Gillette DE Blade brands, is it just marketing?

M

MarkJ

Messages
2
Location
The Diff
Hi

This is my first post on here so please be kind :)

I have been using DE blade razors for about 6 months. I have amassed quite a selection of blades as I have sampled different makes and brands. Favourites so far are Astra SP, Gillette Silver Blue and Gillette Nacet. I have noticed that Gillette produces a lot of blades in Russia under different brand names. Is there really any difference between them or are these names just used for different regions exported to, e.g Nacet aimed at the Middle East market?

Cheers

Mark
 
MarkJ said:
Hi

This is my first post on here so please be kind :)

I have been using DE blade razors for about 6 months. I have amassed quite a selection of blades as I have sampled different makes and brands. Favourites so far are Astra SP, Gillette Silver Blue and Gillette Nacet. I have noticed that Gillette produces a lot of blades in Russia under different brand names. Is there really any difference between them or are these names just used for different regions exported to, e.g Nacet aimed at the Middle East market?

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...
Hi Mark , from my experience with Gillette blades they are not the same blade with different printing on them, you must have seen some differences between the Nacets and the silver Blue's, buy yourself a selection of Gillette blades and test them side by side and you will see.
Happy shaving :) Paul.
 
Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply. I have only tried the Nacet and Silver Blue so far and have to say I find them equally good. I also have 7o'clock green, 7o'clock yellow, Rubie, Stainless (Red), Platinum (Blue pack) here to try. I bought a pack of the Indian 7o'clock blacks but wasn't impressed by those. Have a selection of other makes too. I was just curious why Gillette seem to produce so many brands in Russia. It's not as if there is a massive difference between them.

I initially changed to DE razor shaving to avoid the cost of cartridge blades and now I seem to take a great deal of interest in new blades that appear on eBay. How sad am I :) ???

Cheers

Mark
 
MarkJ said:
Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply. I have only tried the Nacet and Silver Blue so far and have to say I find them equally good. I also have 7o'clock green, 7o'clock yellow, Rubie, Stainless (Red), Platinum (Blue pack) here to try. I bought a pack of the Indian 7o'clock blacks but wasn't impressed by those. Have a selection of other makes too. I was just curious why Gillette seem to produce so many brands in Russia. It's not as if there is a massive difference between them.

I initially changed to DE razor shaving to avoid the cost of cartridge blades and now I seem to take a great deal of interest in new blades that appear on eBay. How sad am I :) ???

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...

Join the club - the blades may be the least of your worries - just wait until you explore a world of new razors, then brushes, shaving bowls, soaps, creams... :)
 
MarkJ said:
Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply. I have only tried the Nacet and Silver Blue so far and have to say I find them equally good. I also have 7o'clock green, 7o'clock yellow, Rubie, Stainless (Red), Platinum (Blue pack) here to try. I bought a pack of the Indian 7o'clock blacks but wasn't impressed by those. Have a selection of other makes too. I was just curious why Gillette seem to produce so many brands in Russia. It's not as if there is a massive difference between them.

I initially changed to DE razor shaving to avoid the cost of cartridge blades and now I seem to take a great deal of interest in new blades that appear on eBay. How sad am I :) ???

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...

To keep it fairly simple, the major differences between Gillette blades are sharpness and coatings. The coatings have a fairly decent effect on smoothness and feel.

I think with some practice and experience, your shaves will become better, as it did for me, and does for everyone else. That's when the subtle differences will become more apparent and important to you.

Nacet and GSB on paper are very similar, but night and day different on my face. Nacet is efficient but GSB is another level of smoothness. Nacet gives me a good shave, but it never feels great. GSB doesn't shave me quite as well, but it's a far more enjoyable shave.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Mbarn said:
To keep it fairly simple, the major differences between Gillette blades are sharpness and coatings. The coatings have a fairly decent effect on smoothness and feel.

I think with some practice and experience, your shaves will become better, as it did for me, and does for everyone else. That's when the subtle differences will become more apparent and important to you.

Nacet and GSB on paper are very similar, but night and day different on my face. Nacet is efficient but GSB is another level of smoothness. Nacet gives me a good shave, but it never feels great. GSB doesn't shave me quite as well, but it's a far more enjoyable shave.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...
Very well put, something I failed to mention but as you rightly say with experience will come the ability to feel the subtle differences between blades and you will find one that ticks all the boxes for a particular razor.....a different razor may favor a different blade. P.
 
MarkJ said:
Hi Paul

Thanks for the reply. I have only tried the Nacet and Silver Blue so far and have to say I find them equally good. I also have 7o'clock green, 7o'clock yellow, Rubie, Stainless (Red), Platinum (Blue pack) here to try. I bought a pack of the Indian 7o'clock blacks but wasn't impressed by those. Have a selection of other makes too. I was just curious why Gillette seem to produce so many brands in Russia. It's not as if there is a massive difference between them.

I initially changed to DE razor shaving to avoid the cost of cartridge blades and now I seem to take a great deal of interest in new blades that appear on eBay. How sad am I :) ???

