How much product? REAL cost of soaps/creams

[Blue Raccoon]

You guys have way too much time on your hands!

x2..

 

[moshulu]

I just finished a 170 gm jar of MdC, and I got 180 shaves out of it, being neither very stingy or wasteful. This is consistent with results that others have had. But I encourage you to continue your measurements.

I have just started an experiment with a mixture of about 2 parts Vitos Red (almond) and 1 part MdC unscented. So far, I like the results. Since Vitos is at least 30 times cheaper than MdC per shave, this should certainly have an impact on the economics of my shaving.

 

[Wil Dorenbos]

I just finished a 170 gm jar of MdC, and I got 180 shaves out of it, being neither very stingy or wasteful. This is consistent with results that others have had.

About 1 gram per shave, that sounds reasonable. But not really different from what others report with other soaps, especially harder types.

 

[bkfist]

Just weighed the soap again this morning before my shave (to make sure any moisture has evaporated from the previous day) and it was still at 496 grams after yesterday's shave (5th shave on that "full gram" of soap). I said yesterday that it was 5 shaves, but that was weighing the soap only an hour after the shave, so I couldn't verify it with certainty that it was still on the same gram of soap.) Also, remember, I am face lathering, not building a lather on top of the soap puck, nor am I using enough product to over-flow a lathering mug or bowl, although with 20 light swirls of soap (twice as much as I've been using for test) I *could* have over-flowed my lathering bowl, or shaved 3 people...

I didn't have time to get a weight afterwards, but that's not important, anyway, because any moisture left on the soap could possibly have affected the weight.

With completely soft water, on a badger with no hard water or soap scum deposits, it takes an incredibly small amount of MdC to make enough lather for 4+ passes when face lathering with a small-ish - 20mm, WELL broken in badger brush.

I've got a Semogue boar brush, but that's my "travel brush" that I use when gong places with hard water. I've noticed that using my badger, even for just 2 days in hard water, when I get back to my soft water, it takes 1 or 2 lathers/shaves in the soft water, using quite a lot more soap than I normally would, before the badger will lather up like normal. This is why got the boar brush - to take the abuse of the hard water. It has been months since my badger has seen hard water, and even then, it's only tasted hard water maybe 2 or 3 dozen times in it's 16 year life.

(I haven't tried MdC in hard water, or with the boar brush, and I most likely never will.)

Tonight when I get home, I'll load the brush and take a pic so you can see how very, very little of the soap is actually needed on the tips of the hair hair of the badger.

 

[TallyShave]

It sounds like you will finish this report sometime in 2014. Your findings are bordering on pushing the number of uses over 1,000 which is so far from the results of the average use being reported by others, I think there is something else at play. All of my favorite soaps (generally Italian soft soaps) cost under $10 and I enjoy both their performance and not worrying about how many shaves I can get from each tub.

 

[bkfist]

It sounds like you will finish this report sometime in 2014. Your findings are bordering on pushing the number of uses over 1,000 which is so far from the results of the average use being reported by others, I think there is something else at play. All of my favorite soaps (generally Italian soft soaps) cost under $10 and I enjoy both their performance and not worrying about how many shaves I can get from each tub.

I'm not "worried" about the amount of shaves either... Just interested.

The reason I'm interested was that with my first shave with MdC, knowing it was supposed to be a great lathering product, I loaded the brush much lighter than I normally would and STILL had WAY more lather than I could possibly use. I cut back by 30% on the 2nd shave, and still had more than I could use, then cut back a bit further, until I got to my "10 light swirls" to load the brush. It's still a little more than I need, but if I cut it back to 8, the lather just isn't as thick and rich feeling as with 10 or more.

 

[bkfist]

Well, the MdC officially dropped a full gram when I weighed it tonight, so it got a solid 5 shaves from a gram. If I put a staple on the scale with the soap, it goes back up to where it was. I may re-visit the MdC usage after I try some other products, but I've been using it for over 2 weeks straight now, about 19 or 20 shaves, and it's time to rotate to a different soap for some variety

I'll lather up the brush one more time tonight, just so I can get some pictures of the amount of product needed for a 4 pass face-lather, but I'll be starting a different soap for my shave in the morning.

 

[Kwaka_Chris]

I primarily use creams, out of a $2.20 (full retail price at my grocery store, occasionally discounted) tube of Palmolive lather cream, I get roughly around 3 months of shaving. That is enough lather in a bowl to re-apply 3 times and still have a bit left over at the end. very effective on the hip pocket and good cream too, just has a love it or hate it scent.

It probably helps that the Palmolive cream is quite firm, exponentially more firm than the Proraso cream, probably feels closer to the Proraso soap than anything else.

 

[bkfist]

I primarily use creams, out of a $2.20 (full retail price at my grocery store, occasionally discounted) tube of Palmolive lather cream, I get roughly around 3 months of shaving. That is enough lather in a bowl to re-apply 3 times and still have a bit left over at the end. very effective on the hip pocket and good cream too, just has a love it or hate it scent.

It probably helps that the Palmolive cream is quite firm, exponentially more firm than the Proraso cream, probably feels closer to the Proraso soap than anything else.

