So, do I just stop?

[Paul Bearer]

i never understood buying soaps for the scent as they never last long once the shave is completed. scent is the domain of aftershaves. performance is the domain of soaps.

if you can get around to limiting yourself to just a few neutral scented, high performing soaps that pairs well with any aftershave, it would save a lot of money in the long run. soaps i recommend:

MWF
Haslinger schafmilch
speick
palmolive
La Toja
Arko

difficult to beat those in terms of performance, cost, and versatility.

 

[Korn8]

i never understood buying soaps for the scent as they never last long once the shave is completed. scent is the domain of aftershaves. performance is the domain of soaps.

if you can get around to limiting yourself to just a few neutral scented, high performing soaps that pairs well with any aftershave, it would save a lot of money in the long run. soaps i recommend:

MWF
Haslinger schafmilch
speick
palmolive
La Toja
Arko

difficult to beat those in terms of performance, cost, and versatility.

I like this suggestion... Now I just have to stick to it....

 

[mata_66]

i never understood buying soaps for the scent as they never last long once the shave is completed.

I beg to differ, for me scents play a role in choosing my soaps.

I like to think those twenty minutes it takes me to shave are a very personal and enjoyable moment and a bad or boring scent heavily influence the overall experience.
I always rejoice when I later some of my favorite scented soaps, for example WK Lav Sublime or DG Cuir et Epices because the bathroom starts to smell so good it elevates my mood. That is why some well loved soaps like Arko are banned from my den. I don't want to feel like I'm shaving in a public restroom.

My two only exceptions are Tabac (THAT perishing carnations stench) because if we talk about performance it is my perfect soap and MWF (boring light smell of fabric softener) because I need THE FAT, especially during this cold weather.

 

[JCarr]

When I put all of my software down on a list and I select the products I would reorder if I ran out of it...I come out with around 27%-28% of product that I would really like to keep in my rotation. You can go bonkers and buy a 10-20 soaps over two months, but the percentage that you gave of those you would keep, 10%, is probably not that far off. So for every 10 soaps you would buy, you would probably only want to keep 1 or 2. All of the product I have...runs in the ok to good range, but the stuff that really WOW's me...is few and far between. It comes down to how you want to approach it. You may want to use the items you have that you really like and when one of them runs out, reorder it along with something new that you've had your eye on. This way the expenditure is greatly slowed and you don't end up with 20 plus containers of soap that you will use, but only once in a while.

 

[Sacky84]

i never understood buying soaps for the scent as they never last long once the shave is completed. scent is the domain of aftershaves. performance is the domain of soaps.

if you can get around to limiting yourself to just a few neutral scented, high performing soaps that pairs well with any aftershave, it would save a lot of money in the long run. soaps i recommend:

MWF
Haslinger schafmilch
speick
palmolive
La Toja
Arko

difficult to beat those in terms of performance, cost, and versatility.

I agree about scent longevity on the person from soaps, but I also will say that I leave the lid off my tubs after lathering so that they may dry out before putting the lid back on. Each time I do this it fills the bathroom with a wonderful aroma for most of the day. Wife loves it because I leave for work too early for her to be awake and it reminds her of me when she walks in first thing.

 

[shyster512]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a tub of CBL Premium Shaving soap. It was by chance for sure, since I would have never considered the scent mixture of pineapple, cilantro, and banana. It blew me away. Not only was CBL great, and I mean great, shaving soap, the scent was one of the most pleasant I’ve ever used. I liked it so much that I contacted CBL about a matching scented after shave lotion. What I found was an outstanding soap, a great scent and about as good customer service that you could find. Do yourself a favor and try one of their products. You will not be disappointed.

 

[SterFry]

Maggards, shavedash and WCS all offer samples. If you use a synthetic brush you can easily get 10-15 three pass shaves per sample.

 

[SydneyShaver]

Unless it's inexpensive, something you know you'll love and use till you finish...just buy samples and sample packs. It's what I've done. They're not the most cost efficient but you don't get stuck with 6months worth of shaving cream/soap if you don't like it and you can finish it quickly and move onto the next. Keeps everything interesting and you can better gauge what works well and what doesn't. Its strange seeing people who genuinely have over 10+ years (daily use and overloading) worth of shave soap/cream/blades/aftershaves and continue to buy more...just buy samples or wait till you finish it up to replace it!! Takes up less room and accomplishes the same goal without destroying your wallet or forcing you to stock up on heaps of product. Cosmetic products might not go 'off' but they are not designed to just sit somewhere for years on end. They WILL lose scent, performance will be reduced etc.

 

[global_dev]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a tub of CBL Premium Shaving soap. It was by chance for sure, since I would have never considered the scent mixture of pineapple, cilantro, and banana. It blew me away. Not only was CBL great, and I mean great, shaving soap, the scent was one of the most pleasant I’ve ever used. I liked it so much that I contacted CBL about a matching scented after shave lotion. What I found was an outstanding soap, a great scent and about as good customer service that you could find. Do yourself a favor and try one of their products. You will not be disappointed.

totally agree about their customer service. But that scent trio is crazy. Gotta try that one day for sure.

 

[celestino]

If its mostly scent, suggest buy some samples.

if its performance, then 1 example or sample of a base is probably enough and perhaps a sample provides enough for a couple of shaves.

this is a tough area for saving $$.

+1
There are some other great artisan soaps that offer samples and you may enjoy their scents.

 

[SterFry]

i never understood buying soaps for the scent as they never last long once the shave is completed. scent is the domain of aftershaves. performance is the domain of soaps.

I completely agree. It bewilders me when people make soap choices based on scent. To me a soap smelling nice is a minor convenience at best.

 

[CzechCzar]

Update: I refrained on Black Friday from doing a bulk purchase of my favorite, B&M Colonge Russe. Reason being that I had 6 or 7 soaps, and that's enough.

I just tried A&E's Kaizan base, and good lord. That's slick. Possibly better than B&M.

 

[SHAVEWIZARD420]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a tub of CBL Premium Shaving soap. It was by chance for sure, since I would have never considered the scent mixture of pineapple, cilantro, and banana. It blew me away. Not only was CBL great, and I mean great, shaving soap, the scent was one of the most pleasant I’ve ever used. I liked it so much that I contacted CBL about a matching scented after shave lotion. What I found was an outstanding soap, a great scent and about as good customer service that you could find. Do yourself a favor and try one of their products. You will not be disappointed.

+1 on CBL's customer Service. Maggards as well, both go far above and beyond to take care of their customers. Plus both companies are ran by honest trustworthy people.