Bad Personna (Israeli) Red Blades

[Ricksplace]

I won a 200 blade pif of Israeli Reds in the blue/white boxes from @Space_Cadet. The blades came directly from Israel. Every blade I have used has been top shelf, sharp and smooth.

 

[BigJ]

The Personna platinum chrome are my goto blades. Here is the packaging that gave them the nickname "Israeli Red" blades (photos from WCS site):
View attachment 939869
And here is what I call the UK blue and white packaging:
View attachment 939870
To my face, I can't tell a difference, but others' opinions are different. I had not seen the packaging shown above this post, so I do wonder if the new parent company changed something.

+1! This summarizes my experience also! Great blades IMO!!

However, my Personna red stash is several years old so I cannot comment on current production.

 

[Sotiris_A]

I've only used the ones coming from a blue/white pack and they used to be my favorite blade because they were very sharp, smooth and were losing their sharpness very gradually. That ended when I had 3 bad ones in a row. These had significant dragging and felt dull regardless of razor. I hope this was just a bad pack because I have a large stock of these (almost 500 blades).

 

[Columbo]

200 blade boxes, containing 20 10 blade tucks of Personna Platinum Chrome (Israeli Reds) blades are now omnipresent, Google is your friend. I suspect you've not read this entire thread.

Over and out,
De NB2B

Those 10 blade tuck packs are not the ‘Reds’ that people here and elsewhere gush over. Those are later production ’Crystals’, and a decidedly inferior blade, IMO. The only thing ‘Red’ about those is the word Personna printed on the tuck card.

Discussing recent and current production Personnas is a complicated and nuanced topic, with lots of twists and turns over who makes what, and where.

Here is an older discussion from a vendor on another forum from several years ago that might give you some additional guidance. Some of the production notes have changed, but the key elements for purposes of this discussion may prove helpful:

Different Personna's

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but does somebody want to run me through the different ones and what they look like?

shavenook.com

And another, even older one, from our own B&B archives:

The Official Guide to Israeli Made DE Blades

While there is plenty of information on B&B regarding the Israeli made DE blades, there continues to be confusion and misinformation being spread. Here is my attempt to summarize everything we know about these blades. American Safety Razor has a manufacturing plant in Israel. In fact, most...

www.badgerandblade.com

 

[Fred D]

Those 10 blade tuck packs are not the ‘Reds’ that people here and elsewhere gush over. Those are later production ’Crystals’, and a decidedly inferior blade, IMO. The only thing ‘Red’ about those is the word Personna printed on the tuck card.

Discussing recent and current production Personnas is a complicated and nuanced topic, with lots of twists and turns over who makes what, and where.

Here is an older discussion from a vendor on another forum from several years ago that might give you some additional guidance. Some of the production notes have changed, but the key elements for purposes of this discussion may prove helpful:

Different Personna's

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but does somebody want to run me through the different ones and what they look like?

shavenook.com

Yes, we are in agreement for the most part I guess, and you're talking about the actual red pack blades, but the blades look indistinguishable from one another outside the wrapper also.

Now I also have crystal blades, and they look nothing like the personna platinum chrome blades in the white or red tucks, and work fine for me.

Perhaps this photo will better explain what I'm saying.

 

[Columbo]

Yes, we are in agreement for the most part I guess, and you're talking about the actual red pack blades, but the blades look indistinguishable from one another outside the wrapper also.

Now I also have crystal blades, and they look nothing like the personna platinum chrome blades in the white or red tucks, and work fine for me.

Perhaps this photo will better explain what I'm saying.View attachment 1047075

I can certainly understand the confusion.

There has been tremendous confusion over what went on at that Nazareth plant for as long as I remember. Even ASR, who once nominally owned the facility, didn’t know everything that was going on there. At one point, I remember one commenter on another site who had actually visited the facility claiming that the entire operation was being run by one family.

Some contend that the 10-count tucks are ‘Reds’ simply packaged for the UK/EU market. Others claim them are repackaged Crystals for that same market. And then there is the rumor that the true ‘reds’ (all in red tucks and wrappers) were an unauthorized production run for more local distribution that happened to shave wonderfully. Plenty of mystery and confusion still abounds.

Whatever the case, Edgewell bought the facility and moved the whole thing to Germany in 2018. So now it is a historical discussion.

