I get super frustrated.
They pull the bait and switch on you and say,
"Well, it's not actually free shipping."
Leaks black ooze.
It's so confusing.
It's soap. It's just soap!
I'm gonna make my own sasquatch soap right now.
We need oats. We got oats.
This is looking like a really good soap.
This is a bar of soap from a brand called Dr. Squatch,
and today we're gonna review it,
but I'll also tell you why acquiring
this brick of saponified oil was one of the most
comically annoying ordering procedures
I've had in quite some time.
Let's get undone
(upbeat music)
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
- What's happening, everybody?
I'm Gerald Undone, and I have the high ground.
So lately I've been taking a closer look
at the brands that frequently show up
as YouTube sponsors, with an emphasis on the products
that I personally have never tried,
which is what brought me to Dr. Squatch.
I've seen a bunch of ads for their soaps,
often with funny integrations on YouTube videos,
but I've never actually tried any of them,
so I figured I'd jump on their website
and order one for myself and as a Canadian,
apparently that was mistake number one.
For clarity and disclosure,
this video is in no way sponsored by Dr. Squatch.
I've never had any financial dealings with them
outside of purchasing their products at retail price
for the purpose of this review.
This video does have an actual sponsor though,
and that's Nebula and their partner Curiosity Stream,
and I urge you to listen to my pitch for them
at the end of this video, because there's
a ridiculously good value proposition
I wanna tell you about, but for now,
let's get back to the review,
starting with the Dr. Squatch website.
Now you'll notice right along the top here
on the Canadian version, it says
"free shipping on all orders over $75+."
That's important, because I'm gonna
complain about that a lot.
So they offer a lot of products other than soap,
which I didn't know until I actually came to the website.
And so originally I was gonna order a bundle
of a bunch of different products to try
and test them all out.
I was gonna get something like one of these ones here,
I think this one, the Suave bundle. Check out these prices.
This is the discounted rate.
So like the Suave for example, is apparently
$100 worth of products down to $76,
and I chose that one because
the free shipping notification said $75+,
so then, all right, well, get this package
and I'll do free shipping.
So that didn't work, and I'll get to that
in just one second here, but first I wanted to tell you
about this soap saver, because I,
so it's under a category called shower boosters.
This is what just starts to get
kind of ridiculous with the branding.
Now, when you go into shower boosters,
you've got so many products that are ridiculously priced
for what they claim to be.
The soap saver is the one that comes in all the combos.
They make it seem like you need this
in order to use the soap.
Extend your soap's life with this handmade cedar block
that reduces soap scum.
20 bucks.
It's 20 bucks for a little
piece of wood that you put your soap on
so it doesn't melt away faster.
And you wanna get that, I guess
because the soap is expensive
and you don't wanna lose your soap in two showers,
so you better get the soap saver.
We also got the soap gripper for $11,
for a Squatch-like grip on your bar.
Come on, it's a rubbery band or something
you put around the soap so you don't drop it.
A travel bag.
If you hit the road with your soap
and our brand new canvas travel bag.
$13 for just a little satchel for your soap.
I do have to say though, there's something
about this logo, this mascot, this pipe-smoking Sasquatch
in the smoking jacket that kind of creeps me out.
I don't know what it is,
but his expression makes me uncomfortable
and it doesn't make me feel confident,.
this is just personally me,
in purchasing from a brand with this logo.
There's something about it that just makes me feel uneasy.
I get they're trying to be fun with it,
but I feel like I'm buying something
from a Simpsons character.
So just, it feels weird to me.
Anyway, getting back to the problem at hand.
At the top you can see
"free shipping on all orders over $75."
And if I were to walk you through my issue,
let's see if I can just do a mock order here
at 123 Fake Street, Nowhere, Ontario, V2.
That seems like a real postal code.
So it calculates the shipping, sending it to Canada.
Even though I put in a fake address,
there's something else for you too.
And it says priority mail $20, shipping $20.
That's not free.
Last time I checked, $20 is not free,
and so the total now with all this in taxes
comes to 105.88 for a combo of smelly shower products,
which is way too much, in my opinion,
to be spending on this.
So of course, I pressed this little button down here
and started myself a chat with the support team
to see what was going on.
They said shipping to Canada
is done primarily through Canada Post
and an international processing fee
is included in the shipping line item.
The issue is that we place this information
in the shipping section.
I think the issue is that you have a banner,
When you go to the Canadian website,
that says "free shipping over $75."
Anyway, one of the other suggestions that they offered
which is what I'm talking about here was,
well, you can just go buy it on Amazon.
Not only is there way fewer items on the Amazon,
they only have the soaps from what I could see,
but they were like twice as much money.
I think the soaps were listed for $16 each instead of $9.
