SOTD by u/Tetriside

July 28, 2023 – Frugal Friday

• Brush: Omega 10049
• Razor: Schick Injector Type N1
• Blade: Schick Injector (13)
• Lather: Williams – Mug Soap
• Post Shave: Aqua Velva – Ice Blue
• Fragrance: Eau Studio – Defiance

Challenge:

• The Schick Injector N1 was $2 in 1980. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $7.74 in 2023 dollars.
• I only have Schick blades for the injector. So, these are the cheapest at $1.23 per blade.
• Omega 10049 sells for $10.
• Williams Mug Soap sold for $1.25 for 50 g (1.75 oz), which works out to 2.5 cents per grams. My next cheapest was Arko shave stick at 4 cents per gram.
• Aqua Velva Ice Blue sells for $4.98 at Walmart for 7 oz, making it ~71 cents per ounce.
• Eau Studio is a Lidl store brand of fragrances. These sell for $2.99 for a 1.7 oz bottle, which makes it $1.76 per ounce.

I bought this puck of Williams at a grocery a few years before they stopped making it. I’ve only used it a few times. I remember it making a decent lather, but today was not a positive experience. The lather was airy and barely had any slickness. While fragrance is listed in the ingredients, I don’t smell anything beyond a general “clean” soap odor, and the scent is very light. To be fair, no one was ever buying this soap for the smells. This was a product for old timers who consider any beer that isn’t Budweiser to be fancy, stuck up beer. Now that it’s been retired, it’s mainly a comodity for assholes to flip to hipsters.

Aqua Velva Ice Blue is an item I found when we were cleaning out my grandmother’s house. Coincidentally, a tab on the Williams box suggest (commands?) that I try Aqua Velva After Shave. My aunt immediately wanted to smell it because it reminded her of my grandfather. The splash feels watery. Other than a light alcohol sting, and mild cooling, there doesn’t seem to be anything in this to soothe skin. It’s hard to pick specific notes from this fragrance. I would characterize it as a traditional clean fragrance. If I smell the open bottle, I get lots of mint, lemon, oakmoss, and a touch of lavender or violet. There’s also a note that smells like patchouli.

/u/USS-SpongeBob did a review of Ice Blue in his Classic Aftershave series. He classifies the fragrance as a floral chypre. I still don’t have a good handle on the chypre genre. But, I would like to smell a more upscale/modern interpretation of this. This fragrance feels chemically. I’d like to smell something similar made with higher quality ingredients. I'm torn between liking it and wishing it was less plasticy.

I can’t find any source of what fragrance Defiance is meant to dupe. My first thought when spraying the fragrance was “woody.” I smell citrus top notes, aromatics, and musk. The aromatic notes smell like geranium and moss with a touch of musky lavender. There’s a slight earthiness that I think is vetiver. The woody note smells like a hardwood like cedar. The aromatic notes make this feel approachable, and project nicely. The darker notes makes me think this is more of a date night fragrance. For a cheapie cologne, it smells nice. The performance from these Eau Studio frags hasn’t been great, but that’s not surprising.

#FOF

**[July 28, 2023 – Frugal Friday](https://imgur.com/6vskXLW)**

* **Brush:** Omega 10049
* **Razor:** Schick Injector Type N1
* **Blade:** Schick Injector (13)
* **Lather:** Williams – Mug Soap
* **Post Shave:** Aqua Velva – Ice Blue
* **Fragrance:** Eau Studio – Defiance

Challenge:

* The Schick Injector N1 was $2 in 1980. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $7.74 in 2023 dollars.
* I only have Schick blades for the injector. So, these are the cheapest at $1.23 per blade.
* Omega 10049 sells for $10.
* Williams Mug Soap sold for $1.25 for 50 g (1.75 oz), which works out to 2.5 cents per grams. My next cheapest was Arko shave stick at 4 cents per gram.
* Aqua Velva Ice Blue sells for $4.98 at Walmart for 7 oz, making it ~71 cents per ounce.
* Eau Studio is a Lidl store brand of fragrances. These sell for $2.99 for a 1.7 oz bottle, which makes it $1.76 per ounce.

I bought this puck of Williams at a grocery a few years before they stopped making it. I’ve only used it a few times. I remember it making a decent lather, but today was not a positive experience. The lather was airy and barely had any slickness. While fragrance is listed in the ingredients, I don’t smell anything beyond a general “clean” soap odor, and the scent is very light. To be fair, no one was ever buying this soap for the smells. This was a product for old timers who consider any beer that isn’t Budweiser to be fancy, stuck up beer. Now that it’s been retired, it’s mainly a comodity for assholes to flip to hipsters.

Aqua Velva Ice Blue is an item I found when we were cleaning out my grandmother’s house. Coincidentally, a [tab on the Williams box](https://imgur.com/6OttUgk) suggest (commands?) that I try Aqua Velva After Shave. My aunt immediately wanted to smell it because it reminded her of my grandfather. The splash feels watery. Other than a light alcohol sting, and mild cooling, there doesn’t seem to be anything in this to soothe skin. It’s hard to pick specific notes from this fragrance. I would characterize it as a traditional clean fragrance. If I smell the open bottle, I get lots of mint, lemon, oakmoss, and a touch of lavender or violet. There’s also a note that smells like patchouli.

/u/USS-SpongeBob did a [review of Ice Blue](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wetshaving/comments/dt66s2/classic_aftershave_review_aqua_velva_ice_blue/) in his Classic Aftershave series. He classifies the fragrance as a floral chypre. I still don’t have a good handle on the chypre genre. But, I would like to smell a more upscale/modern interpretation of this. This fragrance feels chemically. I’d like to smell something similar made with higher quality ingredients. I'm torn between liking it and wishing it was less plasticy.

I can’t find any source of what fragrance Defiance is meant to dupe. My first thought when spraying the fragrance was “woody.” I smell citrus top notes, aromatics, and musk. The aromatic notes smell like geranium and moss with a touch of musky lavender. There’s a slight earthiness that I think is vetiver. The woody note smells like a hardwood like cedar. The aromatic notes make this feel approachable, and project nicely. The darker notes makes me think this is more of a date night fragrance. For a cheapie cologne, it smells nice. The performance from these Eau Studio frags hasn’t been great, but that’s not surprising.

#FOF