Good, cheap soap or cream

[Squanto]

Van Der Hagen Luxury smells awesome, but I was never able to get the same thick lather from it as I did from other similarly priced soaps. Godrej is another cheap soap from India that you can look into. Not my favorite soap, but it gets the job done and a lot of other people seem to like it.

 

[DanSmith]

Williams mug soap for me $1.69 a puck and it last for 2 or 3 months.

I just bought 14 pucks for $0.99 each. You might want to look around some more but still, at $1.69 it's a bargain.

 

[DanSmith]

For me, Van der Hagen Deluxe is good, and their Luxury is better; however, lately I've gone completely off the rails and started using Clearly Natural bar soap. High glycerin content, melts easily into a mug, and comes in several scents (which don't linger long after shaving). And, I can pick them up locally for a dollar for a four ounce bar. (I still have a few VDH pucks in case I decide to revert.)

Ed

Ed,

Clearly Natural bar soap sounds familiar. Where are you buying it? I'm looking for a glycerin soap and I'm not resistant to using bar soap.

 

[DanSmith]

When I was in the military a very popular shaving soap was Cashmere Bouquet bar soap. It was inexpensive and worked wonderfully. A while back, I saw some in the grocery store and decided just for fun to buy a bar and see if memory served correctly. I was astounded, as not only did it produce a rich thick lather with a pleasant clean soap fragrance, but rivaled and in some cases worked better than some of my most expensive six dollar a puck prestige labeled shaving soaps. I picked up a few more bars, use them in my soap rotation and gave a few away to my traditional wet shaving friends who were shocked at how well it worked.
Next time you are in the store, pick up a bar or two, use it as you would any other shaving soap, although you'll need a slightly larger bowl to accommodate the size of the bar, and prepare to be amazed that this little inexpensive bar soap will rival some of your finest big label shaving soaps. By the way, it's made in the US by the same company for almost a century, and you can buy it for as little as $.79 a bar.

One of the other guys here mentioned Cashmere Bouquet and a couple of guys seemed to question his sanity. I'm all for trying stuff like this. I have to locate some. Thanks!

 

[rockviper]

I quickly Google'd Cashmere Bouquet in Canada and we can get 8 bars (4 dual-bar packs) for $46, pre-shipping. Ugh.

 

[Montanan]

Lots of good suggestions, but yeah ... in the bigger scheme of things almost all shaving soap is cheap. Even a good quality artisanal soap will average out to just a few pennies a shave. We're worth it!

 

[vespergo]

Yeah, sometimes I think about the price but to be honest I usually just like to get all different ones just to try them out. As long as the price isn't crazy then I'll go for it at least once to check it out. Especially if it has favorable reviews.

 

[Eeyore]

Yeah, sometimes I think about the price but to be honest I usually just like to get all different ones just to try them out. As long as the price isn't crazy then I'll go for it at least once to check it out. Especially if it has favorable reviews.

I love hard soaps. I like the lather I get, and the price per shave is almost nothing.

 

[OldSaw]

I am glad to see that you decided to save your money and avoid the locally available mediocre products and get some Arko. It is clearly the hands down champion in shavability/dollar(pennies) spent.

I'm surprised (but only slightly) at how many have recommended VDH. While it may seem cheap, it is fairly soft glycerin based soap and doesn't last very long. I can burn through one in a week or two and am never very satisfied with the shave results. I know it scores a lot of hits because it is so widely available in local stores in the U.S. However, if a person likes it that's OK but I feel bad for them. They are in for a real treat once they try some hard milled premium products.

 

[Eeyore]

If you can get it for local prices (family in Germany?) the Palmolive and Wilkinson shave sticks are unbeatable, in my opinion.

Don't go for the Wilkinson Sword bowl soap; entirely different product, and not good (YMMV).

 

[Gytis]

There are many products to consider. My advice is not to buy anything you can not find talked about here on B&B - in my experience those products has even less value than their cheap price.

 

[fightingillini22]

Don't go for the Wilkinson Sword bowl soap; entirely different product, and not good (YMMV).

Agreed, the blue bowl is being reused by me as I really like it but the soap puck ended up in the shower.

 

[aldomarino]

Although the US prices of Palmolive sticks or Godrej Shave rounds make them not quite the value of Arko, both of them still qualify as "inexpensive," and IMHO, both of them provide a better shaving cushion than Arko. Don't get me wrong, Arko is a tremendous value, but for a bit more you can get better.

 

[sydbarett]

Arko seems to be highly recommended. I haven't used it so cant comment. But I suppose hard triple milled soaps tend last a good deal longer than creams. In my experience getting 250-300 shaves out of a C&E Nomad or DR Harris Arlington doesn't take much doing. That ways they work out pretty cheap too and the shaving experience is several notches better.

 

[glm38]

Real shaving co. cream at rite aid or walgreens- big tube for $4-5 will last a long time. No scent, very slick, available locally.

VDH is $1.50. Awesome deal. Might be towards the bottom of the barrel, but it's a decent shave.

I think VDH is better than decent. For me it works as well as anything I've tried. I like Arko too but for me a puck of VDH lasts longer than Arko and i like the scent better.

 

[CalmAsHinduCows]

Best soap for the $ Cella. As luxurious as any high end soap or cream and is very inexpensive. I have tried nearly everything out there and have yet to find a soap or cream that out performs it. Buy a kilo brick for $35 and shave the rest of your life. LOL

+1!

I bought a kilo over a year and a half ago. I shave every other day and I still have about a 1/3 of the kilo left. And I heavily load my boar brush.

Nothing beats Cella for me. I've been wet shaving for close to 3 years and have tried the top-of-the-line stuff down to the legendary Arko and still, nothing beats Cella in terms of its protection, slickness, quality, pure ingredients, and cheap price.

 

[feltspanky]

If your buying locally go with Nivea Shaving Cream in a tube or VDH in a puck. The soap from the Indian Market is also a good value.

 

[feltspanky]

If you can find Nivea Happy Time Bar Soap (cheap) in a Big Lots or Deep Discount Store. It a very good bar of shaving soap.

http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showth...Time-Creme-Bar-Soap?highlight=happy+time+soap

 

[slant81]

Vdh luxury is one of my all time favorite soaps. Scent is very nice.

 

[sir_mike]

I just bought 14 pucks for $0.99 each. You might want to look around some more but still, at $1.69 it's a bargain.

Question about Williams! I seen some pictures that show the same puck boxes but some have "Since 1840" under the name and some dont!

Is there two different types/packaging? Is it the same stuff?