But I know what you're thinking.
The $9 plus the $20 complaint I made.
Well, who's gonna buy just one bar of soap
if it costs $20 to ship?
You're probably thinking there's bulk discounts
with the soap, right?
Oh, there's bulk discounts, all right.
Let me show you how good the bulk discounts are.
By the way, I just, I hate so much about this.
Crypto Cleanse is one of the new scents or whatever.
Stop trying to cash in on everything.
There's some Star Wars advertisement at the top,
and now Crypto Cleanse, look at this nonsense.
Limited edition Crypto Cleanse plus NFT sweepstakes.
Go in on a verified clean and you could $500.
It's so confusing.
It's soap. It's just soap!
So let's have a look at the bulk discounts here.
So yeah, one bar of soap, $9 each
but if you're gonna pay 20 shipping
and you should get more than one, right?
But if you get two bars, they're $9 each.
But if you get three bars, they're $9 each.
So I guess that's the best deal.
B-b-b-b-but, if you subscribe, you save $1 a bar.
That's how they get you.
You gotta get on that soap subscription.
What are we talking about?
This is soap, this is soap.
You need a soap subscription so you can save $1 a bar
make sure that you get that NFT sweepstakes
Crypto Cleanse soap, limited edition subscription,
$500, Squatch, NFT, what are we talking about?
It's soap, my God.
And then you do all this and then
they forget what free shipping means
but don't worry, your DDP on your FCC with your DDD,
down with you know me.
Anyway, enough maniacal ranting.
Why don't we actually unbox one of these soaps
and take a look at it.
Let's do the Pine Tar.
It's smaller than I expected for an $18 bar of soap
because here's my hand for scale, not even in the shot.
So it comes in a cardboard box.
This is a funny one, though.
if you wanted, I could make a comment like,
I like that they're using recyclable materials,
except for when I ordered from Amazon,
each one of these soaps was in an individual plastic bag
inside of another inside of another piece of baggage
inside another, so there's plastic used
in the shipping anyway,
probably to stop the smells from cross-contaminating,
because these things are strong, very strong smelling.
Even from here, they're kinda making
my eyes water a little bit.
On the side here, they've got instructions
in case you're new to soap.
It says lather it up, scrub yourself and rinse and repeat.
So, you know, they got all the bases covered there.
So when we open it up, we can see a little bit of staining
on the box here, which suggest that it's sort of a raw soap
which is what you'd want, I guess,
if you're paying for natural prices.
I don't know if you know how soap is made.
Maybe you didn't see "Fight Club."
- What is this?
- This is a chemical burn.
(screaming)
- But basically you take a fat or an oil,
and then you alkalize it in a way
in a process called saponification, which uses lye,
and you change the pH balance.
- What are you even talking about?
- Now, these ones are using cold-pressed oils,
coconut oil, olive oil, stuff like that.
It's not too unlike holding a brick of wax for skating,
if you've ever tried to wax up a rail or something.
Kind of reminds me of that.
Very very, very, very, very strong smell.
I can't emphasize that enough
- Stinky!
- But the only way to really test this
is to jump in the shower and give it a whirl.
Now, in my previous video in this series
discussing Audible, several of you commented
that you'd be interested to know more about
what the business side of things is like
when it comes to working with these sponsors.
But what you might not know is that often,
YouTubers don't deal with these brands directly
but instead negotiate through an intermediary.
Maybe the company is using an agent
or maybe you're using an agent
or maybe they're both using agents
and they're arguing with each other.
So why don't I give my agent Dave a call
and see if he has any insights to share with you
about working with Dr. Squatch while I go shower
and test out these soaps?
- So wait, this whole video is about soap?
Doesn't he do tech videos?
- Hey Gerald, what's up?
- Hey Dave.
So I'm shooting that Dr. Squatch video right now,
and I was hoping that maybe you could
tell my audience a little bit
about the business side of working with Dr. Squatch.
- Yeah, okay. I'm on it.
I need the set.
- Every time.
- So Dr. Squatch.
I have not done a lot with them, honestly.
They're not a great fit
for most of the creators that we work with,
but I can speak to the agency they use, Veritone One.
Veritone One is the agency of record for Dr. Squatch
and a handful of the other sponsors
that you find around YouTube,
meaning that they actually represent those brands.
They're not just some skeezy middleman
trying to fleece creators.
I gotta be honest though, I don't like agencies.
I'm not a fan.
I find them to be friction generation machines
that are mostly unnecessary and cumbersome.
That said, there is one and only one exception
into my no agency's rule and that is Veritone One.
I've worked with them for years on a bunch of sponsors.
They are nice people, they've been around for a while.
They have a great reputation and they've got
a pretty good stable of brands that they represent.
