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Variety is the spice of life, but how much is too much?

So, I have been really enjoying my soaps lately. It is nice to have a variety to keep things interesting. Its nice having a variety that i can match to my mood too, as weird as that sounds.

I must admit though, i have purchased about 6 different soaps in the past week. I ordered red and white Proraso last week and today I found Mama Bear soaps which is a local business not far from where I live.i decided to give her some support I ordered 4 smaller pucks from her this morning.

That brings my total collection to about 11 different soaps. This may not sound like a huge number to some people, but my wife rolled her eyes.

How many soaps are in your rotation? Do you use up a whole puck or tub before trying something new, or do you have a never ending variety?

Do you have a number that you consider too much for soaps?

Curious to hear thoughts!
 
I currently have over 30 soaps that have never been opened! Yes, I went crazy buying soaps.

My current procedure is to take ten soaps that I have used and put them in rotation. I take two and alternate using them for a week. Then I go to the next two and do the same thing for a week. If a soap or cream is used up I then take another soap or cream and put it in the slot.

The only exception is if I am getting near to the end of a soap or cream I will use it until it is used up. I am getting down to the bottom with this one. I promised myself I would not buy any new soaps but may break that promise since it performs so nicely.
PAA CK6.jpg

Kind of reminds me of an incident that happened at a flea market in FL some years ago. One Saturday I spotted a lady who was selling soaps: both bath and shaving soaps. She had many bath soaps but only five shave soaps on display. She was offering samples of the shave soaps at less than $1 for a small jar. I bought one jar and it sat unused under my sink for a few weeks. I finally tried it and was blown away by the scent (and for me scent is not that important) and the performance. This was one slick soap. I went back to the flea market and searched for the lady soap maker. I finally found her display but she had no shave soaps - only a limited selection of bath soaps. She told me that she was getting out of the soap-making business, that there were not enough customers to warrant making soap. I asked her about the shave soaps and she said she had sold all of the shave soaps the week before and that the soaps were sold at a huge discount. Back then I had only a few shave soaps that I used.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
I prefer hard soaps and now use only Faberge Brut, Shulton Old Spice, Goya Cedarwood, Yardley, Tabac and Arko. This gives me enough variety and I have no interest in trying anything else. I lost interest in softer soaps and creams some time ago. To be honest I am thinking of downsizing the amount of all shaving gear I own, and everything else as well. Recent events have made me realise I have too much stuff and I intend to live a less consumer driven and materialistic lifestyle. I do not need nor want much of what I have and it does not bring me happiness. Of course that could all change tomorrow if I see a really nice brush 👍
 
I have collected about a dozen in the past few months. It seems like i'll have enough to shave until I'm 100. I don't love all of the scents, either, but i thought it would be interesting to have a few different soaps/scents varieties to match the seasons/mood. Some of the scents i've grown tired of or they eventually just don't agree with my nose or i don't like the way they dry down. A&E Spartacus for instance- loved the first dozen shaves now all i think about when i shave with it is sniffing down a container of almond milk. ugh..

There are way more misses than hits with soaps and i have no interest in blindly buying dozens more just for the sake of owning them. Kind of done with them and to be honest the scents don't last long enough for me to care. Better off blowing your money on a cologne or EdT because there is no artisan soap base that is so good that it will forgive poor shaving technique, anyway.
 
I have 5, with 2 more on the way. There’s so many I want to buy/try and restraining myself is tough. Thanks to moving and covid we haven’t been to NY in a couple of years so I’ve told myself once we’re finally allowed to go I’ll go empty handed and check out Pasteur to buy a setup. Same thing when we visit Italy hopefully next year.
Edit: I wish there was a soap size between a sample and full. A full tub seems like a big commitment. Sometimes I think of proposing a soap swap where each person buys a new soap, halves it and swaps with the other persons half.
 
Rotating software is just fine, no matter how many you so desire...as long you have gotten to a point where you know each and every one of them, and how to dial them in, as they are all different. 30 shaves in a row is my general rule. It’s amazing how much you’ll learn in those 30 shaves!
 
I got to really enjoy using a different soap daily and got a pretty full rotation going. As I tried different soaps I found a few became my favourites. I now could be happy with just a few and in fact I could narrow that down to one.
If I hadn't tried so many I probably wouldn't have found my "go to" soap.
 
To be honest I think Maggards could make a lot of money creating packaged sample packs for people (including a one of everything pack). I find with pretty heavy loading for a 3 pass the Maggards sample lasts for ~1.5 - 2 weeks and would provide the variety craving w/out the over purchasing and additionally given the flux / new formulations allows a once a year "fix" via companies like Maggards - say on every sale / New Years.
 
So, I have been really enjoying my soaps lately. It is nice to have a variety to keep things interesting. Its nice having a variety that i can match to my mood too, as weird as that sounds.

I must admit though, i have purchased about 6 different soaps in the past week. I ordered red and white Proraso last week and today I found Mama Bear soaps which is a local business not far from where I live.i decided to give her some support I ordered 4 smaller pucks from her this morning.

That brings my total collection to about 11 different soaps. This may not sound like a huge number to some people, but my wife rolled her eyes.

Do you have a number that you consider too much for soaps?

Curious to hear thoughts!
I'm a utilitarian shaver (as opposed to a hobbyist) so having one soap that consistently works well is all I need. I don't mind branching out and experimenting from time to time but, when I do, it's purpose-driven. I don't much care what a soap smells like, as long as it's not offensive. This being the case I don't really have a "rotation". I have some samples I'm trying out right now but if none them are better than what I'm using now those samples will get tossed and I'll go back to using my current go-to.

