What is the problem?

My wife tells me she thinks I may have a problem because I have too many aftershaves.  I disagreed of course and stated that this is a standard, non-excessive aftershave assortment with some eye to the future in case of supply chain problems.

Nah. What she means is "you have far too much Aqua Velva". 

Also that Azzaro "Wanted by Night" (if that's what it is left of the Stetson AS Balm). I tried a one-drop sample of the EDT version on the back of my hand one day. Not only could I not stand it, but the smell persisted for 16 days, in spite of all the scrubbing to try to get rid of it.

I do approve of the Osage Rub and Stetson, and you are quite correct in the matter of bay rum. 

I've not seen Mennen Skin Bracer on the shelves for months now, but fortunately I stocked up with 3 bottles while it was marked down at a "Clearance" price. You might want to snap up what you can find of it if you like it.

They wouldn’t discontinue Mennen Skin Bracer without giving me advance notice… would they?? 

They wouldn’t discontinue Mennen Skin Bracer without giving me advance notice… would they?? 

I wouldn't put it past them.
They discontinued Koogle without warning, didn't they? 

This is from wikipedia:

Skin Bracer is an aftershave lotion launched by Mennen in 1931, and manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive following its purchase of Mennen in 1992.[1][2] Two additional variants of Skin Bracer, Cooling Blue and Cool Spice were once sold but are now discontinued.

Neither the brand Mennen nor Skin Bracer are listed at the Colgate-Palmolive website as of January 2024;[3] However, the product is still available - labeled as produced by Mennen - online (at such established vendors as Amazon and Walmart) as of that date.[4]

As Tommy Lee Jones said in No Country for Old Men: "Signs and wonders!"

I'm shocked by your soap estimate... I have been using Macduffs, which is 4.25 oz according to my maths (120g). It lasts me approximately 2 months when I shave every other day. The harder soap, Zingari Man (at 5oz), is in the realm of 3 months life span, again every other day shaving. This is with tub lathering and usually a 26mm synthetic brush. How you can get ~6 months from a tub of soap is amazing. Is it a weekly shave? Every two weeks?

I'm stunned (and a bit peeved with MacDuffs / Zingari, lol).

A full tub (5.5 oz.) lasts me almost one year of two and a half pass shaves, three times per week. I load for about 20 sec. with a soaked boar brush and I use all of the soap in the brush (squeeze it out) so I never have any soap left over to throw away. I face lather and I think that this economizes on soap. When I bowl lathered, I think I probably used up the soap 20% faster. Makes sense when you consider that when you are done there is still some soap left in the bowl which you rinse out. I have used some very, very soft croaps in the past, almost bordering on creme, which only lasted maybe 4 mos. with bowl lathering.

I think that I could probably make a kilo of Cella last 6-8 years.

Fwiw, I face lather too (that's what I meant by tub - load right from the soap tub, no bowl).

I must load a lot heavier. I do three passes, and most times I can definitely do another pass or three with the brush. I may have to try reeling in my heavy hand at loading. It's obviously costing me a lot of soap.

Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely going to adjust in the coming shaves and see how it works.

Hello Mr. Doug,

I hope that this response is helpful and not offensive/lecturing. If you do a three pass shave, and have up to enough soap left over for another one to three passes it suggests to me that you are making 33% to 100% more soap than you need, and then throwing that excess away. May I suggest that you decrease your loading time (I time mine by doing a slow count) first by 33%, and seeing how much soap you have left over after the third pass. Keep reducing until you have no left over soap . Another "trick" is that I always bloom my soaps (croap or hard puck-doesn't matter) and then I use the bloom water as a pre-shave. Upon working it into my beard, I get a proto-lather that frurther reduces the amount of soap I need to use on the first pass, and thus the amount of soap I have to load to get three full passes. If you reduce the amount of soap you need for a three pass shave by 50% (and that seems possible based on your above posts) then your usage will mirror mine.

Please excuse this post if it is unwelcome, unsolicited advice.