Acquisitions - December 2022

The missus tried to get me Superdrug Forest Fresh and Boots Freshwood aftershave yesterday in a major town.
Only the pre-shave was available.
I do hope they come back, especially Forest Fresh! And a worthy mention for Sierran Breeze, too!

Ended up with more of the pre-shave varieties of these favourites (not Sierran Breeze, sadly).

To be honest I'm pretty gutted I didn't stock up on these aftershave versions and the Palmolive sticks, having taken my eye off the shaving world for a few years. I'm a fan of the humble staples of the shaving scene rather than the latest £20 shaving soap with a weird name and cool label artwork. I like to try these but will always be drawn to the humble long-term performers.

Which will be the next ones to go?
 
NotTheStig said:
To be honest I'm pretty gutted I didn't stock up on these aftershave versions and the Palmolive sticks after waking my eye off the shaving world for a few years. I'm a fan of the humble staples of the shaving scene rather than the latest £20 shaving soap with a weird name and cool label artwork.
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Ditto, the classics were my favourite shaving soaps and I took them granted they'd be cheap and on supermarket shelves for the foreseeable future.

When it comes to the 'classics' shaving soaps, there's Palmolive Stick, tallow Tabac, Speick, Wilkinson Sword and Erasmic, Williams mug soap for our American cousins, have all gone. I can't see Proraso going away, but I can see Arko/Derby stick being reformulated into pure palm oil formulations. I bought myself a few cakes of Kent/Mitchells Wool Fat just in case it gets reformulated.

As for aftershaves, I can't see the classics like Brut & Denim going anywhere right now.
 
I'm not a fan of the scent of Tabac but I do like its performance. Same with Arko although that is a lot cheaper; likewise with Derby which seems to be pretty much the same soap with a different smell.

Love Mitchell's Wool Fat but that isn't especially cheap.
Proraso is also very good and I guess between the price points of Arko and MWF.

Have yet to try the Cyril Salter hard shaving soap but it's on my list.

I am tempted to stock up on the Arko or Derby as the closest to what I'm missing. I'd probably let them air for a few months to diminish their scents a little. I don't hate the scent but they're not great and are a little strong for my liking.
MWF I would like to pick up in bulk if cheap.
 
NotTheStig said:
I'm not a fan of the scent of Tabac but I do like its performance. Same with Arko although that is a lot cheaper; likewise with Derby which seems to be pretty much the same soap with a different smell.

Love Mitchell's Wool Fat but that isn't especially cheap.
Proraso is also very good and I guess between the price points of Arko and MWF.

Have yet to try the Cyril Salter hard shaving soap but it's on my list.

I am tempted to stock up on the Arko or Derby as the closest to what I'm missing. I'd probably let them air for a few months to diminish their scents a little. I don't hate the scent but they're not great and are a little strong for my liking.
MWF I would like to pick up in bulk if cheap.
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For me, given the performance, how long it lasts and that it’s British made, MWF is very good value indeed. Kent soap is the same as you will likely know and it is £6.50 for 125g delivered. If you were on the ball come Black Friday, Kent had 33% off with free delivery so that was the time to stock up. Still there’s always next year. Just a short while ago the Salter soap was £3.45 for 100g at The Traditional Shaving Shop but it’s up to a fiver-odds now.

I’ve a good few Wilkie and Palmolive sticks put by and still have at least eight tubes of proper Ingram. The Palmolive cream is great stuff too and a little goes a long way. Got a few of those stashed.

The new LEA stick with the lovely oceanic scent is a great performer for me. Better than ARKO which I find skin drying. The LEA may be veg-based but there’s good dollops of glycerin and lanolin in it. La Toja has its fans too but I haven’t tried that. Next time you or someone you know heads to Spain, make nicey nice and say please.

With all that is tucked away, I’ll probably still use the Fat and Salter most of the time. I’ve a few thoroughly excellent artisan soaps to use up but once they’re gone, I won’t be able to afford to replace them in the current climate.

Next time Jock my dog gets a bath, I’ll use the modern Culmak crap.
 
A few purchases that I'm already regretting. These include Barrister and Mann's Seville soap and splash. Also, the atrocious-smelling Lavanille soap. On a happier note, I did buy a sample of SV's Felce Aromatica EDP. It's such a stunning scent, making me realise how stupid I was to sell my puck of the soap. Needless to say, I've just ordered another one and the matching splash.
 
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