I’ve tried all of the Nazareth blades over the years, and the full ‘reds’ were a very good blade at a low price point. The crystals, both in 10-blade tucks and in dispensers, were much more hit or miss, just as you may have experienced. Others claim they all shave the same, and it is just differences in packaging.

And of course we have not even touched on Personna blues and labs and med preps, which are made by a different company in a different facility on a different continent. And that US facility also supplied private label production to some drug store chains alongside the Nazareth plant.

And that sort of demonstrates my point. Discussions about “Personnas” often fall down a rabbit hole of confusion due to the brand name’s now fragmented and confused history.

If you want a guaranteed ‘red’, look at least for the all red packaging, tucks, wrappers and sleeves in the 5-count tucks. I’ve gone through a lot of those, and every single one has been the real deal. Anything else may be a crap shoot at this point.

My only other point is that the price on the bona fide reds still out there has really been creeping up, to the point where there are now better blades for the same price. A Wizasilver for 16 cents is a much better blade for me at this point.

 

[Fred D]

I can certainly understand the confusion.

There has been tremendous confusion over what went on at that Nazareth plant for as long as I remember. Even ASR, who once nominally owned the facility, didn’t know everything that was going on there. At one point, I remember one commenter on another site who had actually visited the facility claiming that the entire operation was being run by one family.

Some contend that the 10-count tucks are ‘Reds’ simply packaged for the UK/EU market. Others claim them are repackaged Crystals for that same market. And then there is the rumor that the true ‘reds’ (all in red tucks and wrappers) were an unauthorized production run for more local distribution that happened to shave wonderfully. Plenty of mystery and confusion still abounds.

Whatever the case, Edgewell bought the facility and moved the whole thing to Germany in 2018. So now it is a historical discussion.

I’ve tried all of the Nazareth blades over the years, and the full ‘reds’ were a very good blade at a low price point. The crystals, both in 10-blade tucks and in dispensers, were much more hit or miss, just as you may have experienced. Others claim they all shave the same, and it is just differences in packaging.

And of course we have not even touched on Personna blues and labs and med preps, which are made by a different company in a different facility on a different continent. And that US facility also supplied private label production to some drug store chains alongside the Nazareth plant.

And that sort of demonstrates my point. Discussions about “Personnas” often fall down a rabbit hole of confusion due to the brand name’s now fragmented and confused history.

If you want a guaranteed ‘red’, look at least for the all red packaging, tucks, wrappers and sleeves in the 5-count tucks. I’ve gone through a lot of those, and every single one has been the real deal. Anything else may be a crap shoot at this point.

My only other point is that the price on the bona fide reds still out there has really been creeping up, to the point where there are now better blades for the same price. A Wizasilver for 16 cents is a much better blade for me at this point.

I agree 100%
It has been my pleasure discussing this with you.
Have a great new year, and smooth shaves.


DE NB2B

 

[tube_guy]

The company announcement about closure of the Edgewell facility in Nazareth Israel was made in October 2018. They said, at that time, closure of the facility was expected to take 12 to 18 months. So the facility could still be operating right now. Does anyone know if the plant has actually closed yet?

 

[2Vu5_T]

I got some Red Personna blades from Amazon and it was a blood bath. They went back and I got refunded.

Post #77 correction: There was nothing wrong with these Personna Red blades - it was my technique that was flawed. I did save one blade and kept on using it. It's up to 11 shaves and I may retire it soon. I did buy another 100.

 

[Whiskey-Man]

are you speaking of these so called Red Israeli Personas?

If this is the case, I'm currently testing out different Personnas and after I tried the true Reds I tried these ones so Called Reds Personnas that are manufactured for UK/EU market. No way Jose, these Red Personnas are at least 2 notches below the original reds sharpness and smoothness wise... The first one I tried I thought it was a dud, but 2 more blades later there was no longer doubt that these blades plain sucked.

