Jun. 28, 2024 - Math is Hard
- Prep: Shower, Baxter Shave Tonic
- Brush: WCS Tuxedo Synth
- Razor: GEM G-Bar
- Blade: GEM Stainless PTFE (2)
- Lather: Bundubeard - De Goede Hoop
- Post Shave: Dollar Tree - Spice Aftershave
Ugggg, Lather Games making me do math now? I'm not good at math. I thought for sure that, as with previous years, my cheapest soap would be the $4.595 Old Spice cream that you can pick up from Maggards. I've had this tube for a while and there's not much out there that could beat it price wise ounce for ounce. But as I went into my cabinet I realized that I may indeed have something new to shave with on frugal Friday thanks to Bundubeard's Spicy Trio of Old Spice riffs. For those not acquainted Bundubeard is a South African soapmaker and he sells his soaps at dirt cheap prices (partially making up for the shipping cost of getting it over here, but shipping doesn't count in an MSRP so shouldn't count here.)
Bundubeards soaps range in price but De Goede Hoop is 185 South African Rand. This, however, presents a secondary challenge to cost analysis. I recall the US dollar equivalent at the time of purchase being around $.850, though I can't confirm that as the invoice for the purchase shows the cost in ZAR. However, in doing conversions on Bundubeard's site today it is around $10.01, meaning the cost in U.S. dollars for the soap is constantly fluctuating depending on how strong the Dollar is compared to the Rand. In fact, whenever a judge is reading this that conversion rate may have changed again but lets work under the premise that the judges don't want to do math so we'll have to do it for them.
So to begin we'll go with the easy set price of $4.95 for 70 g of Old Spice Shaving Cream. That comes to about $0.07 per gram for Old Spice.
Next, we'll take the low price I think I paid for for De Goede Hoop at $8.50. That makes it $0.04 per gram of soap. OK, cheaper for sure.
But just to be totally sure I've used the cheapest soap we'll do it with today's market value of $10.01. That still comes out well below the Old Spice shaving cream at $0.05 per gram.
So there you have it. Even if the Dollar drops in value in the next few coming days thanks to the lack of faith in our political institutions plummeting towards total failure by the rest of the world it would still have to drop pretty hard for Bundubeard to even come close to touching the $0.07 per gram of a cream of Old Spice. What's more ridiculous is that Bundubeard's sheep tallow base is one of the best on the market and it is this cheap. Craziness.
Everything else in my shave is the cheapest I own. This brush is the first I ever bought and I hate it to death. It is one of the worst synths I've ever tried, with "hairs" that visibly look like pieces of plastic. Rubbing it on my face now I realize what a terrible experience I was having when I first started wet shaving. And yet... it still felt better than canned stuff.
The razor is vintage but I bought it and another GEM in good condition for $32 on eBay. That puts its value at around $16. I have other vintage razors, all in good condition and doing a quick search around $16 is definitely the cheapest of them.