al get a great shave using a cheap soap. Arko , Cella , Palmolive Stick are all top notch For me .

 

[Tomo]

You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a good shave.

 

[Jack Goossen]

I've shaved for a week using MdC and proraso white tub soaps per week.Both are at the opposite ends of price range.
My conclusions are that there is very little difference between their performance, in fact proraso may beat mdc on after shave skin feel.
Both are excellent with very good ingredients and I have no irritation with them, unlike many other products of varying prices.
Long live both soaps.

I have to disagree here.
Not challenging your personal experience, though.
Your skin and stubble may be completely different from mine.
I notice HUGE difference between soaps now.
I started with cheaper soaps, but only Haslinger has been able to keep up with the expensive soaps
that are in my rotation now. Been trying some of the less expensive and mid priced soaps lately, but none, except Tabac, give the slide and post shave feel the others do.
Happy for you, though, since you are able to invest more in other gear

 

[ogu]

the problem i have with expensive shave soap is that to justify it it have to give you something which most of them simply dont, for me at least ofc - highly subjective and only my opinion. but, they just dont. its not even about the money, its looking at cheap *** generic aliexpress containers, horribly horrible ugly 'artwork', dumb names, childish scents, in reality done by actual nobodies doing what they do for like only a few years (if even) etc while asking 20+ for 100g gd soap - asking absolute premium for their 'craft'. viewed from a standpoint of whole package they offer they are simply out of their mind imo. i dont have it in me to support that nonsense.

i wouldnt call myself a brandsnob but just for example acqua di parma, while at minimum similar silly price/perfomance wise compared to inexpensive known heavy hitters, gives me as a package way more to use than any so loud hyped up 'artisans' with everything surrounding them mentioned above i aint even not only not feel but in reality really oppose.

 

[Medivh]

I find the above average soaps a bit better compared to the cheaper ones in terms of hydration, lather quality and sickness, but that doesn't mean that I get closer and better shaves only from more expensive soaps. The job of the shaving soap and cream is to provide sickness for the blade to glide on instead of going directly on the unprotected skin. If you make a mistake during shaving it wouldn't matter if the product you're using is cheap or expensive, you will still cut yourself regardless.

People like the more expensive soaps for different reasons, like having a better scent, having more vitamins and oils to hydrate their dry skin, better leather quality etc.

For me, the razor and the blade are the main things that reflect the closeness and the quality of my shaves while the soap/cream, brush and aftershave act more like buffers to increase the already good results and add a bit more, but they alone won't help at all if I'm using the ''wrong'' razor or/and blade combo or if my skills suck or even if my shave prep is bad.

 

[Mr. Shavington]

It’s like everything else. There are excellent, inexpensive shaving soaps that will do the job very well. And there is a premium / artisan market that offers something different at a premium price if you want it. That isn’t a new phenomenon, or something that is particular to shaving products.

Some (but not all) of the artisan products may give you an incremental improvement in certain aspects, or at least a noticeably different experience, but you don’t need it unless you have a significant skin problem, and it won’t change your life. It’s just soap and it helps you to cut your facial hair, that’s all. A rational buyer, in most cases, would purchase the standard products because the price difference is proportionally so large, and any differences are unimportant in normal use.

There is nothing wrong with buying premium priced soap if you like to. I just think sometimes (not only with shaving) we can attach too much importance to searching for the absolute best when the differences actually don’t matter much (if at all) and the price premium is proportionally so high. But there are always hobbyists with spare money who want to go the extra mile for something they feel is just a bit better, and nobody is ripping anyone off when they offer small batch, premium-priced products for this market. On hobby forums like this the differences between products become magnified beyond what they really are. You don’t have to follow, and there would be no reason to feel you are missing out on anything important.

I do think, however, there are big differences in the performance of different razors - though some of the best ones are not the most expensive. Soaps aren’t an important rabbit hole to invest in for your shaving, and most of us would get better results if we just stuck with one inexpensive soap and learned how to get the best from it, instead of buying all the latest things.

 

[Jim99]

I see a diminishing return when buying expensive soaps. Yes the expense and more established soaps are better than the cheaper store bought varieties, but not that much better in many cases to justify the premium price for me.

 

[Smooth and Sharp]

Other things that may not matter to one are the ingredients. Essential oils are more expansive than artificial scents.

Most artisan soap makers are doing this for a living and doesn't own big plants that would reduce the production costs. Some are working to improve their stuff and change scents regularly compared to the classic brand that produce the same good soap year after year. Some people like to encourage that knowing where the money goes.

As mentioned many times on this forum, when you look at the cost per shave, some "expansive" soaps are less expansive than they look like.

So yes, if you only look at the price tag it might not make any sense for some but even without looking at performance, there are a lot of other things that may impact the price.

