For many people, applying shaving cream is one of the first steps in their grooming process.
Shaving cream can make it easier to see where you’ve shaved already.
It also helps soothe abused skin.
When shopping for shaving cream, you may notice that it has become expensive.
You may wonder what makes shaving cream so expensive.
Why Is Shaving Cream So Expensive? (10 Reasons)
The average cost of Edge shaving cream is $3.52.
However, you can also find shaving cream as expensive as $70.
A shaving cream’s effectiveness, brand name, and whether it’s discontinued or not all impact the price of shaving cream.
Let’s look at these reasons in more detail.
1. Moisturizes
One of the reasons some shaving creams are more expensive than others is their ability to moisturize the skin.
A problem many people face after shaving without cream is that their face becomes dry and irritated.
Those with sensitive skin may even see an increased number of cuts specifically because their skin becomes dry.
Dry skin is usually harmless on its own, but if it’s left untreated or if it becomes too severe, it can lead to cracking.
Cracking, as its name might suggest, is when your skin starts to form cracks.
They’re painful lines of open flesh that expose your skin to potential bacteria or virus infection.
Because shaving without cream can sometimes lead to dry skin, some with sensitive skin might experience cracking.
To them, using a shaving cream that provides excellent moisturization is essential.
Like any other collection of products, some shaving creams do a better job of moisturizing than others.
Because they’re more effective at the job, the brand is able to charge more for it.
People who are desperate to avoid dry skin will be willing to pay a higher price to experience that relief.
Another reason better moisturization makes some shaving creams more expensive is that it usually contains better ingredients.
The company might source high-quality products that give a better moisturizing result.
However, that ingredient might also be more expensive than other ingredients.
Since it costs more to get that moisturizing effect, the shaving cream company has to put a higher price tag on their product.
Shaving cream is expensive when it has high-quality moisturizing effects.
2. Protects Skin From Cuts
High-quality shaving creams also protect the skin from cuts.
When you shave without shaving cream, there’s a chance that you might nick your skin.
Besides being painful, it can delay or inhibit your ability to shave the rest of your face.
You might be unable to shave around the area, for example, because the cut might be making it difficult to get the right angle.
Cuts can also completely ruin your appearance.
Shaving cream helps reduce the chances of getting a cut.
It provides a smooth surface that the razor can follow.
Otherwise, the razor might catch on your skin or the hair itself and end up nicking you.
Because shaving cream can help reduce the chance of cutting yourself, a lot of shavers want to get one that is the most effective at that particular feature.
Even shaving cream might not be able to protect you against cuts if it’s low quality.
As such, more expensive brands of shaving cream tend to have great success rates with reducing cuts on the skin.
Part of the reason is that they contain certain ingredients that provide a nice gliding surface for the razor.
If the substance is too sticky, then it can impede your ability to shave well.
Too much glide can also make it difficult for your razor to remove the hair close to your skin.
It might just glide right on over it instead.
As such, high-quality shaving cream brands spend a lot of money on their research and development departments to find the particular recipe that works perfectly.
That might mean they end up using materials or ingredients that are expensive to source.
They’re able to provide a great cream that reduces cuts, but it costs them to do so.
To cover those costs, they end up selling their products at higher prices.
3. Protects Skin From Ingrown Hairs
Another reason some shaving cream brands are more expensive than others is that they’re better at protecting against ingrown hairs.
Ingrown hairs occur when you shave too close to your skin.
When the hair grows back, it ends up curling inside of itself rather than protruding from the skin.
This can cause some irritation in the skin since the hair is essentially invading your skin.
While this doesn’t always happen when you shave too close, it is a possibility.
Shaving creams can help reduce that because it creates a layer between the razor and your skin.
Some shaving creams are better than others at creating a protective layer.
For example, a low-quality shaving cream might only be able to create a thin layer between the razor and your skin.
When you shave, the layer easily gives way which means your razor might shave too deep and end up cutting the hair too close.
As a result, you have a higher chance of developing an ingrown hair.
A high-quality shaving cream, on the other hand, creates a thick protective layer.
It stays put a bit better when you slide your razor down your skin.
As such, the protective layer remains in place, and it’s more difficult to cut too close to the skin.
As a result, it reduces the chances of developing an ingrown hair.
To get that thicker layer, shaving cream companies usually have to use high-quality materials and ingredients.
Others might simply use more materials to provide a thick layer of cream.
Either way, it usually ends up costing them more.
Since their production costs are higher, they’re going to sell their products at higher prices.
Shaving cream is expensive when it’s effective at preventing ingrown hairs.
4. Fragrance
Shaving cream is also expensive when it contains a specific fragrance.
You’ll find that certain, luxury, shaving creams advertise themselves as having some sort of fragrance.
When you open the can, you might get hit with something floral or something a bit more masculine.
Not every shaving cream brand includes fragrance, however.
The cheaper ones tend to leave it out.
Instead, you just have the smell of the ingredients used in the cream.
For some people, that’s just fine.
Others like their skin to smell a certain way after shaving it.
As such, they don’t mind paying a higher price for shaving cream to get that sort of result.
Since shaving cream brands with fragrances know that their customers are willing to pay a bit more to have that particular scent, they can set the price relatively high.
However, the cost of producing shaving creams with fragrances also tends to be a bit more expensive.
That’s why shaving cream brands that don’t have a fragrance tend to be cheaper.
They don’t have those added production costs.
