July 28, 2023 – LG Day 28 – Cheap-o Day (frugality implies that it’s worth it in the end)
- Brush: Ever-Ready 100 #ANCIENT
- Razor: Bic Sensitive Shaver #RAINBOW
- Blade: n/a
- Lather: Arko – Shave Stick
- Post Shave: Proraso – Menthol and Eucalyptus
- Fragrance: Stirling Soap Co. – Glastonbury
Ever-Ready 100 – Generally $5-10 online. I didn’t purchase this, and I found it the other day when digging through a box in storage. I thought I had sold or given away all the vintage brushes my FIL had in his collection, but this one managed to stick behind. I don’t plan to shave with it again as it’s narrow and floppy as hell.
Bic Sensitive Shaver – 12 for $4.99, or $0.42 per razor. I keep these in my car for emergencies.
Arko – $2.99 for 75 gram stick, or \~$0.04/gram. I’ve been keeping this shaving stick, which I assume to be Arko based on its distinctive sanitary scent, for this day of the Games, and this day only. I have not shaved with it before. I may throw it out so I don’t have to ever use it again. Lathers poorly from the stick and grating it defeats the purpose imo. Smells terribly. Drying as hell. Ick.
Proraso Eucalyptus & Menthol – currently $14 on Amazon, but I’ve had this for years and certainly paid less. $0.14/ml at current price, cheaper than anything else I own based on current MSRP, regardless of how much I initially bought it for.
Stirling Glastonbury EdT – Based on full bottle pricing, approx. $0.25/ml, which is cheaper than anything else I have if we consider full bottle pricing. The two full bottles I have are technically less per ml than the sample price per ml, but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison for the essence of the challenge.
I didn’t initially get into this hobby to save money, but rather to save my head from regular razor burn. I did, however, see the price and longevity of Proraso to be a perk. That lasted a couple years, but then my FIL started telling me about artisan soaps. And here we are today.
For the djudges and #FOF, I’m going to be honest here — the link between my products today is simply that they are the cheapest I own. The sanitary Arko is unfortunately long-lasting, soi although it was covered up by Proraso momentarily, it’s already smellable again just 20 minutes after shaving. Glastonbury is one of two samples I have by Stirling, and I’ve already used one of them a different day. It’s remarkably different than either my soap or splash, so I can’t make a reasonable argument that they’re connected. However, I will write for a moment that Glastonbury is a wonderous frag. I didn’t get this in the splash sample I bought, but my partner and I both concur that it smells remarkably like the Fryeburg Fair, once you get through the patchouli. There’s a distinctive hay note, that I know isn’t listed on the product page, but is palpable. There’s also something that’s a slightly nicer version of manure (maybe the vetiver?). It was a very cool experience to run to my partner and say “smell this!”, and have us both agree on how evocative of the fair Glastonbury is.