Old, cheap but bloody good

sjedwardz

sjedwardz

Joined
Saturday February 27, 2010
One thing that has really surprised me is how well the old cheap stuff works in comparison to all of the expensive stuff that's out there.

For example palm olive stick and cream. I've tried quite a lot of soaps and creams in the past and both of these stand up to the best out there at a ridiculous cheap price and you can get them everywhere. The smell is the nicest but I quite like it and use a AS or cologne anyway.

Just started using an alum block and witch hazel. Again a £ or so for either of them and the both work brilliantly much better than a lot of the new fangled stuff I have tried in the past.

Aftershave, again you don't have to spend a fortune on this, my favourites so far are Speick, Pashana, Brut and Old Spice (the Indian one). yeah I know the last 2 are a bit grand daddy but I really like the smell. Brut deo is really good, the smell lasts ages and doesn't smell sickly sweet and chemically like a lot of the modern stuff.

It just goes to show you don't need to spend serious money of stuff that really works and smells great to boot.

I'm trying to narrow down an old school (and cheap) aftershave balm / moisturiser as well. Any ideas welcome would prefer something that is fairly neutral in smell. I've tried the Asda one planet stuff which is not bad (meets the price point) but is a bit too thick and greasy for my liking and boy does it smell strong, not a bad smell just bloody strong.
 
I like cheap :) and although YMMV I can't honestly say that the premium products I have tried haven't been sufficiently better to justify the extra cost IMHO.

So far cheap stuff I like:

Boots Shavebowl soap (My Fav soap)
Erasmic Shavebowl soap
Palmolive stick and cream
Boots Freshwood ASB
Witch hazel
Alum

Not tried much in the way of AS etc as I was often bought some for Xmas and Birthday and I'm using it up :)
 
Oh yeah I forgot about Boots Freshwood Ab. Nice stuff but a real pain in the arse to get out of the bottle, you have to jam your finger in to get any. Why don't they put it in a tube or a plastic bottle??!?
 
a great old school and cheap aftershave is Tabac.

also, one ought to mention Techs and SuperSpeeds here - great razors that can be had for less than a tenner.
 
sjedwardz said:
Oh yeah I forgot about Boots Freshwood Ab. Nice stuff but a real pain in the arse to get out of the bottle, you have to jam your finger in to get any. Why don't they put it in a tube or a plastic bottle??!?
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I asked them to feed that info back to head office, not that it will help but it made me feel better to ask.
 
I like this cheap n' cheerful approach. I like the French soap Monsavon which can be had here for 1.25e. At the other end of the spectrum I have splurged 38e on an artisan soap which I really enjoy.
Can anyone suggest a cheap razor and brush stand? I am eyeing one up at the moment which is 30% off but is still 22e.
 
Cheap and cheerful works for me.

Bic Sensitive (99p for 15 in Wilkos), Palmolive Soap 50p, £10 boar brush, Old Spice aftershave (£5).

I also think Erasmic, Palmolive and Ingram creams are better than any of the more expensive creams and Mitchell's woolfat is better than any other bowl soap with the exception of Tabac . . . maybe.

The Boots Freshwood range of soap and aftershave is great.

Brut and Denim aftershaves along with Blue Stratos are good ones too.

I know these aren't cheap to buy here but Williams Mug Soap, Aqua Velva and Clubman are great value for American shavers which always makes me wonder why they rush out to buy English stuff for much, much more money.
 
Blue Stratos
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Blue Stratos Goooood.
100ml Aftershave , 100ml Balm and a deodorant all for under a tenner... and the wife loves the scent.
Cant go wrong with that.

As for Palmolive, the day they decide to stop selling it will be a sad day indeed... Great shave and i happen to really like the scent.. so soapy!

Brush wise, i quite like the Men-u boar brush you can get for £8 from boots.. Fancy it is not. But ive been using mine for 2 years and its just dandy.
 
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Works for me..
 
TodayI bought a cereal bowl that is the perfect size for lather-making. It has a grooved surface on the outside making it easy to grip. Light blue on the inside to create contrast with the white lather. And best of all it was just 1.50e.
 
sjedwardz said:
Oh yeah I forgot about Boots Freshwood Ab. Nice stuff but a real pain in the arse to get out of the bottle, you have to jam your finger in to get any. Why don't they put it in a tube or a plastic bottle??!?
Click to expand...

I had some of this years ago. They can't have changed the bottle since then because I remember having the very same problem. I reckon a solution would be to just decant it in to a more suitable container. A pot with a screw-top lid or something.
 
I've found that price is only loosely related to performance - beyond a certain amount you're paying for brand/packaging/scent, and not the quality of the product itself.

There are exceptions of course. I hate the Erasmic stick (even the tallow one) and I think the Palmolive stick blows it away, at least for me.

Boots stuff is absolutely great for the money - not sure about the scent though. Performance wise, the soap is as good as any I've used.

D.R.Harris - I've found the scents to be fantastic but the performance to be mediocre. Just so picky about water ratio!

One high end product I really want to try though is Castle Forbes Limes cream. Scent is supposed to be divine.

John
 
JH,
CF Limes scent is very good, especially when it 'opens' up on lathering but having tried my Trumpers Limes Cream a couple of nights ago for the first time in some 6 months I can't say the CF scent was any better/stronger than the GFT one, but that's just IMO.
 
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