Forgive me if this is controversial

gazza

gazza

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E17 the biggest band in Mongolia
But its a genuine question.

With all the fantastic performing sticks available from 49p to £1.50
and MWF/Kent soap at £6ish a puck, what is the draw for soaps and creams
costing >£15 a tub?

I have been involved in a number of hobby/collectors forums before and spent £1000's
so I understand the hobbyist/collector/completist mindset , but having recently
chosen life in the work/life balance I find myself on a seriously restricted budget
and cant personally "buy to try" these days.

I find myself needing to ask the question because last week I tried Tabac stick for the first time and found it easily
outperformed the admittedly small number of more expensive soaps Ive tried,
and then last night I tried La Toja and was completely blown away by the performance.

So genuinely I'm wondering if there is a performance advantage to more expensive products
or if its the enjoyment of experimenting.
 
In one word = no.

But it is not black and white, I am in the same boat as you but find this a fairly cheap hobby that also take care of my grooming needs, so two birds here.

Just as a comparison I have a neighbor builder that is swamping in dosh and he collect cars, nothing special just famous German makes that cost a fortune to run. He is always talking about his cars and it is making him happy.

I do agree that going over £10 for a soap/cream is a lifestyle choice and you can get the same and more from a Proraso/TOBS cake , IMHO the 200ml T&H No.10 is probably the best value for money you can find in this country at the moment on offer at £4 from the makers.

I agree that once you find the kit that works best for you it's time to move and find a new hobby.
 
gazza said:
I have been involved in a number of hobby/collectors forums before and spent £1000's
so I understand the hobbyist/collector/completist mindset , but having recently
chosen life in the work/life balance I find myself on a seriously restricted budget
and cant personally "buy to try" these days.
Click to expand...

I think you've answered your own question.
 
Re: RE: Forgive me if this is controversial

Mylo said:
Shemen Zait,

I've just been on the T and H site and they have the 220ml tub at £8. Am i missing something?

Thanks,

Mylo
Click to expand...

From the manufacture.

http://www.beautyatcreightons.co.uk/product/truefitt-hill-finest-shave-cream/
 
Give an ordinary family a win of several hundreds of thousands of Pounds and what is one of the first things to be replaced? I'll guess the car or cars. The old one was perfectly good in that it did its job of moving the people about the town and country, even to the airport for a fortnight in the sun. So why did they spend a lot of money buying a more expensive car - not just a new one of the same model as the old but a big, flash BMW or Merc?

It's much the same with high end shaving kit, except a lot of folk can afford it out of their wage packet or pension. And is it actually "better"? Oh yes! Is a BMW worth the money when a Ford does the job? Do bears shit in the woods?
 
Greetings

Sadly the performance graph does not rise side by side with the cost graph, they seem to part company very rapidly at about the five to seven pound mark.

When you pay more than this, generally the only thing that improves is the scent; if the performance of the soap or cream increases at all it is only slight and that tiny improvement gets less and less as the cost rises more and more.

Probably I am a bit mean anyway but I would not hesitate to pay more if I knew I would get a better performing product.

What does annoy me slightly are reformulated expensive soaps that may not work at all subject to what 'incarnation' of the product you have bought and who they are getting to make it this year!

Having said all of that if I had the spare cash (which I have not) I would try every make I could lay my hands on and simply give away those I did not like, so I suppose this makes me a bit of a hypocrite!

Regards
Dick.
 
Thanks for the replies all.

I understand that threads like this , particularly if opened just after the pubs have closed can cause argument.

so basically I'm not going to miss out on any real performance, but only the fun of the hunt and some joy of discovery and ownership by being a bit more careful with money when it comes to soaps.

I can live with that :blush:
 
Dick is the same with hi-Fi up to about 2 grand for cd player amp and speakers it consistently gets better after that double the price each time for a noticeable improvement
 
Spear321 said:
Dick is the same with hi-Fi up to about 2 grand for cd player amp and speakers it consistently gets better after that double the price each time for a noticeable improvement
Click to expand...

Same with the 'ladies' round my way.
 
One thing to bear in mind about soaps is that some - notably M de C - perform well in areas where the water quality makes it difficult for others. That's not a scientific observation by the way and I'm sure people have experiences where cheaper soaps do better than more expensive. The point is that, unlike stereo systems, our experience of soaps will differ from area to area.
 
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