Gillette Platinum Razor Blade Review
The Gillette Platinum Razor Blade another DE Razor Blade made by Gillette in Russia. I found the package I have interesting as it has some sort of Arabic text on it, and English contact information directed at Gulf countries. It does not appear this specific box was originally intended for distribution in North America.
The package is very similar to the Gillette Silver Blue razor blades, with the only real difference being a slightly darker shade of blue and the obvious name change. The GSB package was entirely English.
Fresh out of the pack the sharpness measured 45. For information on what this means check out Razor Blade Sharpness Testing. This is not the sharpest but it is what I would consider to be in the desirable range. You can click this link to see a Razor Blade Sharpness Comparison Chart with the other blades tested so far. One note is that the top edge appeared to be sharper than the bottom.
Note that I shave my head as well as my face and have a pretty thick growth – except for the top of my head. This means that one of my shaves might equal two of someone that just shaves their face, or even more if they have a thinner beard.
The first shave with the Gillette Platinum Razor Blade was comfortable, smooth, and overall decent. I did notice when applying aftershave an area on the back of my head that was not as close as I would like. Overall I was still satisfied.
After the first shave, the sharpness increased to 38, which is a pretty large increase . As of right now most coated blades have increased their sharpness after the first shave, the current hypothesis is that the blade edge becomes more exposed as the coating wears off. This results in a sharper cutting edge, although the smoothness may decrease as the coating disappears.
Personally I like blades to be fairly consistent but this is by no means a deal breaker. The top edge again was quite a bit sharper than the bottom again.
The second shave was still comfortable and smooth. I did however seem to be have a personal issue with the Gillette Platinum razor blade as it seemed to require a different angle than pretty well all the other blades that I’ve tried in the Merkur 34C. This likely explains the back of my head from shave one, and I just had to change it up a bit. I would be interested to try the Gillette Platinum razor blade in some other razors.
After the second shave the sharpness measured 39, which for all intents and purposes is the same as after shave one at 38. While the sharpness is about the same, the top edge decreased and the bottom edge increased for an overall more consistent reading.
Initial Sharpness = 45
Average Sharpness = 41
Edge Retention = 0.87
Smoothness = 4/5
Overall Subjective Rating = 4/5
Platinum Coated. Made in Russia.
The Gillette Platinum Razor Blade gave me 2 reasonably good shaves, although there are several other blades that I like better. A basic binary test for my own use is will I search out to buy a 100 pack of these? Personally, no, but I do think that they have the possibility to be in someone else’s list of great blades. If you haven’t tried the Gillette Platinum’s I’d say you probably should.
Check out more Razor Blade Reviews or look into how the Razor Blade Sharpness Testing works.
Have you tried Gillette Platinum Razor Blades? Be sure to leave your overall rating, the community appreciates your vote!
2 thoughts on “Gillette Platinum Razor Blade Review”
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I can get 7 shaves from these blades, they work great for me. I usually do two passes. Don’t know why they didn’t work out for you.
To date, the GPs rank as my 2nd best blade of all the blades i’ve tried. Currently, i’m on my 5th day of head and face shaves with it – i shave daily. But perhaps the reason why it might last as long with me might have to do with my shaving style – i go only with the grain a couple of times, and i use a combination of normal soap (bar) and sunflower oil as lubricant.
The top-ranking blade so far is the Gillette 7 o’clock Super Platinum (black). That goes for as long as the GPs, but does the job closer, though the GPs are a bit smoother.
The price of the GPs where i live is 10 cents (sgd) per blade, and for the blacks, 14 cents (sgd) per blade.
Even though these blades might be cheap, i do not toss them out just because it is after a couple of days. That just puts more money than necessary into the coffers of the conglomerate….and isn’t really rational either.