Shave soap under the $5

I embarked on a similar quest some time ago...most of these can be found for under $5. I make no promises regarding quality or performance…obviously YMMV.

Arko
Williams
Nivea Original Shave Cream.
Pyrate Cove shave soaps
Barbon Shaving Cream
Figaro Shave Cream
Coate’s Shaving Cream
Rose of Bulgaria
Van der Hagen
Kiss My Face Shave Cream
Palmolive Classic Shave Stick
Speick stick
Derby Shave cream
Kaloderma shaving cream
Mama Bear Soap puck
Wilkinson Sword stick
De Vergulde Hand" stick.
Dettol Shave creams
Marvy Shaving Mug Soap
La Toja

Haslinger has to be the hands-down choice. Buy from TVB as a previous poster mentioned - they're about $4/puck. Completely spanks the usual budget offerings.

_Brad said:

It's more than $5, but you can get a kg of Cella for cheap.

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This. The Cella brick is about three cents a gram (on Italian Barber). Hard to go wrong at that price.

deezle said:

Arko Arko Arko! This has become my near daily soap. I have very hard water, and I find if I use a little more water than usual with Arko it performs great. And it's super cheap, got a 12 pack of sticks for about $12, and pushed it down into a wood soap bowl. Also have a stick available for applying directly to my face. Great stuff.

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arko is the best performing bargain priced soap out there.

Just got a tube of proraso green for 1.10$ in a supermarket in Italy.

Cella is around $35 for a brick. Not exactly less than $5. But that comes to less than $1/ounce. I rate it the best bargain in shaving soaps, considering the quality of the product and the price per ounce. You could use nearly 3 ounces a month (I think most of us could get by on 2 or less) and it would still last at least a year.

Stirling is worth a look, but a little more than $5.

Try gently melting a cake of Pears soap into a mug.

Price per use or initial price, which one matters for you?

Arko would be my choice. I also have Palmolive but it smells so damn good I tend to mash more than needed on my face.

Arko, CO Bigelow if it is on sale. Love Arko but just don't use it much because I have way too many soaps. Will be doing a Den Clearance before long.

Arko soap and creams should all weigh in under 5 bucks. I prefer Arko creams, the scent of the soap does my head in for some reason.

merchantj said:

Williams, Vander Hagen, Arko

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Those 3 choices are great but i have a preference for Williams and when you know How to lather it, it' sa great soap.

My votes for soaps under $5 goes to:
- Mama Bear mug soaps (loads of scents),
- Godrej round, and
- Arko stick.

Italian Barber now has some great soaps under $5.00.

I've tried Williams, Arko and VDH and found all of them to be average. RazoRock/Italian Barber soaps are incredible as well as Palmolive soap stick, Palmolive cream, and Speick soap stick. All very affordable and all top quality.

VDH is very nice, most supermarkets carry it so no reason to at least try it. It used to be a requirement to proof you own it prior to registering on the shaving forums to filter out trolls and spammers from the canned goo industry.

My picks though for the sub $5 would be creams actually:
Ingram - outstanding on all accounts with an great menthol kick.
LEA sensitive - excellent cream.
LEA Menthol - pretty good. Similar to the sensitive with a good menthol kick. I like the sensitive lather better though.

The LEA original creams (Menthol, Professional, Sensitive) share a nice scent that some referred to as "barbershop". I can't tell... I never went to a barbershop for a shave.... maybe it is a spanish barbershop. In any case, it is rather pleasant.

I think Arko has to be one of the best bargain soaps. It performs far above its price. I just saw a local grocery store here in NJ selling Arko sticks for 99¢ each. If I had to spend 5 bucks or less on a shave soap I would take 5 Arko sticks every time. It is really great stuff that makes a beautiful lather.

I paid less than $5 for Ogallala shave soap.

C.O. Bigelow (Prorasso) at Bath & Body Works. Also, not strictly under $5, but The Body Shop's Maca Root is often sale (e.g. buy 3 get 3) which makes this a very affordable quality soap.