Shaving cream brands with fragrances can sometimes use extremely expensive ingredients to make unique fragrances.
They might use a rare flower or spice, for example, that is expensive to source.
Since it’s rare, the cost of manufacturing products with that ingredient in them becomes very expensive.
To offset that cost, they sell the product at a higher price.
Those buying shaving cream with a rare fragrance in it are likely doing so because they like the idea of smelling like something that’s rare in the world.
To them, the experience is worth the high price.
5. Stickiness Factor
When buying shaving cream, not a lot of people think about the stickiness factor of a cream.
However, it’s an essential part of having good shaving cream.
Shaving cream should stick to your skin.
It should create a thick paste on your skin that sticks well to it but also glides off easily after passing a razor over it.
Not every shaving cream has this sort of effectiveness.
Most cheap types of shaving cream, for example, simply sit on your skin.
It might drip off or it might get removed easily with the razor.
Some might even be too sticky.
For example, after applying it, the cream might remain on your face even after you pass over it with a razor.
This becomes a problem because it can interfere with the shaving process.
You might have to pass over the same area to shave the hair down far enough.
It can also make it difficult to keep track of what areas you have shaved and what areas you haven’t.
High-quality shaving cream, on the other hand, has the perfect balance between the stick factor and the glide factor.
It sticks to your skin, but it’s also easily removed by the razor.
Shaving creams that have this sort of balance are usually expensive or luxury brands.
That’s because they spend a lot of time and money on perfecting their recipe.
Their research and development departments, for example, receive a good amount of funding to try new recipes.
Since the business is spending a lot of money on itself, it has to make up for those costs via its prices.
Others who have the perfect recipe may find that it uses expensive ingredients to get the right stickiness.
As it costs them more money to create the perfect cream, they’re going to sell it at an expensive price.
Shaving cream is expensive when it has a perfect stickiness quality to it.
6. Brand Name
There’s no question that a brand name also influences the price of shaving cream.
Some brands simply cost more than others.
That might be because they spent years perfecting their cream.
For example, a shaving cream brand that has been around for 100 years and produces a high-quality cream is likely going to have an expensive price tag.
You’re essentially paying for their experience and quality.
Well-known brands have spent a lot of time and money on creating a reputation for themselves.
All that hard work means they’re able to sell at slightly more expensive prices even if their product contains the same ingredients as a generic brand.
For a typical customer, it’s less financially risky to buy from a well-known brand than a generic brand.
That’s because they’ve seen the ads and they’ve heard about the reputation of the brand.
They trust that they’re going to get a high-quality product out of it.
A generic brand or a brand that isn’t as well-known is riskier.
They don’t know the brand’s reputation.
As such, they don’t know if they’re going to get the result that they want from the product.
They end up paying more money for an established brand as a result.
7. Ingredients
Another major factor that makes shaving cream expensive is its ingredients.
Shaving cream contains a large number of ingredients.
Some of them are quite harsh in certain brands, but others are organic.
A few shaving cream brands also use essential oils or other trendy ingredients to make their shaving creams cleaner or more environmentally friendly.
The problem with these ingredients is that they can sometimes be quite costly to source.
The rarer the ingredient is, the more expensive the shaving cream is to make.
Expensive shaving creams tend to contain high-quality versions of ingredients, organic ingredients, or rare ingredients.
Since it’s more expensive for these brands to make their creams, they charge their products at higher prices.
Shaving cream is expensive because some of its ingredients can be quite expensive.
8. Bottle Design
When shopping for shaving cream, one of the things you’ll notice is that some brands produce incredible jars or bottles to hold their shaving creams.
They almost look like works of art in themselves.
That’s exactly the point.
Like fragrances, shaving cream is sometimes an opportunity for brands to produce a product that looks expensive.
Even if it’s exactly the same as a cheaper product, these brands will charge extra for the bottle design.
That’s because some customers shop with their eyes first.
If they’re attracted to stylish bottle designs, then they might not mind paying a higher price for shaving cream.
Bottle design also makes shaving cream expensive because the brand usually has to pay someone to design the bottle.
Some might enlist the help of famous designers.
Others need to rework the factory to produce a new bottle design every year.
Some might even handmake their bottles.
Since shaving cream that comes in fancy bottles is expensive to make, shaving cream is also expensive.
9. Discontinued Products
Another factor that might be behind high shaving cream prices is when certain products get discontinued.
You can find several discontinued shaving creams online that are selling for extremely high prices.
That’s because those sellers know that some people out there are looking for a particular shaving cream that is no longer available.
They may have had a great experience with the shaving cream and want to buy another bottle.
Since the brand no longer makes that particular product, they’re reliant on those who bought extras to resell them later.
Because the demand is high and supply is practically nonexistent, those sellers are able to put extremely high prices on the shaving cream bottles.
10. Luxury Influence
A final reason shaving cream is expensive is that some brands market them as a luxury.
Most people don’t need to use shaving cream to shave.
It’s an extra step that just makes shaving a bit more enjoyable.
Because of that, some shaving cream brands are marketed as a luxury type of shaving cream.
These are the brands that usually sell their bottles for $70 or more.
They might use rare ingredients, have a unique fragrance, or use a top designer to design their bottles.
Because it’s part of the luxury industry, it automatically comes with higher prices.
Shaving cream is expensive when you buy from luxury brands.
Conclusion
Shaving cream can help make your shaving experience more enjoyable and effective.
However, due to the factors above, buying shaving cream can sometimes be quite expensive.
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