Is a Grooming Kit Worth It? Bundles vs. Buying Separately

Every grooming brand slaps a “bundle and save” badge on something eventually. Most of the time nobody checks whether the math behind it is real — the badge just says 15% off or 20% off, and you’re supposed to take that at face value while you’re standing in a checkout flow trying to decide.

We didn’t want to be another brand doing that, so we pulled the actual current price of every product in every kit we sell and did the arithmetic ourselves. The honest answer: most of our kits save you real, meaningful money — somewhere between 11% and 16% — one of them saves a lot more than that, and our discovery sets aren’t a savings play at all. They exist to help you find your scent before you commit to a full bottle. Here’s the exact breakdown, kit by kit.

The Real Math

These are today’s prices, in CAD, pulled straight from our store — not list prices somebody forgot to update.

Kit / Bundle	Kit Price	Buying Separately	You Save	% Saved
Beard Growth Starter Kit (beard oil + 2 oz beard balm)	$93	$111	$18	16.2%
Hair Growth Starter Kit (hair oil + 2 oz hair balm)	$90	$102	$12	11.8%
Rosemary Shampoo & Conditioner Bundle	$95	$110	$15	13.6%
Same bundle + Body Wash (3-in-1 option)	$128	$148	$20	13.5%
Hair Balm Variety Set (4 × 1 oz)	$95	$136	$41	30.1%
Beard Balm Variety Set (4 × 1 oz)	$132	$148	$16	10.8%

“Buying separately” means the exact same products at their current standalone prices: beard oil at $53, beard balm at $37 (1 oz) / $58 (2 oz) / $78 (4 oz), hair oil at $48, hair balm at $34 / $54 / $74, shampoo at $53, conditioner at $57, and body wash at $38. No promotional pricing, no coupon stacking — just what’s on the shelf today.

The Hair Balm Variety Set is the best value on this list by a wide margin, and we’re not going to undersell it just because it makes our other kits look more modest by comparison. Four full 1 oz balms for $95 versus $136 bought one at a time is a genuine 30% off.

When a Kit Is Worth It — and When It Isn’t

A kit is worth it when you actually need every product in it. The Beard Growth Starter Kit makes sense if you’re starting from nothing: you need an oil now and you’ll want a balm once your beard has length, so buying both together at 16.2% off is the obvious move. Same logic applies to the Hair Growth Starter Kit if you’re building a hair routine for the first time.

A kit stops making sense the moment you already own half of it. If you’ve already got our beard oil going and just need balm, buy the balm on its own — paying for a second oil you don’t need erases the discount instantly. Same with the shampoo and conditioner bundle: if you already use a body wash you like, get the 2-in-1, not the 3-in-1. The extra $33 for a body wash you didn’t ask for isn’t a saving, it’s just spending.

That’s really a general rule for any all-in-one grooming system, ours included: the size of the discount on paper doesn’t matter if part of the box is something you don’t need. A smaller kit matched to your actual routine beats a bigger one you’re half-using every time — a beard-only kit will always be the right call over a beard-plus-hair-plus-body bundle if hair and body aren’t things you’re currently trying to fix.

The variety sets are their own case entirely. Buy the Beard Balm Variety Set or Hair Balm Variety Set if you genuinely don’t know which scent you want yet. If you already know — say you’ve settled on cedarwood — buy a single 2 oz cedarwood balm for $58 instead of $132 for four scents, three of which you probably won’t finish. The variety set is a way to explore, not a discount on the scent you’ve already picked.

Discovery Sets: A Different Kind of Value

Our Beard Oil Discovery Set ($40) and Hair Oil Discovery Set ($37) work the same way, and we want to be straightforward about what they are: a way to try every scent we make before you commit real money to a full-size bottle — not a bulk discount. Scent is genuinely personal. What reads as “warm and grounding” to one guy smells like his grandfather’s aftershave to another, and $53 is a real price to gamble on a scent you’ve never smelled. A discovery set turns that gamble into one small, one-time cost of finding out.

Once you know your scent, buy that one on its own going forward. That’s the honest advice, even though it means fewer repeat sales for us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do grooming kits expire faster than buying products individually?

No. A kit is just two full-size products sold together, not a different formulation with a shorter shelf life. The oil and balm in a kit last exactly as long as they would if bought separately. If anything, a kit lowers the odds of something expiring unused, since you’re working through both products at the same time instead of leaving a lone bottle at the back of a cabinet.

Can I customize the scent in a kit?

For the Beard Growth Starter Kit and Hair Growth Starter Kit, yes — you pick one scent at checkout and the oil and balm arrive matched. The variety sets work the opposite way on purpose: they’re built to give you all four scents in one box, so there’s no single-scent option on those. The Rosemary Shampoo & Conditioner Bundle comes in one formulation, with no scent choice to make.

Are kits a good gift?

Yes, and it’s the main reason we’d point a gift-buyer toward a kit over a single bottle. The hardest part of buying grooming products for someone else is not knowing exactly what they need. A starter kit hands them a complete, working routine instead of one product they have to figure out how to use alongside things they may not already own. A variety set works well when you know someone cares about scent but you don’t know which one they’d pick.

Which kit should a first-time customer start with?

Match it to the one thing you’re actually trying to fix. Beard only, no hair concerns — get the Beard Growth Starter Kit. Hair only — get the Hair Growth Starter Kit. Already have a shampoo you like and just want to add rosemary and tea tree to your routine — get the 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner Bundle, and skip the 3-in-1 unless you also need a body wash.

If I already know my favourite scent, should I still buy a variety set?

No — buy that scent on its own instead. A variety set is priced to make sense when you’re paying to explore four unknowns, not when you already know the answer. Buying four scents to get to the one you’ll actually keep using costs more than just buying that one to begin with, every time.

All Knightsmen Grooming products are made with COSMOS certified organic ingredients, handcrafted in Toronto. See every bundle we make in Bundles and Gift Sets.

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Related: Beard Oil Guide: Benefits & How to Use It

Related: The Secret to Better Hair: Rosemary & Tea Tree Shampoo