How many times per week do you shave? Just curious on the number of actual shaves from a tube of the Palmolive cream. If you are shaving daily, you mustbe lucky with some decent water

 

[bkfist]

Here are pictures of amount of product needed to load on the brush for 4 passes, also brush between 2nd and 3rd pass, lather removed from half the face (Right half if it matters lol) on razor. Had enough lather left for at *least* another pass...

Brush was loaded with about 0.2 grams of Martin de Candre.

Phone rebooted after I lathered up my face before the first pass, and while it was rebooting I did first pass, so I don't have a picture of lathered mug before first pass.

 

[bkfist]

A couple more pictures of the jar of soap after about 20 shaves. The first 2 had way more product used than was necessary. The picture with the straight edge across the jar is a little deceiving, as I had some back-lighting and the soap is slightly translucent, so the gap looks about twice the size in the picture as it actually is.

Oops, that wasn't the back-lit picture with the straight edge... this one still makes it look about twice as large of a gap as it is, but because of the shodow, not the back-lighting.

 

[Go West Young Man]

You get 4 passes out of that much lather? I think we've figured out the issue - you like an extremely thin lather.
What you have on the brush in picture #4 ..... that's what I use PER pass!

 

[bkfist]

You get 4 passes out of that much lather? I think we've figured out the issue - you like an extremely thin lather.
What you have on the brush in picture #4 ..... that's what I use PER pass!

I don't put an inch of lather on my face for each pass, no. About 1/4 inch is more than enough (for me). Any more and it's simply "running" down the razor handle (or being pushed, I don't like runny lather)... I'm sure the amount of product used will vary greatly from person to person, according to their personal preferences as to how much lather they use, however the general "ratio" of the amount used from one soap to the next will be fairly consistent within a given person's usage habits.

Pic #4 is after 2 passes, before the 3rd pass, and the brush looks pretty much the same before pass #4. Maybe the lather on the razor in #5 is a better indicator of the amount of lather I use... The back-side of the razor had just slightly less than is showing on that side of the razor (probably 75% the amount), and that was the amount of lather removed from the right side of my face, from the top beard line to where my jaw line starts to curve, and from the corner of my mouth to my ear, or as i call it, the right side of my face... Not under the jaw, not the neck, just the flat side of my right cheek.

By comparison, I shaved with my Speick stick this morning, and I used 0.8 grams of product to get about the same amount and consistency of lather as 0.2 grams of the MdC provided. (I found that the staples in my staple gun weigh almost exactly 0.1 grams, so I can get a measurement within 0.1 grams without having to average out a large number of uses, or count the number of uses per gram of product. I also lathered up some MdC just as a test, since I knew it should be about 0.2 grams, and the weight difference was 0.2 gm. This will speed up the process considerably... plus I get to go back to a rotation!

 

[BlackBard]

So...... we're a little bored at home, are we?

I think an easier, although slightly more time consuming, test would be to take a precisely measured sample and see how long it takes to shave through it.

WOW! Talk about over-thinking a simple, traditional practice.

FWIW, I used a single puck of AOS Lavender soap for a two-pass shave every day until it was used up. I did not skimp on the soap. I just lathered the way I always do. That puck lasted exactly 9 months. A puck of AOS soap weighs 95 grams, according to the label. Nine months is 270 days, not taking into consideration that some months may contain 31 days. Ninety-five divided by 270 equals 0.3518518 grams per shave. AOS soap cost is $26.00 US. That makes it 9.6 cents per shave.

 

[bkfist]

WOW! Talk about over-thinking a simple, traditional practice.

FWIW, I used a single puck of AOS Lavender soap for a two-pass shave every day until it was used up. I did not skimp on the soap. I just lathered the way I always do. That puck lasted exactly 9 months. A puck of AOS soap weighs 95 grams, according to the label. Nine months is 270 days, not taking into consideration that some months may contain 31 days. Ninety-five divided by 270 equals 0.3518518 grams per shave. AOS soap cost is $26.00 US. That makes it 9.6 cents per shave.

Yup, about what I'd expect for a quality soap... That is why I kept wondering every time I saw people saying 1 or 2 grams of soap used to shave with, especially when someone said they were using that much MdC a few weeks back.... Which is what got me wondering enough to actually measure for myself.

I can understand a lot of soap used for a "glycerin" soap that generally contain large percentages of non-lathering components and/or detergents, but not for a "non-glycerin" soap.

-by glycerin I'm talking melt & pour(able), hence the quotes.-

 

[bkfist]

So far:

MdC 0.2 gm (Loaded onto brush from directly from jar, face lathered) (No tightness in face after shaving, does not seem drying at all.)

Speick 0.7 gm (Shave stick, used as a shave stick) (Found FAR more drying than MdC, even 30 minutes after the shave face was still tight, applied Cade ASB after 30 minutes to moisturize.)

La Toja 0.5 gram (Shave stick, used as a shave stick) (FAR less drying than Speick. Any slight dryness/tightness gone in just a minute or so.)

L'Occitane Cade soap ??? gram (have to wait for puck to dry to get weight reading) (Less drying than Speick, but far more drying than MdC or La Toja. Dry feeling lasted about 20 minutes, didn't feel I had to moisturize after that, but I did anyway.)

 

[Quintar]

Seems about right. I tried weighing out some creams to test slickness under different water ratios and I used .5g of cream and it filled my bowl up with lather. since an equivalent lathering amount of soap should weigh half as much or less .2-.5g should be right on.