Here is my rating regarding the personas:

1. Red Personna Israeli
2. Crystal Personas
3. Lab Blue and Med Preps
4. Red? Personna in white/blue for UK/EU ( these blades put bad name on the Personna brand)

I had the very same experience. A true Red must look like this

 

[Mark1977]

I'm glad I found this thread because the.question of receiving fake personna blades had been nagging me for at least 7 months. I had purchased the 200 count box on Amazon that contained the ten count white plastic tucks with the blue labellabel, so called "UK packaging" I purchased them when they were only 17.00 dollars and thought I got a great deal. Well like many others I found these blades to be sub-par at best. They were quite dull and rough, and caused irritation. I was very confused by my experience with these blades because of all the reviews about these so called IP red personnas, and they were also advertised as IP's by the seller. I had used many other blades, both of quality and also some lesser brands with no where near the poor experience these blades gave me. Even the blades that simply do not agree with my face were far better. The confusion also is that these in no way looked like fake blades, the packaging was quality and the blades looked perfectly like they should. Well I went back to the reviews on Amazon and read them again and noticed a very dramatic difference between the top and bottom reviews. There were like people were receiving two completely different products. So I brought a tuck to a friend that can pretty much shave with anything without a problem, and he confirmed the same dullness and very rough shave I had. I also noticed that there were no negative reviews in this and other forums from people who purchased the same type blades from reputable dealers, such as west coast shaving. So not wanting to take a chance of wasting money on bad blades again, I ordered some Crystal blades from WCS because they are supposed to be similar to the IP blades and they were very nice blades and confirmed my experience again by having.my friend try them. He liked them very much as well. So to try to shorten this already long story, I will stick with reputable dealers like wcs and others. It does me no good to perhaps pay less on Amazon only to get worthless blades. I will know for sure soon because I ordered another 100 of these "UK" personna reds from wcs and I am confident my experience will be far different than what I got on Amazon. Live and learn as they say.

Exact same experience mate. I'm hating these so called IP that come in white and blue packaging.

Sent from my CPH1969 using Tapatalk

 

[JCarr]

Wow! I'm so glad I got 100 of the real Israeli Reds before the switch. So disappointing to hear that the new ones aren't as good.

 

[Whiskey-Man]

Exact same experience mate. I'm hating these so called IP that come in white and blue packaging.

Sent from my CPH1969 using Tapatalk

Agreed. I have had people argue with me and tell me they are the same as the reds, ands that’s great if the blue/white package works for them. But they don’t work for me. I have a coarse beard and very sensitive skin. A bad combination. The reds are sharper than The other personnas and smoother.

 

[Mark1977]

Agreed. I have had people argue with me and tell me they are the same as the reds, ands that’s great if the blue/white package works for them. But they don’t work for me. I have a coarse beard and very sensitive skin. A bad combination. The reds are sharper than The other personnas and smoother.

They don't work for me too. In fact, they suck. The only place they belong is in the thrash. I bought a pack of 200 blades which cost me USD 25, thinking they were the IP that everyone was gushing about.
The ones I have are very dull, tuggy and my face feels bad after shaving with it. I can hardly get one shave out of a blade.
On the other hand, the Lab Blue is excellent.


Sent from my CPH1969 using Tapatalk

 

[stoof2010]

Those 10 blade tuck packs are not the ‘Reds’ that people here and elsewhere gush over. Those are later production ’Crystals’, and a decidedly inferior blade, IMO. The only thing ‘Red’ about those is the word Personna printed on the tuck card.

Discussing recent and current production Personnas is a complicated and nuanced topic, with lots of twists and turns over who makes what, and where.

Here is an older discussion from a vendor on another forum from several years ago that might give you some additional guidance. Some of the production notes have changed, but the key elements for purposes of this discussion may prove helpful:

Different Personna's

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but does somebody want to run me through the different ones and what they look like?

shavenook.com

And another, even older one, from our own B&B archives:

The Official Guide to Israeli Made DE Blades

While there is plenty of information on B&B regarding the Israeli made DE blades, there continues to be confusion and misinformation being spread. Here is my attempt to summarize everything we know about these blades. American Safety Razor has a manufacturing plant in Israel. In fact, most...

www.badgerandblade.com

My understanding in the crystal are the blue personnas from Israel.
They come in same white pack, but they have a blue paper board in them and don't say the same thing on the blade.

 

[stoof2010]

I ordered both the UK 10 packs and the regular red box 5 packs and they are the same to me.
They switched from the red blade wrap long ago and I still have a few of those.
They do have new ones out of germany that look the same and have same writing on blade but on 200 pack they say made in Germany.

 

[Whiskey-Man]

I ordered both the UK 10 packs and the regular red box 5 packs and they are the same to me.
They switched from the red blade wrap long ago and I still have a few of those.
They do have new ones out of germany that look the same and have same writing on blade but on 200 pack they say made in Germany.
[/QUOTE

I recently picked up 700 of the Israeli Reds so Im set for awhile. I 10 boxes of the others and gave them away to a Shaving channel I watch.