The first box of Astra SP's i got from a turkish vendor on the bay , was wonderful. So good it became my go to blade. It had blades packed in wax paper, paper with the logo and 5 piece boxes. The second one I got half and half with a friend of mine (again a turkish vendor on ebay), had blades packed only in wax paper and 5 piece boxes. And about 15 blades in I noticed a great drop in performance. Once I could get 3 really nice shaves with a single blade (or 2 with a half blade in my shavette), and than I just moved on to the next blade, since the price is so low I don't think it's worth pushing for a less comfortable shave. Now the shave starts being quite bad on the second shave already. In the shavette the second shave is a painful experience and in the DE it starts tugging quite a bit. Has anyone else noticed this drop in quality or is it just a bad batch?
I've been using the Astra SP for a while now. The first 2 shaves are always fine, but 3,4,5 there's a definite drop off. IMHO
Is that a photo of a tuck of 5 blades and 1wrapped blade? Or is it two different tucks? If that's a wrapped blade, my Astras are wrapped in a translucent wax paper envelope and not a graphic envelope. I can't imagine counterfeiting Astras so maybe there's been some sort of change?
The pic above is older packaging I think. The ones I bought a couple years ago are like that with the double wrapper and the graphics on the outer one. A newer tuck I got with a razor recently had only the single wrapper with no printing on it.
I have wax wrapping exclusively on my Astras. They are between 1-2 years old. Get 6-7 perfect shaves from them so no issues with quality here. Got both packages from two different vendors from Turkey.
My Astra is packaged in wax paper in a 5 blade tuck. Not my personal fave, but many people like them.
Mine too are packaged in wax paper in a 5 blade tuck. I'm on 9 shaves per blade, and counting on this pack. The sampler I had was so good I ordered these as my first 100 pack. They have been smooth and not a single tug from the off.
That's where i was going with that. The printed wrapper isn't what I am accustomed to seeing. Every Astra I've seen has been in plain wax paper. Again, i cannot fathom counterfeiting, but a product change?
The Astra SP's I have are around two+ years old. The blades are double wrapped graphic paper over plain wax paper, 5 blades to a box. I bought them from amazon, sorry I don't remember the vendor, in three bulk(100 blade) orders, so I have at least 200 blades left and haven't made another order since my original bulk order. These blades give me a minimum 5 shaves per blade and usually 7 shaves. I hate to hear that Astra SP's or either coming down in quality or are being counterfeited.
I have around 5 or 6 packs that also are a couple years old. Same packing description. Good blades. Ed
I think if there were counterfeit Astras, we as a community would have seen them. It is a worry I have but hopefully by buying off the many highly recommended retailers we have at our disposal, the threat of buying fakes would be negligible if not none existent. I add the proviso of "hopefully" as there are some markets where counterfeit goods have, and continue to, slip through the net. The alcohol market in the UK at least, has been hit by fakes through the proper channels.
Well thanks for everyone's input. I'm not giving up on Astras, I'll go through the rest of the pack even if i throw away every blade after one shave...just hope they aren't all bad
I haven't heard that Astras have deteriorated in any way, but I haven't used one in 3 years when I first started shaving. They were a 'fine' blade, but nothing compared to Super Iridiums which are my sole blade. Best of luck to you!
Yeah, that's definitely different. I just got 2 100 count boxes off Ebay from a seller in the Midwest and they just had the wax paper, no inside graphic. Weird.
To my knowledge, the Astras wrapped in the graphic paper are simply older. They abandoned that wrapping for the wax paper alone. However, there was no changes made to the blade. Many of the other blades that come out of the same plant still have the dual wrapped graphic paper/wax paper blades.
That seems to be true , since the Gillette blades coming out of the same factory in Russia now also sport just the wax paper
Astras were my first bulk blade purchase as well. Never been disappointed. I'm getting 5+ shaves per blade.
