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.
Good, cheap soap or cream
- Thread starter eleuther0s
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VDH is $1.50. Awesome deal. Might be towards the bottom of the barrel, but it's a decent shave.
The Nivea Sensitive Skin cream works great, lathers easy, and doesn't take a whole lot to use. However the only downside I have personally seen with it is that it leaves a film of some kind, or scum on my razor that I need to be sure to wash off that other soaps/creams don't... Cream-O has been decent to me too, and was $5 for the tube at Wal-Mart.. VDH deluxe soap I have I am not particularly fond of as it doesn't seem to me to lather very well, but it does work for shaving performance wise. Other than that all the other stuff I have tried has been artisan type, and over what you are looking for.
Vander Hagen Deluxe or Luxury. VDH Deluxe is found in my local Walgreen’s for 2-for-$5; Luxury is available at Wal-Mart for maybe a buck more ($3.50 per-puck). YMMV.
I soak the puck in hot water as I shower (to soften) and I’m ready to go. I like VDH products because of their ease of lathering and the fact I can melt & pour the puck into any bowel or container I chose (made a VDH Deluxe ‘shave-stick’ using an old ‘Old Spice’ deodorant container, works great for my travel kit.)
I soak the puck in hot water as I shower (to soften) and I’m ready to go. I like VDH products because of their ease of lathering and the fact I can melt & pour the puck into any bowel or container I chose (made a VDH Deluxe ‘shave-stick’ using an old ‘Old Spice’ deodorant container, works great for my travel kit.)
I'll repeat the recommendation for Arko. By far the best bang for the buck. IF you are seriously counting every dime, however, Williams works pretty well as long as you are sure to use some sort of pre-shave oil. For that, just a few drops of olive oil or canola oil...just a few drops...rubbed vigorously into your beard before you apply Williams will give you a good shave.
I have a brother-in-law in London. Every Christmas he picks up a stick of Palmolive for 50P (75 cents US) and sends it over in the Christmas package.
I don't know what your routine is...but you stated you are just starting out. The first question that comes to my mind is your process so I'm going to make a statement first....
If you want to save money on creams/soaps, the first thing I would do is make sure my procedure is to pick up some soap/cream in a brush, then use a bowl to create the lather. If you're going from soap/cream directly to your face, you might be using more product than you need to use (a little bit of TOBS goes a long way when you use a bowl to lather up with first).
Second, Williams is cheap (I just bought a bulk lot for 85 cents per puck for 36 pucks) but a lot of folks don't like it because they have trouble lathering it. Arko works. My favorite stuff is "La Saponeria Artigiana Sapone a Barba". It lathers up really nice and has a nice almond smell to it. It is a little bit tough to find but you can find it on eBay every once in a while. It's really nice to use.
If you want to save money on creams/soaps, the first thing I would do is make sure my procedure is to pick up some soap/cream in a brush, then use a bowl to create the lather. If you're going from soap/cream directly to your face, you might be using more product than you need to use (a little bit of TOBS goes a long way when you use a bowl to lather up with first).
Second, Williams is cheap (I just bought a bulk lot for 85 cents per puck for 36 pucks) but a lot of folks don't like it because they have trouble lathering it. Arko works. My favorite stuff is "La Saponeria Artigiana Sapone a Barba". It lathers up really nice and has a nice almond smell to it. It is a little bit tough to find but you can find it on eBay every once in a while. It's really nice to use.
Cheapest I've tried are Nivea, Proraso and Cella. The latter 2 could pass for more expensive creams if repackaged.
nivea is a solid performer and widely available. But scent is lacking.
you guys are making me want to try Arko, lol...but I already have 7-8 soaps/creams on the go. It's getting ridiculous.
nivea is a solid performer and widely available. But scent is lacking.
you guys are making me want to try Arko, lol...but I already have 7-8 soaps/creams on the go. It's getting ridiculous.
Seeing as you used the two magic words 'good' and 'cheap', I would suggest Speick stick. If you hunt around a bit, you can get it for $4 or $4.50 a stick with a couple of bucks shipping. Buy two or three sticks to save on shipping. For that very reasonable price, you will get what in my one opinion is a shaving soap that will stand with the best available and outrun many, many much more expensive soaps and creams; I would and do choose Speick over Castle Forbes every single time. Not the cheapest soap on the market but perhaps the best value and still quite inexpensive IMO.
Brian
Brian
If you skip the brush, you can exhaust a supply of canned Barbasol. the $1.99 can lasts 2 years. I just used it, with a standby bump fighter and generic twinblade, for a touch-up shave.
Sharpologist has 16 product suggestions that include soaps and creams. I found CO Bigelow to be on sale buy 2 get one free at B & BW Online.
http://sharpologist.com/2012/04/16-inexpensive-entries.html
Classic Shulton Formula Old Spice cream is available in a 70g tube, about 2 1/2 oz, for less than $5 on eBay. It ships from India but would arrive within a couple weeks. Ditto for a rich selection of 100g Arko creams from Turkey.
Sharpologist has 16 product suggestions that include soaps and creams. I found CO Bigelow to be on sale buy 2 get one free at B & BW Online.
http://sharpologist.com/2012/04/16-inexpensive-entries.html
Classic Shulton Formula Old Spice cream is available in a 70g tube, about 2 1/2 oz, for less than $5 on eBay. It ships from India but would arrive within a couple weeks. Ditto for a rich selection of 100g Arko creams from Turkey.
- Thread starter
- #52
I use a scuttle I found online to lather. I only shave three times a week, as my beard grows neither quickly nor fully, but I'd used lather/brush/hard soap even back when I was still on the cartridge bandwagon to sort of "ease myself" into the feeling of the brush and lather technique to see if I liked it. I don't use a lot of soap at all, so I doubt I'm over-applying it, but I am just a novice at this so I could be wrong. Thank you everybody for your contribution. The overwhelming consensus here seems to be Arko, so I will look into that. I am located in the United States so I'm not sure if Palmolive, albeit its quality, is feasible for me now. Just a broke college kid here trying to pay off loans, buy a car, and still have money left over for SWMBO. Thanks again.
+1 on Cella
Arko works great and is cheap. Razorock offers fantastic products at an affordable price too.
Well played old chap.
Kilo of Cella croap (soft soap) $37 for kilo. lasts about 2 years comes out to about $1.54 per month, Great Almond scent.
This pretty much sums it up. The only thing I would add is nivea shave cream that others have mentioned, and the real shaving company shave cream which are available in lots of places locally (rite aid, walgreens etc) and are right around $4-5. Arko is probably the one that can't be beat for the price though..aside from being cheapest it will also probably last longer than the other options and is a good performer. Proraso Green (C.O. Bigelow at bath and body works) is my favorite performer of those from the budget list though.
Van der Hagen Deluxe, cheap, lathers very nicely and should be easy to find.
I am in the Arko and VDH Luxury / Delux camp. Can't beat it on price and shave quality.
