Personna Comfort Coated “Lab Blue” Razor Blade Review
The Personna Comfort Coated Razor Blade, also referred to as a “Lab Blue”, is a very popular DE Razor Blade.
It gets a little confusing when you start talking about Personna Blades. The reds are easy enough to split off, but then there are at least 3 different Personna DE Razor Blades branded with blue packaging.
Personna Prep Double Edge Razor Blades - Model 74-0002 - Box of 100
- Made in USA
- Comfort Coated (R)
- Corrosion resistant
- Optimized coating and geometry for superior performance
The first distinction is the origin, Israel or USA. For the USA manufacture, there are “Lab Blues” and then “Medical Preps”.
The Lab Blues usually come in boxes of 100, and to make it just a touch more confusing they have recently changed the label and packaging.
If the wrapper is stamped for hospital use, it is a Med Prep blade. These come at a higher cost than the others. If it is the same blue wrapper but does not say hospital use, it is a Lab Blue – the old one. If it is in the new box as shown in this article and has a plain white paper wrapper, it is also a Lab Blue.
Now that we have that cleared up, this post is testing the USA made Personna Comfort Coated “Lab Blue”. This blade has a large user base stating it is extremely sharp, many claiming that it’s performance rivals a Feather.
Fresh out of the wrapper the sharpness measured 48. For information on what this means check out Razor Blade Sharpness Testing. You can click this link to see a Razor Blade Sharpness Comparison Chart with the other blades tested so far.
This is not nearly as sharp as I was expecting based on my previous experience and what I have read of others experiences. During this testing process I have learned that the coated blades tend to become sharper with use as the coating wears off, so I was expecting this to happen here as well.
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.
As I started to shave my head I could tell quite quickly that the blade was “sharpening up”. I had a fantastic head shave using Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap.
As I proceeded to shave my face it was a noticeably sharp and a very smooth shave. I was very happy with the first round.
After the first shave the sharpness increased to 37. This is a substantial increase which suggests to me 2 things:
First, this blade is clearly sharp as the legends would have it. Second, there must be a decently “thick” coating on the blade (thick is a relative term as we are talking about razor blades here).
I did end up notcing some irritation on my neck, which I rarely get now that I use a safety razor. I thought that maybe I had made a rookie move and was a little too cavalier when cleaning up my neck – this was not the case.
I made a point for the second shave to make sure there was absolutely no pressure or any technical flaws. It was technically a good second shave but the over scrutiny did kill the mood a bit.
After the second shave the sharpness measured at 35. The Personna Lab Blue still gained a little sharpness even after 2 full head and face shaves.
My neck was fine that night but unfortunately I still managed to notice a little irritation the following morning.
There are two ways a blade can fail me; either poor performance as in not sharp or smooth enough to comfortably get a good shave, or leaving me with some sort of irritation.
The fact that the Personna Lab Blue shaved extremely well but left me with irritation is not a flaw of the blade, it just means that it does not work well with my face. Which is too bad, but it is what it is. Certain blades do not work for some people, and it looks like Personna Lab Blue’s do not work for me (I am basing this off of more than just this specific razor blade test, which is also why I chose to use the Mitchell’s Wool Fat and Thayer’s Witch Hazel to make sure nothing else was responsible for my irritation.)
Initial Sharpness = 48
Average Sharpness = 40
Edge Retention = 0.73
Smoothness = 4/5
Overall Subjective Rating = 4/5
Stainless Steel, Comfort Coated. Made in USA.
This may surprise you but I do recommend this blade. I assume that similar to the PolSilver Super Iridium (it is sharp and it is smooth), but something about the coating or who knows what just doesn’t work for me. If your skin is not very sensitive or at least not sensitive to whatever I am reacting to, then it would be a good blade that is readily available in 100 packs for a reasonable price.
Check out more Razor Blade Reviews or look into how the Razor Blade Sharpness Testing works.
Have you tried Personna Comfort Coated “Lab Blue” Razor Blades? Be sure to leave your overall rating, the community appreciates your vote!
Personna Prep Double Edge Razor Blades - Model 74-0002 - Box of 100
- Made in USA
- Comfort Coated (R)
- Corrosion resistant
- Optimized coating and geometry for superior performance
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I have the Lab blues and the Med prep. Just ordered another 50 Med prep. The labs are ok but not much different than other Personna blades to me. The Med prep are another kettle of fish. For me they are super sharp and comfortable for face and head. I average 7 full head and face shaves with the occasional 8. That equates to me 14 to 16 uses. They are expensive at £15 for 50 the cheapest I can find, but paired with my Rockwell 6s on plate 6 they are perfect.