Macduff’s Monthly Blade Review: Personna Lab Blue

[pdieten]

Thanks pdieten that was a real eye opener on these blades! I never cease to be amazed at the knowledge here at B&B. How did you find all this out? I scoured the internet to try and find some info but came up with little outside of their laboratory history.

It's all out there with a bit of judicious searching.

Aside from all that, US Personna still has a barber and beauty market. Meant to be sold in bulk to beauty supply shops, but they are absolutely meant for shaving and the comfort coated trademark applies. These are the ones you see on eBay and Amazon and Sally Beauty Supply. Now in theory you'd think they'd be the same blades as the lab blues, but some buyers swear they're worse. I don't know. I might pick up a pack at Sally and compare.

The "fun" story is why ASR went bankrupt. They used to supply Walmart. Then Walmart dropped them in favor of Energizer (Edgewell) because Edgewell would meet Walmart's demand for a lower cost product, as WalMart tends to do. Edgewell brought the Wilkinson Sword brand to the US for Walmart's low cost products. That's why you saw Wilkinson Sword products at WalMart in the early 2010s (that was when I switched away from my Mach 3 - the WS Tech3 was much cheaper. That cartridge razor was otherwise known elsewhere as the Schick Xtreme3.) ASR wasn't happy when Edgewell won the bidding for the company out of bankruptcy court, since they were now owned by the same company that had just killed them. Edgewell wanted the consumer facing private label business and let the US plant and the commercial business be spun off. That's how Accutec happened. The locals were pretty relieved because before that there was real concern that plant would close.

 

[BigD]

Another great review.

 

[BigJ]

It's all out there with a bit of judicious searching.

Aside from all that, US Personna still has a barber and beauty market. Meant to be sold in bulk to beauty supply shops, but they are absolutely meant for shaving and the comfort coated trademark applies. These are the ones you see on eBay and Amazon and Sally Beauty Supply. Now in theory you'd think they'd be the same blades as the lab blues, but some buyers swear they're worse. I don't know. I might pick up a pack at Sally and compare.

The "fun" story is why ASR went bankrupt. They used to supply Walmart. Then Walmart dropped them in favor of Energizer (Edgewell) because Edgewell would meet Walmart's demand for a lower cost product, as WalMart tends to do. Edgewell brought the Wilkinson Sword brand to the US for Walmart's low cost products. That's why you saw Wilkinson Sword products at WalMart in the early 2010s (that was when I switched away from my Mach 3 - the WS Tech3 was much cheaper. That cartridge razor was otherwise known elsewhere as the Schick Xtreme3.) ASR wasn't happy when Edgewell won the bidding for the company out of bankruptcy court, since they were now owned by the same company that had just killed them. Edgewell wanted the consumer facing private label business and let the US plant and the commercial business be spun off. That's how Accutec happened. The locals were pretty relieved because before that there was real concern that plant would close.

Thanks for the history!!

 

[Macduff]

It's all out there with a bit of judicious searching.

Aside from all that, US Personna still has a barber and beauty market. Meant to be sold in bulk to beauty supply shops, but they are absolutely meant for shaving and the comfort coated trademark applies. These are the ones you see on eBay and Amazon and Sally Beauty Supply. Now in theory you'd think they'd be the same blades as the lab blues, but some buyers swear they're worse. I don't know. I might pick up a pack at Sally and compare.

The "fun" story is why ASR went bankrupt. They used to supply Walmart. Then Walmart dropped them in favor of Energizer (Edgewell) because Edgewell would meet Walmart's demand for a lower cost product, as WalMart tends to do. Edgewell brought the Wilkinson Sword brand to the US for Walmart's low cost products. That's why you saw Wilkinson Sword products at WalMart in the early 2010s (that was when I switched away from my Mach 3 - the WS Tech3 was much cheaper. That cartridge razor was otherwise known elsewhere as the Schick Xtreme3.) ASR wasn't happy when Edgewell won the bidding for the company out of bankruptcy court, since they were now owned by the same company that had just killed them. Edgewell wanted the consumer facing private label business and let the US plant and the commercial business be spun off. That's how Accutec happened. The locals were pretty relieved because before that there was real concern that plant would close.

Impressive history! Thanks again!