They are an agency though,
so you're not gonna get performance data.
That's just how that works.
Means that if you want to know how the last spot did
or how much you should get paid for the next one,
you're kind of on your own in the negotiation
unless you're getting sponsor data
from the other folks that you work with,
in which case you can kinda use that
to triangulate in on the right answer.
As for the product itself, I don't know.
I mean, it's soap.
(Gerald singing)
Okay, so, had a shower, washed my body anyway.
I didn't bother with my hair.
Continuity for the video, right?
I have some thoughts on the soap.
So it's fine. It's good.
I mean, it's got a nice strong smell.
Whether you like the smell or not, that's up to you,
but they have plenty of scents,
I'm sure you can find one that you like the smell of.
It lathers up quite effectively
and it definitely functions as soap.
It also does this thing where as you start working with it,
the little bits and grits that are inside of it
they start to sort of show, now that the outer
layer of soap is melted away, and so you start to feel
kind of like a sandy grittiness.
I don't know if that's a good thing,
as far as how much you should be
exfoliating with sand or not, but yeah, you can feel it.
It's kind of fun, I guess, and yeah, it's very fragrant.
It leaks whatever color the soap is,
and in this case, because it's so dark,
it had this black ooze kind of dripping outta the soap bar
and all working its way down to the drain
so you're left with this black trail of soap residue.
In fact, I even put it on this plate
so it won't leak its black residue all over my nice table.
So I mean, yeah, it's soap.
It lathers up and it works reasonably well,
but I'm having a hard time seeing past the price tag
on soaps like these, especially considering you hear
more and more dermatological advice and testimonials
suggesting that we should be using
less soap in our shower routines
and letting our skin do its thing naturally,
not spending $50 or $100
on these aggressively marketed man scents.
Speaking of that, what the hell is in this soap anyway,
that makes it cost so much?
Okay, ingredients.
Wait, why does it cost so much
for just oatmeal, sand and charcoal?
Okay wait, there are there's more ingredients.
Let's see here.
Olive oil, sea salt.
Am I still on a soap website?
You got me making a savory granola over here.
If the secret all along was just to wash your body
with oatmeal and sand, I can arrange for that
for a lot less than what they're charging.
In fact, I'm gonna make my own sasquatch soap right now.
All right, so I'm following the recipe right here.
We need oats. We got oats.
We need sand. Got sand.
We need olive oil. Okay.
Who knew soap was so easy?
Sea salt, right? Yep, sea salt.
All right.
To give it that manly scent, we've got some pine needles.
Let's pour those in there.
And we can use this one for garnish afterwards, if we want.
Let's get that going.
This is looking like a really good soap.
I don't know if it's worth $9, but it's pretty good. There.
You want sand soap? I gave you sand soap.
I even had some pine needles and some sticks
and twigs and stuff to give it that woodsy smell
that apparently men want.
I call it Professor Yeti and it only ever costs
half as much as whatever Dr. Squatch is charging
and if I advertise free shipping, you'll get free shipping
and I won't actually charge you $20,
and that's the Professor Yeti guarantee.
But if you're not a fan of spending your money
on overpriced rectangles of alkalized fats
decorated in cereal grains and beach scraps,
I have a different proposition for you.
So this is a platform called Nebula, right?
It's a place that my creator friends and I
can host our content ad-free without fear
of YouTube restriction or demonetization.
It's mostly educational or education-adjacent content,
and I've recently been migrating
my entire catalog over there
and have a bunch of videos uploaded already.
I really love the platform and highly recommend it.
Watching your favorite creators on Nebula
supports us directly financially
and allows you to watch the content you enjoy
without the ads of YouTube or the sponsor reads.
In fact, this section of the video
won't even be uploaded in Nebula
and this video likely would've been available
on Nebula before it even hit YouTube.
But the impressive value proposition I was alluding to
is that Nebula normally costs $10 per month,
but we've partnered with Curiosity Stream,
which is the best streaming service
on the internet when it comes to documentaries
and educational content, to allow you
to get Nebula for free, and here's the crazy part.
Curiosity Stream is significantly cheaper
than getting Nebula by itself,
so if you use the promo code Undone
by going to curiositystream.com/undone,
or by just clicking the link in the description,
you'll save 26% and get both Curiosity Stream
and Nebula for just $14.79 for the whole year.
And that bundle deal is not a trial.
You'll keep Nebula for free for as long
as you maintain your Curiosity Stream subscription.
So even if you are only going to use one of the services,
it's cheaper to get both, and I'm certain that you'll find
plenty of content to enjoy and learn from on both platforms,
and how can you go wrong for just $15 yearly?
That's a year of awesome content for less
than I paid for one bar of this stupid soap!
(cat yowling)
Alright, I'm done.