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Polsilver
Also known as the Holy Grail. I managed to pick up some in Bulgaria in 2016, normal stock in pharmacies. Long gone now, should have bought more in hindsight. I'm a Feather user normally.
cougar, no not for me. I tried the feather 3 times (3 blades), once stropped and twice without, once on a moderately aggressive setting when it shredded my face, and once on the least aggressive setting where it was still harsh on my skin for the first 2 or 3 shaves before smoothing out and doing okay for few shaves. Generally i have found i like a sharper blade, but the feather i did not like at all.
Polsilver super iridium are no longer made so getting harder to find and more and more expensive. I have a tuck and am yet to try it. I did try another blade marked super iridium which holyzeus sent me but he couldn't recall what it was. I think possibly a wizamet si, these are thought to be the same blade as polsilver so if you like the polsilver, see if you can find wizamets more easily.
Bump for this one, I'm getting to the end of my stack of test blades that @neilnevill kindly sent. I have been impressed with the Feather blades that came with my razor, and with the Astra, various Gillete and Wilkinson Sword blades from the stack of testers. Next question is where to buy a longer term supply
I've seen a place offering 100 Feather blades for £39 which seems a fair chunk - I can get 100 Astra blades for £12 (plus 99p postage) from https://bladesandwhiskers.co.uk/. Any other places worh looking at? Am somewhat wary of bulk packs on ebay given the stories of fakes...
had a quick look at the usual suspects that i use, some were £30 or more, these 2 came out at around £24 i think. i didnt check the postage tho.....
EDIT: at half the price, the astras look a good deal. i think in general feathers are real sharp but a bit unpredictable, and not as smooth, whereas astras are maybe not quite as sharp but are smoother and maybe last a shave or two longer.
I got most of maybe all the blades I tried from eBay.
Feather do seem expensive. I bought 1000 Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge yellows for £79 and am sorted until I'm in my 80s I think!
NBT.
As sadexpunk says Connaught Shaving is my usual source for Feathers. In general they are more expensive than others, but for me it's worth the extra expense. And TBF we're not breaking the bank at 39p per blade. 24p from Connaught Shaving.
Be careful of cheap Feathers from eBay and Amazon, the cheap ones are invariably fakes, I got caught out early on and they were like shaving with rusty barbed wire.
Cheers guys. Yes the Gillette 7 o’clock sharp edge yellows were good, but think for the moment 100 Astras will do me - that's a few years worth at least
Thread resurrection time! 🙂
I've been DE shaving for 3 weeks now so I can ditch the disposable multi-head jobbies. I bought a Gillette King C one to test the water, now got a Merkur 23C one! (Can't tell much difference if I'm honest).
I just wondered what 'products' - blades, creams etc., are the most eco-friendly? Can't see the point in ditching disposable blades if I'm then going to buy blades and creams in plastic packaging or ripping down rain forest for palm oil.
I should add I've not had a single nick yet - maybe I'm just lucky.
Ta!
I use Proraso stuff - cream is in a metal tube, pre-shave cream is in a glass jar (plastic lids on both TBF but they eah last aaaages, I've just finished the pre-shave jar after a year of shaving three times a week), and an alum bar in a cardboard box. Nivea balm in a glass bottle.
I’m a Proraso convert. Preshave, shave cream in the tube, post shave balm.
I use about two of each per year, three to four saves a week.
blades - some come in plastic boxes (eg Feather, shame as they're good blades if rather expensive). I got 100 Astra for a very good price from here and they're in cardboard / paper
I got a bar of shaving soap from a local eco-shop that came wrapped in paper, that's almost gone so I'll be looking for something to replace it - might try some shaving cream this time
I'm on a Merkur 34c with feather blades. Depends alot on your beard as to what works best. My beard isn't mega thick, but the bristles are.
I've found a sharper blade works better for me and the more effort with softening the bristles the better.