Cheers

Mark
Click to expand...
It can be very addictive this blade acquisition disorder but don't worry it tends to settle down once you have bought more blades than you could ever use in your lifetime and then you will find another acquisition disorder takes over.... BAD...Brush acquisition disorder or RAD.... Razor acquisition disorder and so on until eventually things will settle down unless you find a sub AD like Scent /EDT / EDP / EDC ect which can be as expensive as RAD or BAD but you do smell wonderful!!!!
You've got to love it! :) Paul. I forgot to mention SAD, Soap Acquisition Disorder but that's all clean fun!! :) P.
 
Hi there. I can my experience with the Indian Gillette blades.

In India the Gillette company has brands such as Wilkinson Sword, 7OC permasharp green and the 7OC super Platinum Black.

They are targeted at different segments on cost. Wilkinson Sword are the cheapest followed by the greens being more expensive and the blacks being the most expensive blade in the market.

The Wilkinson Sword and Greens are to compete with the Super-Max blades in India, who are the only serious competitor. The Wilkinson Sword is made in China for the India market and are excellent sharp and smooth blades for at best 3-4 shaves. They are best seller head on competing with Supermax super Platinum blades in India.

To me the blacks, yellow Russians and feather are in the same bracket of sharpness. Though the black lasts a number of shaves. I've gone up to 12 shaves without tugging at a stretch.

Hope i have added some value on the brands in India and their target market segments.
 
luv2shave said:
To me the blacks, yellow Russians and feather are in the same bracket of sharpness. Though the black lasts a number of shaves. I've gone up to 12 shaves without tugging at a stretch.
Click to expand...
I hear the 7 O'Clock Blacks are very good and also known as the Super Platinum; better than the Russian Blacks. Are the blacks and greens readily available locally?
 
invicta said:
I hear the 7 O'Clock Blacks are very good and also known as the Super Platinum; better than the Russian Blacks. Are the blacks and greens readily available locally?
Click to expand...

In India these are available as a tuck or two at some pharmacy or grocery store. Shaving looked as a chore, a lot of middle and younger generation Indians prefer cartridges and hence cartridges are more readily available. We are sadly going through the Cartridge and foam revolution.

I have my contacts with local retail distributors of Gillette and Super Max who are delighted to give me a good discount on buying blades in bulk or "wholesale" as they would call it.

Just this week on a whim I bought some 600 Super-Max Diamond Edge blades at a good price.

In the past I've stocked (hoarded!) hundreds of the blacks and the Wilkinsons (made in China), as i love them. You never know when Gillette might decide to fold up the DE portfolio in their overall strategy to push for more cartridges.

Between the yellow and black, I find the yellow a bit smoother, from the first shave. The black has a bite for the first two shaves. Must be due to the insane sharpness. However once past two shaves, the bite is gone and the black is buttery smooth and lasts for several shaves in a middle aggressive razor. I wouldn't ever dare use it in slants or R41 or OC razors like the fatip.

To me the feather has a similar bite for the first two three shaves but i notice the sharpness of feathers tapers off very fast and gives no more than 6 or so shaves.

Hope to have answered your questions.

Edit :
I find i get errors in replying longer answers through tapatalk, gives some strange xml parsing errors, hence had to copy paste through a browser.
 
luv2shave said:
...In the past I've stocked (hoarded!) hundreds of the blacks and the Wilkinsons (made in China), as i love them...
Click to expand...

The Gillette Wilkinson Sword (made in China, not India) is the best blade for the money now extant IMO. The only problem in buying it on the Internet is finding a seller who distinguishes between those made in India and those in China as most don't know the difference and don't advertise as such. :(


1Whjs3p.jpg
 
Bogeyman said:
The Gillette Wilkinson Sword (made in China, not India) is the best blade for the money now extant IMO. The only problem in buying it on the Internet is finding a seller who distinguishes between those made in India and those in China as most don't know the difference and don't advertise as such. :(


1Whjs3p.jpg
Click to expand...
I agree. You will not find a single eBay or Amazon vendor selling these online, as they aren't aware of its huge success and fan following in the wetshaving world. I haven't even seen them online on Indian online sites or eBay /Amazon. The only way I could get the volumes was via the distributor who was also stumped when he heard someone asking for like 500 of those Wilkies which he must have a hard time trying to push to retail stores as no one wants them as not many buy them. Ironical situation this, not many would want to be caught in a shop asking for those old school cheap Wilkies and get a stare - "who shaves with those when we have the fantastic five blade hi-tech vibrating revolving over priced cartridge". Akin to committing social suicide being caught buying one of those!! :(

Sent from my MI MAX using Tapatalk
 
I thought perhaps that Gillette India was phasing this blade out of production there and simply going to import it from China(?). :confused: Who knows? If you find a reliable Ebay/Amazon seller for the Chinese version please post it here.
 
Bogeyman said:
I thought perhaps that Gillette India was phasing this blade out of production there and simply going to import it from China(?). :confused: Who knows? If you find a reliable Ebay/Amazon seller for the Chinese version please post it here.
Click to expand...
I believe that was the strategy and they did this almost 5 years ago . They moved the production of this version to China. In fact the blade improved after this change. However the saloon version of this blade is still made in India and I find them rough. Maybe they decided to import a more advanced version to India market rather than bring in the machinery for the same.
Ebay / Amazon - like I posted earlier the only place i could find the blade in bulk was by tapping a source in their distribution chain. Sorry, I couldn't help more than that.

Sent from my MI MAX using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom