I don't understand why being exposed to air would matter. I guess it would dry out the cream a bit, but can't that be made up for with some extra water when lathering? Does the stuff "go bad" or something? I remember when... I think it was shavingshop.com was selling some "dried" creams at a discount, and I tried some of it out. I found no ill effects to the cream's performance when comparing it directly to the "fresh" stuff.

Also, I'm not sure "economy' would make sense as a category for a review. As I see it, this would be the amount of lather per dollar, not the amount of lather per quantity of cream. I mean, if I have to use 5 times as much cream A as compared to cream B, and cream A costs 1/5 as much as cream B, I'd rate them the same on price (assuming they were equally good as well). As such, "economy" would be factored into "price."