 

[Dapper Gent]

Remember if you are considering cost, it should be figured in terms of cost to use it, not to buy it. IOW, cost per shave, not cost per gram.

The most "expensive" soap I'll buy is Pre de Provence, at about $14.00. I really like it, and it works great for me in all aspects.
It lasts for months, as compared to Proraso (which I also really like) so it too is really a "cheap" soap IMO.

 

[Steve56]

There are some things that are good to keep in mind.

1. No soap is expensive except compared to other soaps.

2. What makes a soap relatively cheap or relatively expensive is not always performance. Fragrance can be a large part of it, companies like Acqua di Parma and Floris co not give those scents away as an after thought to their soaps. Rose and some other scent oils are quite expensive. If your nose is dead or you just don’t care about scent, there’s much less reason to buy AdP or Floris for example.

3. As @Jim99 says, the (performance) differences between cheap and expensive usually aren’t as great as the price difference. If you have to ask if expensive soap X is worth the difference from cheap soap Y, the answer is almost always ‘No’, because only value shoppers ask this question.

4. Soap performance to some degree depends on what kind of razor that you’re using. If you’re using a straight razor, the characteristics that you prefer in a soap may be different from DE users, and you may be willing to pay more for certain characteristics, like slickness/residual slickness, while cushion and glide have almost no meaning in the SR world and are not worth paying much for them.

La Toja, Provence Sante, and Pre de Provence, and the Italian bricks are cheap soaps that perform well, but the scents are simple. Trumper hard soaps are more expensive and are almost universally disliked for their non-lathering performance, but they do smell good and are usually quite slick. Martin de Candre is a good value, for something like $60-65 you can shave for a year or more, and that’s difficult to do with many other popular soaps, yet many people can’t get over the initial investment even though the amount of MdC (200g) is twice what some others are. These are the folks that only buy a half tank of gas because a full tank costs too much.

There’s certainly something for everyone at every price and performance level, just decide what characteristics are important to you and go get it.

 

[Jack Goossen]

the problem i have with expensive shave soap is that to justify it it have to give you something which most of them simply dont, for me at least ofc - highly subjective and only my opinion. but, they just dont. its not even about the money, its looking at cheap *** generic aliexpress containers, horribly horrible ugly 'artwork', dumb names, childish scents, in reality done by actual nobodies doing what they do for like only a few years (if even) etc while asking 20+ for 100g gd soap - asking absolute premium for their 'craft'. viewed from a standpoint of whole package they offer they are simply out of their mind imo. i dont have it in me to support that nonsense.

i wouldnt call myself a brandsnob but just for example acqua di parma, while at minimum similar silly price/perfomance wise compared to inexpensive known heavy hitters, gives me as a package way more to use than any so loud hyped up 'artisans' with everything surrounding them mentioned above i aint even not only not feel but in reality really oppose.

If your skin does not feel any different using a cheaper soap like Razorock compared to f.i. A&E, you may have a skin condition. Or I might. Post skin feel differences are huge for me.
I like the art work on many soaps, btw. Maybe you’re not into arts.

 

[SgtCrppls]

+1 to @Steve56

 

[Jack Goossen]

There are some things that are good to keep in mind.

1. No soap is expensive except compared to other soaps.

2. What makes a soap relatively cheap or relatively expensive is not always performance. Fragrance can be a large part of it, companies like Acqua di Parma and Floris co not give those scents away as an after thought to their soaps. Rose and some other scent oils are quite expensive. If your nose is dead or you just don’t care about scent, there’s much less reason to buy AdP or Floris for example.

3. As @Jim99 says, the (performance) differences between cheap and expensive usually aren’t as great as the price difference. If you have to ask if expensive soap X is worth the difference from cheap soap Y, the answer is almost always ‘No’, because only value shoppers ask this question.

4. Soap performance to some degree depends on what kind of razor that you’re using. If you’re using a straight razor, the characteristics that you prefer in a soap may be different from DE users, and you may be willing to pay more for certain characteristics, like slickness/residual slickness, while cushion and glide have almost no meaning in the SR world and are not worth paying much for them.

La Toja, Provence Sante, and Pre de Provence, and the Italian bricks are cheap soaps that perform well, but the scents are simple. Trumper hard soaps are more expensive and are almost universally disliked for their non-lathering performance, but they do smell good and are usually quite slick. Martin de Candre is a good value, for something like $60-65 you can shave for a year or more, and that’s difficult to do with many other popular soaps, yet many people can’t get over the initial investment even though the amount of MdC (200g) is twice what some others are. These are the folks that only buy a half tank of gas because a full tank costs too much.

There’s certainly something for everyone at every price and performance level, just decide what characteristics are important to you and go get it.

 

[HazMat Shaver]

Right on, Steve. That post is so true!