Some purchasing restraint at last - but how old will you be when your supplies run out?

[EclipseRedRing]

I have been reading of the reformulation of Mitchell's Wool Fat shaving soap and read the advice to stock up, and so found myself with a few pucks of tallow MWF in my online shopping basket. Before I finished my purchase I decided to do a stock take of my soaps and estimate how long my current supply would last. I allowed a conservative nine months for a bowl or puck, and six months for a stick in my calculations.

I was astonished to find I have in excess of 40 pucks or bowls of Yardley Black Label, Yardley Lavender, Shulton Old Spice, Cussons Imperial Leather, Goya Cedarwood, Goya Corvette, Roger & Gallet L'Homme, Faberge Brut, and Tabac. Similarly I have almost 50 sticks of Yardley Black Label, Yardley Lavender, Cussons Imperial Leather, Shulton Old Spice, Williams, Tabac, Dubarry Silkashave, Palmolive, and Erasmic; plus a few tubes of Yardley, Shulton Old Spice and Old Spice Burley creams. I am now 56 years of age and have sufficient soap to last me well into my 80s if not my 90s. It suddenly dawned on me that the purchase I was about to make was madness, and to make matters worse I don't even like Mitchell's Wool Fat which is why I do not currently use it And don't get me started on vintage aftershave, I have so much I could wash the car with it and I am still buying it

So, I emptied my online basket and congratulated myself on my frugal restraint But, I am a realist and I am confident that the next time I see a Yardley Black Label shave soap I will not be able to resist. Nevertheless, I succeeded in not buying some items that I neither like, need, nor want, which is a small victory for common sense. I explained that to my lovely wife expecting to be praised for my good behaviour, but she did not seem to appreciate the magnitude of my achievement

So, with your current stock, how old will you be before you run out of soap, blades, or aftershave?

 

[Jay21]

If I average 5 shaves from a blade, I have a little over 10 years worth of blades. However, I normally prefer about 3 shaves, so that lowers it to an unacceptable six years. I may have to stock up!

 

[ivan_101]

300. Right, @VerbaVolant?

 

[TOVT]

If I shaved with a fresh new blade every single day, I could make it 37 months.

 

[EclipseRedRing]

If I average 5 shaves from a blade, I have a little over 10 years worth of blades. However, I normally prefer about 3 shaves, so that lowers it to an unacceptable six years. I may have to stock up!

Good job! I use one blade a week and have about 1200 in stock - enough for over 20 years. I am actually considering buying a few hundred more, just in case my favourites go out of production

 

[GFT et al]

I have enough cream and croap to last well into the 2030s, if I do, and brushes beyond that if I’m careful, but only enough blades until the end of next year. It appears I have some work to do there. What is the minimum requirement for a B&B member to have on hand at any given time?

 

[Jay21]

Good job! I use one blade a week and have about 1200 in stock - enough for over 20 years. I am actually considering buying a few hundred more, just in case my favourites go out of production

That is on my mind as well. It would be my luck to find a blade that I love only to have it go out of production. There are a few things I regret not stocking up on the time when they were cheap and available, like vacuum tubes, cables, and adapters. Blades probably also apply. Even though the majority of the shaving world uses DE blades, I can envision a strong push towards the high margin cartridges reducing the output and availability of DE blades.

 

[OkieStubble]

I spent a few years pairing down my den of hardware and soaps. My goal was to get down to 1 soap for each season, but there’s nothing wrong with hording a bit of the few I have chosen.

Fall: L’Occitane Cade. 1 puck in use and a second in stock. My fall soap used to be Tabac before the reformulation.

Winter: Haslinger Schafmilch. 1 in use and a second in stock.

Spring: La Toja. I still have a gallon sized zipper bag full of these sticks with the original tallow version before their reformulation.

Summer: Used to be C.O. Bigelow cream which is re-labeled Proraso, but Bigelow discontinued this so now I just keep a big tube of Proraso green for a cool shave on hot summer days.

I like to keep a stick of Arko in my Dopp kit for travel and just purchased a 12 stick box to horde because of all the reformulation scares with Tabac and MWF.

I also have a half kilo of discontinued Klar Kabinett that I am slowly trying to use up between my usual rotation of soaps.

