Today's shave felt great but it also told a very familiar story that I had with these blades in the past with another razor. That same story was with the Merkur 37C slant and these specific blades with the United Kingdom packaging which was 2 great shaves before having to swap out the blade for a fresh one. The first shave with the Israeli Personna blades was phenomenal! It felt like there was no blades in the leaf. That's how comfortable they are in the leaf razor. But I did not get a close enough shave the first time around because I had an excessive amount of beard growth which was too much for these specific blades to handle. That changed today and I also had a minimal amount of irritation in my neck area due to it still being sensitive and I did mow off a couple of bumps in the process. But other than that, no massive amounts of blood at all:
The second shave on these blades felt a lot less comfortable compared to the first. They had a slight pulling sensation to them but I feel that could have been taken care of with a tiny bit of stropping on a towel of some kind. Just be careful with the tabs on the side of the blade because they will catch on a towel if you are not careful. In terms of closeness, I managed to pull off a two and half pass shave with minimal to no stubble left over:
The post shave feel was way better this time around compared to the last one. I had mowed off a couple of bumps but other than that, there was no blood involved. About an hour later, I could tell that this was one of my best shaves in terms of left over stubble which was minimal and could only be found in my usual trouble spots. Another thing I noticed is that I was able to go against the grain with the half pass that I performed on my neck area which is a good thing. I also found that I can easily buff with these blades as well. Will these Israeli Personna Reds become my "go to" blade in the Leaf? Probably not but I may get a couple more packs of them. it will depend on my budget over the next couple of months. Plus I currently have enough blades in stock to tide me over.
Would I recommend these blades for sensitive skin and light beard growth? Absolutely and then some. If I did not have 4+ days worth of beard growth the first time around, I would probably would have gotten a far better post shave the first time around and I probably would have gotten another shave out of these blades. We will see what happens with my next shave which will probably be either Sunday or Monday. I find that I get a lot less irritation with less passes and no more than 3 days worth of beard growth especially with these lovely Israeli Personna Red labeled blades. These are perfect for 3 days worth of beard growth or less if you have a tough beard like I do. If your beard is not as tough as mine is and have a lighter growth, then you could probably go longer if you wanted to which is a good thing.
I know I will be asked so I will do what I can. These blades are the best that Personna has to offer in my humble opinion in reference to the ones I've tried both recently and in the past. They do have some Personna X half blades out on the market now, but I have not tried them and I really don't feel the need to try them in comparison. The Personna Lab blue blades were not as good in the Leaf compared to these and I'm not going anywhere near the Personna Medical Prep blades. The Medical Preps were harsh on my skin and would not hardly plow through my beard when I was still in my 30's. So there's no way I will try them in the leaf now that I'm in my early 40's with a much tougher beard along with known sensitive skin issues.
These blades are no where near as sharp as my Gillette 7 O'clock green label blades which is the middle of the road of the Gillette 7 O'clock series and work perfectly for me in the leaf razor. However, these Israeli Personna Reds are far more comfortable to use than anything I have tried in the Leaf razor. The only problem I have with these Israeli Personna Reds is that they don't have any longevity to them. I can get 4 great shaves out of the Gillette 7 O'clock green labeled blades and I can 5 out of the Gillette 7 O'clock black blades which are not quite as sharp as the Feather blades but pretty close. The Gillette 7 O'clock yellow labeled blades are equal to the old Gillette Track 2 cartridges that you can get today and I can only get 3 shaves out of those. I also can't buff with any of the Gillette 7 O'clock blades at all and I can't go against the grain either especially when I need to specifically with my neck area in a couple of spots. I have a feeling that I will probably end up getting a bulk pack of these before long because these blades were the best I've tried in the Leaf hands down in terms of comfort. Nothing has come close.
