Buying Shaving Soaps and Creams in New Zealand

Now we're talking! Of all the wet shaving related kit, soaps and creams are the most abundant in New Zealand.

First stop, supermarket. Countdown (and anywhere still branded Woolworths) will have Aus made Palmolive Lather Shave Cream. This is not quite the same product that you sometimes see mentioned on various shaving forums, they are usually referring to European Palmolive cream. Likewise with the Aus made Palmolive Shave Sticks that can sometimes be found in supermarkets here. I've also seen the Palmolive cream/sticks in New World and Pak n Save. Here is the Badger and Blade review of the Aus Palmolive stick (also branded as Mennen sometimes.) Sadly that seems to be the only supermarket option. Would be nice to see a supermarket stocking another mid range product like Proraso, but alas.

After that, head down to the pharmacy, where from personal experience you will find at least one or two of the following no matter where you go (links to product reviews):
Tabac
Omega
Kappus (Nautik and Aloe Vera)
Aus Palmolive sticks and cream
Erasmic (check the ingredients, is tallow missing? Then it's the naff one)
Speick
.... the list goes on and on, but Tabac seems to be the most ubiquitous in Wellington pharmacies at any rate, and the rest are what are most commonly found. Beware pricing! The cheapest I have seen Tabac in stores here is $24.00 for a refill puck, the most was nearly $60.00, some places have ridiculous mark ups. I recommend finding out what your local pharmacy has then doing a price check online before going ahead.

Another great resource we have in New Zealand are the Indian grocers/spice shops that specialise in imported Indian supermarket goods. Find one near you and check out their health/toiletries aisle for Indian made Old Spice lather cream, Godrej shaving cream, and possibly Godrej shaving soaps.

Check the location of a L'Occitane store near you for Cade cream/soap and The Body Shop for Macca Root Shave Cream.

If you are a Wellingtonian and don't mind the inflated prices, check out Kirkcaldie and Stains for a great range of the high end soaps like Taylors of Old Bond Street, I'coloniali, and many more. You can find them in a small display stand next to the men's fragrance section.

If you are in Auckland, head to the Shaver Shop at 80 Pitt Street, they also carry the whole TOBS range as well as all the Col Conk soaps among others. You can also order from their (eye wateringly bad) website.

Heading online, but staying with New Zealand vendors good ol' Mancave to the rescue, along with stocking products that have already been mentioned, they also carry Proraso tubs, tubes and the aloe green tea Proraso.

Goodfella have a range of soaps and creams, including my favourite cream of all, Bluebeard's Revenge and worth every cent of its premium price.

As far as Trademe goes, I would not recommend the home made shave soaps to be found there. Give them a shot if you must, but while artisan or home made bath soaps can be just as good, if not vastly superior to commercial products, the same rarely holds true for the shave soaps.

Ordering from overseas, first stop for me is always Connaught Shaving they have very reasonable pricing and very good shipping rates to New Zealand. Of note is that they stock the very good budget performer the Palmolive Shave Stick (European formula) which is generally considered quite superior to the, nonetheless good, Australian made one.  They are also stockists of Mitchell's Wool Fat  which I have been unable to find locally.

Next check out BestShave I recommend trying out an Arko stick, and if you like them you can buy them in bulk lots of 6+ with free shipping. They also have a range of creams all at nice prices.

Mama Bear also ships internationally using First Class International by weight, meaning the pricing should be fairly reasonable. Mama Bear Shave Soaps are like the "artisan" soaps you might see on trademe, only these actually work and have an almost cult following among wet shaving enthusiasts.

If you're wondering why I pimp the same handful of sites, it is usually because I have ordered from and trust them and because not everywhere has NZ friendly shipping policies. If you find somewhere else you prefer, by all means, heck I would even appreciate some recommendations. But a general caveat should be to check shipping policies and costs with all online vendors, some require a scan of ID along with credit card payment or have very high flat rate shipping costs. http://www.shaving-shack.com for example has a great range, but all international orders command a 20 GBP shipping fee, which makes small orders of a shaving puck or packs of blades uneconomical.