I hope this is the first of many product reviews for Influenser! If you have no clue what Influenster.com is, here's the rundown. You create an account and do surveys and polls to indicate your interests. Doing this helps you earn badges. Based on your badges, you are selected for free, full-size samples of products to review. You keep everything they send you, absolutely FREE. Interested? Let me know by comment, and I'll send you an invite to join!
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On Tuesday, January 14, I got a full-size Venus Embrace Sensitive razor with a shower hook and an extra cartridge. I paid nothing. This product hasn't even hit shelves yet--you literally can't buy it. It feels really cool to be able to use and review a product before it is publicly released. I feel like such an insider!
So, let me give you a little background on my experience with Venus razors. I used to own one, you know, when they first came out in my pre-teenager-dom. The shower hook sucked, and my razor was somehow always getting knocked in the trash can. I ended up buying a few across a year or so because they always needed replacing from being accidentally thrown away, but I eventually got tired of paying for a new razor all the time and decided to start using disposables.
I've been using BIC Soleil disposable razors with either 3 (regular Soleil) or 4 (Soleil Bella) blades for the last 5 years or so. The shave is okay. The heads on these razors are pretty stationary, so they don't move all that well with the contours of your skin. I've found that the blades dull quickly, and I usually get red irritated bumps right after shaving with Soleil. I also have to shave my underarms every other day and my legs every 5 days. But, with the coupons that company runs, I can usually get them for next to nothing, so that's my motivation.
So, I decided I'd test this bad boy out. I took a long, steamy shower on Tuesday. I lathered up with some Skintimate shave gel, shaved my legs and underarms, and let me tell you, it's the closest shave I've had in about 10 years. I'm not kidding. I didn't get any irritation. No burning, nothing. I wanted to wait a few days to review because I wanted to see how my hair started growing back in. It's been COLD in Bloomington, too, so I've had chill bumps a lot. That always seems to make my hair grow faster. Honestly, though, I don't think I will need to shave my underarms until at least Sunday and my legs until like Wednesday.
Let's compare:
BIC Soleil
underarms every 2 days
legs every 5 days
Venus Embrace Sensitive
underarms every 5 days
legs every 8 days
That's a pretty drastic improvement!
Other things I loved: the pivoting head, which really follows your skin. I feel like with other razors' inflexibility, I'm always forced to press too hard to get a good angle, which ends up irritating my skin more. Also, the rubber handle--totally nonslip. I didn't drop that thing a single time, and we all know how slippery shaving cream makes things.
There were definitely a few cons, too, though. I was absolutely terrified of cutting myself with this razor. It has 5 blades. SHARP blades. I don't want to find out what a cut from this thing feels like. There is no plastic cover for the blades when the razor's not in use. I'm kind of scared to hang it in the shower because I don't want it to fall and cut my bathing toddler. On that same note, the shower hook seems to only stay suctioned to the wall when the shower's wet. It has already fallen off twice since Tuesday. I think I'll keep it in my shower caddy instead. I also noticed that, while it was great that the shaved hair sat on top of the razor and didn't get down in it and clog it up, I had to rinse it off more frequently while I was shaving.
One con I can't specify yet, since this product isn't sold, is price. I'm poor. I don't have the money to buy razor refills at $15 a pop (just a guess, based on current Venus pricing) for 4 cartridges. Unless P&G runs some awesome coupons, I don't foresee myself being able to use this razor regularly. I have a decent stockpile of coupon-bought BICs, which I will probably continue to use on a regular basis for the most part. Maybe I'll just use my Venus for strapless and bare-legged occasions, until I find a better means of affordability for the refill cartridges.
Overall review: highly recommend. Look for coupons to improve affordability. Store in a safe location to prevent accidental cuts.
#ItsNotMe -- it's my razor. #VenusEmbraceSensitive #VoxBox #Influenster
*I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.
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