Jbird45 said:
Do you use up a whole puck or tub before trying something new, or do you have a never ending variety?
I don't feel compelled to finish a tub/sample/whatever if it's not working for me. At that point it becomes "clutter" and I have a low threshold for clutter. Life's too short and soap (generally speaking) is too cheap to use something that's not working, especially when I know I have something else that does.

Jbird45 said:
Do you have a number that you consider too much for soaps?
Not really but I don't see myself having more than one because it will be one that works consistently and that's all I really need. I feel the same way about everything shaving-related (razors, brushes, et al). If I accumulate to much of anything, too much "stuff" just generally speaking, I start getting a sense of generalized anxiety.
 
So, I have been really enjoying my soaps lately. It is nice to have a variety to keep things interesting. Its nice having a variety that i can match to my mood too, as weird as that sounds.

I must admit though, i have purchased about 6 different soaps in the past week. I ordered red and white Proraso last week and today I found Mama Bear soaps which is a local business not far from where I live.i decided to give her some support I ordered 4 smaller pucks from her this morning.

That brings my total collection to about 11 different soaps. This may not sound like a huge number to some people, but my wife rolled her eyes.

How many soaps are in your rotation? Do you use up a whole puck or tub before trying something new, or do you have a never ending variety?

Do you have a number that you consider too much for soaps?

Curious to hear thoughts!
IMO, if you have more product than you could use up in 2 years, you probably have too much. I was much the same, when I first got into wet shaving 4 years ago, I kind of went crazy and at one point in time had over 30 soaps and 1000 blades.
I have since cut back and now only have 2 soaps, 100 blades, 2 brushes and about 5 razors.
 
I prefer hard soaps and now use only Faberge Brut, Shulton Old Spice, Goya Cedarwood, Yardley, Tabac and Arko. This gives me enough variety and I have no interest in trying anything else. I lost interest in softer soaps and creams some time ago. To be honest I am thinking of downsizing the amount of all shaving gear I own, and everything else as well. Recent events have made me realise I have too much stuff and I intend to live a less consumer driven and materialistic lifestyle. I do not need nor want much of what I have and it does not bring me happiness. Of course that could all change tomorrow if I see a really nice brush 👍

I respect that.

I have been tired of the modern throw away lifestyle, where we buy a bunch of cheap, disposable garbage and once its broke or not useable anymore it gets thrown away.

But I have also noticed that as i acquire more quality things, i have more to care for and up keep.

This in turn, has caused me to focus on whats important. I have been trying to find a balance of maintaining quality items that are important and useful for everyday tasks and purging things that arent worth time. I have not found a perfect balance, but im slowly working my way their.

I wouldn't say i am aiming for minimalist lifestyle, but instead focused on what is important.
 
For an "awakening" just do the math:

12 different shave soaps.
1 shave per day.
If rotated equally, each soap gets used 2-3 times per month.
That's 24-36 times per year.
So, at a minimum, depending upon "hardness" of each soap,
that is at least a 2-year supply, and probably more like 3 or even 4 years.

If you are an every-other-day shaver like me,
the numbers are even more eye-opening.

A dozen soaps will last a LONG time.
 

AimlessWanderer

Remember to forget me!
Do you have a number that you consider too much for soaps?

Four!

I have many soaps, but only keep three options in the bathroom at any point. One triple milled, a served up portion of a softer tub soap, and one cream. For me personally, that is the perfect level of choice for any shave.

I have ten other tub soaps, all new and unused. They will all be used one at a time, only breaking one open, when the previous one is finished.

The tub soaps are slightly different, in that I serve up a sample sized portion, but when that's finished, I might serve up a scoop of something else instead. I have two such tub soaps part used, and nine others untouched. I also have some bought samples to serve up instead.

Like the mug soaps, creams will be used one at a time. I do have two other tub soaps which are so soft, I treat them like creams, by putting a single shave dollop into my lather bowl for loading. That means I currently have three "creams" in play, but am still keeping to the same format of only three lathers to choose from at any shave.
 
Not including a couple sample size tins of WSP, here's where I'm at right now. I do have a bunch of extra AOS pucks in storage, but I may sell some of them off since it feels like it will take forever to use them all.

1) AOS - Sandalwood Tallow
2) SV - Dolomiti
3) PannaCrema Nuavia - Blu
4) Savonniere du Moulin
5) SV - Cosmo (Inbound)

While I like them all, I won't replace the Nuavia and Savonniere du Moulin once they're gone since my skin just seems to like the AOS and SV soaps more.
 
I mean its up to personal preference but these are all consumable products that will deteriorate with time. I don't care if it is a cream or a triple milled hard soap. If you have more than you could use up in a year, I'd say that is too much. The prices of these products tend to ebb and flow but are almost always identical. Sometimes a bit cheaper, sometimes a little more expensive. Use up what you have and just buy it when you have a 'slot' to fill. Buying something a year or two in advance just seems silly to me. Might as well just invest that money, make your 1-2% guaranteed profit and then use that money to replenish a soap when you finish one. Same with blades, I'm yet to use a blade that doesn't last at least 3 shaves. Parker and Feather for me each go for at least 5. 100 blades for me is over a years worth of daily shaving.
 
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