My blades are kinda modest I keep about 100 pack of Israeli Reds, Astra SP’s and GSB’s but have 600 or so of my favorite PSI’s that I like to use in my Shavette’s.

Aftershaves are another story. Like the OP I have hoarded quite the collection of vintage and modern drugstore and department store aftershaves. Around 200 or so.

Add in the quite large storage I keep of the aftershaves to keep mixing my Bootlegger’s brand of aftershaves from, I have enough splash to last from here to kingdom come.



EDIT: Forgot to mention the two bars of Acho Brito Mogno I got to try. I really like it. Might replace the Cade in my Fall season if I could ever get thru two hard pucks of triple milled L’Occitane Cade!

 

[JWCowboy]

I’m not yet 50 but I have enough that I definitely won’t be able to use all the blades, soap or after shave before I die

 

[The Blackadder]

I think the dog in which I will reincarnate will be able to continue shaving with my stock

 

[Balin]

Like @EclipseRedRing I am 56 years old and my current inventory is:

1483 blades - probably 15 years worth
34 Soaps ( 11 of which are Tallow Tabac ) - 10-15 years worth ( rough guess I just started finishing soaps this year )
9 Creams - 2 years
6 Tabac Shave sticks - 2-3 years
35 Aftershaves - these will probably out live me or go bad at the rate I use them

I am covered at least until I reach my 70's .

I am in the year long sabbatical for a reason, !

 

[blethenstrom]

I have enough cream and croap to last well into the 2030s, if I do, and brushes beyond that if I’m careful, but only enough blades until the end of next year. It appears I have some work to do there. What is the minimum requirement for a B&B member to have on hand at any given time?

I heard somewhere here that dropping below 100 blades means an automatic expulsion from B&B

 

[Trollky]

This is an interesting calculation exercise and confirms that even with a (now) modest haul of soaps, blades etc. I really shouldn't be buying anything.

So the maths is as follows:

I've got 8 soaps, 1 stick and 1 cream (with corresponding aftershaves) so that should cover me for at least 5 years.

Off the top of my head I have 200 to 250 blades so based on one blade per week, I'm sorted for the next 4 to 5 years.

Scary...

 

[EclipseRedRing]

I have hoarded quite the collection of vintage and modern drugstore and department store aftershaves. Around 200 or so

I have started to run out of the storage space that I am allowed by the LOTH and so I now use my least favoured aftershaves as an all over body splash in an attempt to use them up. If you are familiar with the Charles Bronson Mandom advertisement then you will get the idea That said I have nowhere near 200, probably only half that

 

[Vlad97]

Nice thread!

I have 1100 blades +/-, that's around 15-20 years, I believe. Shaving 6 times a week. Some blades go for 3-5 shaves, other ones for 10-15

2 bowls of Tabac, 2 Proraso jars, 11.5 ARKO! sticks, 2 Pearl soaps (100g each), full Cella puck, around 600ml of creams (Noxzema, Palmolive, Proraso, Arko, Nivea)..... hell know how many years it will last, tbh

Aftershaves: a year or 2

Brushes? 5 of them, both boars and synthetics... decades! I take care of them

Now I'm in my mid-20s, so I'm good with a basic set till my 40 — mid-40s

 

[DalShaver]

I have a good couple of decades worth of stock here, enough to do me well past retirement. Retirement will see me clean shaven and fragrant for years by my reckoning.

 

[Old Navy_1]

Dead.

b/r

ON_1

 

[linty1]

Oh my goodness... and I don't even think I have a large collection of soaps/blades either, but

blades: 150 tucks (so around 750 ind blades)
soaps: 4 soaps
creams: 9 creams

I'm set for at -least- 5-6 years. Which is a shame as I do want to try new scents/soaps.

 

[The Blackadder]

On topic/off topic: how long does it take you to see the bottom of a tub of soap/cream? That’s interesting to get a rough idea of supplies.

- A tub of soap (Cella, Zingari)
- A tub of croap (Stirling, Phoenix, A&E)
- A tub of cream: (TOBS)
- A puck of soap: (DR Harris/SV/Tabac)

 

[NorthernSoul]

I expect my current stock of shave soap to last at least until 2030. Let's hope I do. You just never know.

I came to a similar realization about MWF. I already bought a bunch of Speick and Tabac when they reformulated. Plus, there's a good reserve of other soaps. There's no way I need more soap now.