A few weeks ago I wrote about trying the Schick Quattro, without being impressed. It was fine, but kind of “whatever.” Since the four-bladed razor failed to wow me, and since I swear my hair grows faster in the summer, I decided to try the Venus Embrace, which is a five-bladed razor with all kinds of other fanciness.
The one thing that is very not fancy is the handle. It feels cheap, like a disposable. What is NOT cheap are the refill cartridges. $14.99 for 4!!! But I figured if it works really well, it could be worth it. Also, you can buy the handle and two refills for like $9, which was an acceptable price to test it out.
After carefully freeing the Venus from the embrace of it’s blister-pack, the first thing I thought was “Why did they make the handle so chintzy?” The second thing I thought was “These cartridges are huge!” Not Intuition huge, (Has anyone ever used that thing?) but still, pretty big. Approximately 2” x 1”, but only about 1/3 of that is blade. It has the basic rubbery pad below and moisturizing pad above the blades, which most razors have these days. Then, around the face of the whole cartridge there is this other big moisturizing thing. They call it a “ribbon of moisture.” This is the unique selling point of the Venus Embrace. Presumably, the reason the cartridges cost $3.75 each.
Thanks to all the magical ribbony moisture, the razor glides along really smoothly. But since the cartridge is so much bigger than the blade itself, I kept missing spots. Plus it was a little hard to navigate with such big bumpers. The shave was close enough, but was it closer than four blades? Or even three blades? I don’t think so. Maybe blades are like spf, after a certain point, it’s all the same.
Like all the Venus razors, the cartridges come in “shower safe” packs, which are waterproof, allow you to keep a spare blade in the shower, and allow Gillette to charge you an arm and a leg for refills. The Venus Embrace comes with a storage pod too, a white bubble that you can suction cup to your tile and store your razor and extra blades in. This is useless to me because A. I don't like clutter, and B. That thing is guaranteed to come crashing down into the bathtub in the middle of the night to freak me out. I wish it came with something more useful, like a travel case or a third blade. Or, here’s an idea: sell it for a couple dollars less. No?
In the end, I’m still not impressed, and maybe I never will be. I think what I REALLY need to do is save up my money and get lasered...
I use Wilkinson Intuition for years and I love it! Cartridges are super expensive (at least in Switzerland) but this razor is so convenient that I have never bought anything else after I tried it. (I think I bought it when it came out)
ReplyDeleteYou don't need shaving mousse/cream anymore. I just wash my legs with soap, scrub them with Loofa (not everyday but very often) and then shave them. The shaving process is super quick and the soap surrounding the blade really makes the skin soft.
Yes laser is the best.. but I'm currently putting this money into another type of laser (tattoo removal) and it's so expensive that hair removal is not in my near future plans sadly.
Ouch! I think laser tattoo removal is more painful both to the body and to the wallet.
ReplyDeleteIn the US, the Intuition is sold by Schick, but I just looked it up and it's the same thing as the Wilkinson. I will probably have to try it now! But not until I use up the ones I already have!