cheap soap with a good shave.

[lurchbrian]

lately i have been using the wilkinson sword black pucks and found that they are giving me a good shave all for the high price of £2.36 a puck.
think i will be stocking up on a few of these to keep me going into and through retirement .
anyone else trying these and what are your thoughts ?

 

[DesertIguana]

Creamo was on sale a while back at USAF Commissary net cost per tube was like 63 CENT USD with $2.00Off Coupon, bout a couple, wish I bought more.

 

[Lane101]

lately i have been using the wilkinson sword black pucks and found that they are giving me a good shave all for the high price of £2.36 a puck.
think i will be stocking up on a few of these to keep me going into and through retirement .
anyone else trying these and what are your thoughts ?

There is no reason to pay a lot for quality shaving soap. I did the same with the now discontinued 99 cent per puck Williams shaving soap in the U.S. and am glad I did. If it works for you there is no reason not to make the small investment in some reserve inventory.

 

[Merchant Seaman Z]

lately i have been using the wilkinson sword black pucks and found that they are giving me a good shave all for the high price of £2.36 a puck.
think i will be stocking up on a few of these to keep me going into and through retirement .
anyone else trying these and what are your thoughts ?

It’s cheap and shaves good. I’m just not too crazy about the smell. Reminds me of canned shaving gel. But it works pretty well.

 

[VerbaVolant]

Among the worst soaps I have ever tried. Complete garbage.

 

[Garry357]

I bought the Blue & Black soaps when I was in the UK earlier this year. Great value, I really like the citrus scents especially here in Perth Australia the weather is always hit, so a strong citrus scent is really refreshing.
I bowl lather and whip a very good creamy lather.

 

[Marco]

My dirt cheap soap is pictured below. Top quality, excellent performance, only €1.95.

 

[VerbaVolant]

My dirt cheap soap, 56p

 

[VerbaVolant]

Arko anyone?

 

[BigJ]

We should discuss ‘definitions’ because I think price is not the best measure.

For me an ‘expensive’ soap is one I don’t use.

And most any soap I use is ‘cheap.’ But that‘s my definition.

 

[Lane101]

My dirt cheap soap is pictured below. Top quality, excellent performance, only €1.95.

View attachment 1932585​

Agree this is great soap. Note that it gets marked up to a multiple of the European price here in the U.S. The best option is the Classic Italian soft shaving soap from Razorock that one can purchase when on sale for $3.99 U.S. for a larger 150ml tub. Made by TFS for Razorock using the same base and shaves just as well based no my experience using both.

Believe another option, if one wants to buy in bulk, is to purchase TFS in the bulk size kilogram box as @nemo recently did.

 

[Lane101]

My dirt cheap soap, 56p

View attachment 1932646

View attachment 1932647

Isn't this now discontinued?

 

[nemo]

Isn't this now discontinued?

Years ago.

 

[Vincentchou]

ARKO is the KING in this category.

 

[Marco]

Agree this is great soap. Note that it gets marked up to a multiple of the European price here in the U.S. The best option is the Classic Italian soft shaving soap from Razorock that one can purchase when on sale for $3.99 U.S. for a larger 150ml tub. Made by TFS for Razorock using the same base and shaves just as well based no my experience using both.

Believe another option, if one wants to buy in bulk, is to purchase TFS in the bulk size kilogram box as @nemo recently did.

Of couse the kilo brick, called "panetto" in Italian, represents an even better option. I can easily get 1 Kg of this delicious soap for only €8.95 here in Italy.

 

[lurchbrian]

My dirt cheap soap, 56p

View attachment 1932646

View attachment 1932647

I also like this thats why when they stopped selling it i bought 20 sticks out of boots for 65p a stick then some months later sold 10 sticks on the bay for over a £5 each . well that's my shaving paid for for the next good few years.

 

[The Coffee Bandit]

We should discuss ‘definitions’ because I think price is not the best measure.

For me an ‘expensive’ soap is one I don’t use.

And most any soap I use is ‘cheap.’ But that‘s my definition.

I completely agree.

Spending single digits on Arko, Williams, Proraso etc and not thoroughly savoring every shave is a far greater expense to me than the $20 spent on a top quality soap.

 

[Mr Konrad Dundee]

Agree this is great soap. Note that it gets marked up to a multiple of the European price here in the U.S. The best option is the Classic Italian soft shaving soap from Razorock that one can purchase when on sale for $3.99 U.S. for a larger 150ml tub. Made by TFS for Razorock using the same base and shaves just as well based no my experience using both.

Believe another option, if one wants to buy in bulk, is to purchase TFS in the bulk size kilogram box as @nemo recently did.

On Italian Barber TFS with almonds $4.99 while the Classic Razorock Italian Shaving $5.99
RazoRock Classic Italian Shaving Soap has better added ingredients:
Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea)Butter,Argania Spinosa (Argan)Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Extract(Aloe),Hydrogenated Lanolin
not bad

 

[Lane101]

I completely agree.

Spending single digits on Arko, Williams, Proraso etc and not thoroughly savoring every shave is a far greater expense to me than the $20 spent on a top quality soap.

Shaving soap is very much a YMMV thing based on personal preferences. All @lurchbrian is saying is that based on his definitions and YMMV/preferences he is getting great shaves from low cost Wilkinson shaving soap (and Palmolive shave sticks per his subsequent post above). Don't see that there is anything to debate about definitions here.

Finally price and performance are two separate evaluation criteria. It doesn't make sense to try to conflate the two. Price and the amount of shaving soap per container are clearly absolute and measurable. Performance much less so as it is dependent on the shavers skill level combined with preferences/YMMV. The above Wilkinson, Palmolive, Arko and Williams are/were low cost soaps. Nothing to debate there. Any debate will be around YMMV performance and preferences so it makes sense to look at these criteria separately.

Fully respect that you don't prefer soaps like those you mentioned. Personally I've found that one can get great lather from almost any shaving soap with the right ingredients (link to detailed thread on this below). In my case that includes Arko and Williams. I use a number of commercial shaving soaps ranging from Williams/Arko to D.R. Harris, Mitchell's Wool Fat, Tabac and Cyril R. Salter. All work very well for me with some lather variations that make wet shaving more interesting and enjoyable.

Can Great Lather be Generated from Any Reasonable Quality Shaving Soap or Cream?

At their core most shaving soaps and creams consist of saponified fatty acids. Can any reasonable quality shaving soap or cream generate great lather with the right technique? Over the past two years I've added a number of good commercial shaving soaps and creams to my rotation. This rotation...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Lane101]

On Italian Barber TFS with almonds $4.99 while the Classic Razorock Italian Shaving $5.99

Yes, those are the regular prices. Italian Barber periodically runs sales where they will drop the price by a couple of dollars. I picked up my Classic Italian for $3.99 last spring when on sale. Also some Mudder Focker and XXX for $5.99 each. Given that we are heading into the holidays we may see similar sale prices again soon.