I've not found the 'let the weight of the razor do the work' advice to be faintly true for me, I still have to drag it through to cut, but its important not to push when you do that otherwise you'll be taking slices off your face.
Feather or Astra blades and proraso for shaving soap and after lotion
Then Brut 33 or Old Spice
Posh aftershaves for special days lol
Will add I have a full beard so my blades last for years. They may have invented better stuff since I last had to buy any
^^^^ Look at my post from a short while ago - not OP's from 2 years ago! 🙂
A 100 pack of Bolzano blades comes in cardboard, with all blade in waxed paper
as for soaps - there's loads in metal tins on Etsy (oatcakesoap is one I've used, but he's taking a break), or buy a stainless steel nibbles pot (got mine in Home Bargains for 75p), and just buy soap (like https://nonplasticbeach.com/products/shaka-shave-bar)
personally, I buy (and prefer) Tallow soaps. There's no palm oil, and it's a waste product, so....
At the moment I like https://www.phoenixandbeau.uk/ from the UK, or https://murphyandmcneil.com/collections/murphy-and-mcneil-shaving-soaps/murphy-and-mcneil from further away. They are in plastic, but they do last a long time. Some Razorock stuff does come in a glass jar, with a metal lid https://shavingtime.co.uk/collections/razorock-razors/products/copy-of-razorock-dead-sea-shaving-soap-150g - and their aftershaves are all glass. https://shavingtime.co.uk/collections/razorock-razors/products/razorock-dead-sea-aftershave-100ml
The best thing I ever did shaving-wise was switch from cans of squirt to using a brush. Though I found little practical different between an expensive brush made from dead badgers and a supermarket special, so the yogurt-knitting option here isn't a huge compromise.
The ghetto answer for cream is Palmolive shaving sticks, they cost like £2. Arko are supposed to be good also but I've not used them so can't really comment beyond passing on recommendations from others. Whether either are the most eco-friendly I'm not sure, but the Palmolive stick comes in a cardboard box and a stick lasts about two decades so it can't be that bad.
Blades, in moving away from cartridge razors at £10 for 5 you're already saving pandas. I'd choose quality over packaging here and this has been discussed at length on this thread. I like Feathers and one of the other STW-popular brands - either Derby or Astra, I can't remember now - cut me to bloody ribbons. A kind soul from this parish sent me a small selection box a year or two back which I'm quietly working my way through still, you just need to experiment here and find what works for you.
HTH.
I’m a Proraso convert. Preshave, shave cream in the tube, post shave balm.
I use about two of each per year, three to four saves a week.
Plenty of Proraso shaving product range currently available at TK Maxx so check them out. Price wise is reasonable.
WRT environmentally products.
Gillette blades come in card, not plastic boxes. Others that I can remember off the top of my head are Astras, Sputniks. A few plastic boxes aren't that bad - good for holding the used blades.
Soap sticks (as Cougar mentions) come in cardboard with a foil around them. I like Palmolive and Arko.
No idea about the Palm Oil content in these products.
Palm oil is not bad in and of itself - if anything it's quite a green way to get oil, as palm produces about four times as much oil as any other plant for given coverage. The issue with palm oil is the way that proper forest and other habitat is being destroyed to plant palms
I missed this resurrection!
Most of the blades I tried came in card. I kept the 3 or 4 plastic boxes as they are handy for storing blades for a trip away.
I settled on Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge (the yellow box). Bought 1000. No plastic just card and waxed paper wrapping.
Arlo does indeed come in paper wrapping and I find it ever so slightly better than Palmolive, both good though and is you buy a pack of 6 or 8 they are less to than a couple of quid and will last ages. Think Derby do a stick in paper wrapping too.
Johnson's aloe Vera oil does come in a plastic bottle unfortunately,, but a bottle lasts me 18 months so not too bad.
After several years of de shaving I wish I'd found this 30 years earlier. My skin feels great these days