 

[koolkankat]

I may have to revisit the Lab Blue if I have any around. I think I got 5 with a new razor purchase several months ago and tried it once in that razor. I was not impressed, so never used that blade again.

I also recently purchased some Med Prep blades to try out.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

 

[ajkel64]

Thanks for the review, I completely missed this again. I like reading your reviews very much.

 

[Clay S]

Sharpstar I do agree with you in spirit. While i don’t need fancy packaging, the lack of ANYTHING identifiable on the packaging is hugely annoying. Even knowing what i was looking for, it took me about 10 minutes searching amazon to figure out which blades were actually the lab blues and not the israeli blue packs. Another question i have is why they would “comfort coat” an industrial blade. I’ve seen their bulk ordering system online and there’s no doubt that’s their primary market for these things, but “comfort coating” for lab purposes? I’m sure comfort is the last thing whatever is being cut up by these things is concerned about. Another Personna mystery i guess.

That might be due to Sally Beauty Supply. I assume these are the same Made in USA Personna's sold there as "Comfort Coated"?

 

[Keto]

so

I thought these were lab blues but I guess they're med instead, now that I put my reading glasses on.

 

[EternalBachelor]

To me, these blades are rougher than Feathers. I actually enjoy Feather blades, aside from the adhesive they use.

 

[ErkRusselReserve]

It's all out there with a bit of judicious searching.

Aside from all that, US Personna still has a barber and beauty market. Meant to be sold in bulk to beauty supply shops, but they are absolutely meant for shaving and the comfort coated trademark applies. These are the ones you see on eBay and Amazon and Sally Beauty Supply. Now in theory you'd think they'd be the same blades as the lab blues, but some buyers swear they're worse. I don't know. I might pick up a pack at Sally and compare.

The "fun" story is why ASR went bankrupt. They used to supply Walmart. Then Walmart dropped them in favor of Energizer (Edgewell) because Edgewell would meet Walmart's demand for a lower cost product, as WalMart tends to do. Edgewell brought the Wilkinson Sword brand to the US for Walmart's low cost products. That's why you saw Wilkinson Sword products at WalMart in the early 2010s (that was when I switched away from my Mach 3 - the WS Tech3 was much cheaper. That cartridge razor was otherwise known elsewhere as the Schick Xtreme3.) ASR wasn't happy when Edgewell won the bidding for the company out of bankruptcy court, since they were now owned by the same company that had just killed them. Edgewell wanted the consumer facing private label business and let the US plant and the commercial business be spun off. That's how Accutec happened. The locals were pretty relieved because before that there was real concern that plant would close.

That is an interesting story. In the early 2010s Walmart sold a green 5 pack of Wilkinson Sword two blade disposables that were amazing. Super sharp and long lasting, all for 99 cents. Astonishing really. Then they went away, never to return. The later Schick replacements cost a bit more and were not as good. Now I know why. Thank you!

 

[ShavingPrimate]

I have noted the other explanations as to the packaging if the Lab Blue and would like to offer my own "theory". Fully noting that I am in general agreement with these others.

Basically except mostly for us here on the forum, there are very little people in the US that shave with DE razors.

The reason that DE razor blades exist are for other world markets. For these markets, the DE blades are packaged in tucks for traditional retail sale.

People go into a store and buy a tuck or two of DE blades.

Nobody does this anymore in the US. Mostly, you can't even if you wanted to because just about nobody sells tucks if DE blades.

So, since there are virtually no place to buy tucks of razor blades, why make them.

A good deal of DE shavers buy bulk pack of blades, which might be ten or twenty tucks. A bulk pack being 100-blades.

So by eliminating the individual tuck packaging, you eliminate the need for individual tucks.

I have several thousand DE blades. They all are packaged in tucks. I have boxes filled with tucks. Is there any particular purpose being served by this? Probably not?

Think of how much savings there are placing a hundred individually wrapped blades in a single small box.

You completely eliminate the machines necessary to create individual retail tuck packaging.

You save tons of materials and you save tons of money.

Besides saving on the tucks, you save not having a retail display sleeve or display card.

Smaller, lighter box is less expensive to produce and to ship.

Eliminate what is unnecessary.

 

[ShavingPrimate]

Interestingly enough, the Personna Lab Blues and Med Preps and are the only DE blades still made in the US.

Maybe not?