Gillette Bleue Extra Blade Review

[Toddy]

Ok had these for some time now. I purchased my first batch on holiday from a supermarket in France in 2001 when I forgot to pack blades. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality that I purchased a bulk pack of 1,000 from a cash and carry store in Calais on the way back.

Name - Gillette Bleue Extra
Country of manufacture - Not given, presumed to be Europe
Price - $25 per 100 todays equivalent money
No longer in production

Tested with - Trumper soap, Trumper cream, Bath House Spanish Fig & Nutmeg shaving soap, Erasmic stick, Scottish Fine Soaps SSoap, Culmak soap, MWF, Gillette Rocket, Gillette Super Speed, shower shave.

A fine quality blade with a nice smoth finish. The blades are very sharp on the first shave and you need to be careful. After the second shave they dull down a little. I find I can get at least 7 shaves from a single blade, and I have gone up to 10 days between changing them. My whiskers are fair and fairly fine so blades tend to last longer on me than they do for other people with heavier whiskers.

Overall an excellent blade, and a shame they are discontinued. Had I known I would have stocked up. Now coming to the last few packs and seem to settle on Feather blades now as a direct replacement and similar performance.

Graded marks out of 10, where 10 is for the best blade I have ever experienced, and 1 is for the worst.

Sharpness - 9/10
Number of decent shaves per blade - over 7
Performance - 9/10
Value for money - 9/10

[IridiumMourner]

I also shaved with an NOS GBE this morning. They are indeed excellent blades!

[jwilock]

Did a 7 O'Clock Blue, Yellow, Black comparison. Then a GBE, and now in the midst of a SI and Polsilver SI comparison. Obviously this is a fine group of blades. I think my favorite out of all of them is the GBE. I got several ultra smooth shaves, each of which was right up there with as close as it gets for me. Given that each shave with that blade was a great shave, that might just be the best single blade I've ever used.

[Toddy]

Another great blade was the Super Nacet, again no longer produced. The last ones I saw were in the mid 1990s

[chrissss]

these blades can be found in supermarket here for about 1.5$ the pack of 10 blades, if you want some ...

[jwilock]

these blades can be found in supermarket here for about 1.5$ the pack of 10 blades, if you want some ...

Got any idea how those compare to the ones in plastic dispensers not individually wrapped?

[chrissss]

These one are the same quaality, new "bleue extra" are sharp, pretty smooth, I can use it 3/4 time with 3 passes shaves.
I would say it worth a 7 O'clock yellow for the 1/2 price.

[Mitsimonsta]

Got any idea how those compare to the ones in plastic dispensers not individually wrapped?

I finally got a pack of the current GBE's Jim. They are virtually indistinguishable from each other on the first shave but I think the current production are just a hair sharper while the NOS are a touch smoother.

The NOS blades tend to hold sharpness and then fall away rapidly as you well know. The current blades have a gentle, continuous degradation from first shave, so on the 4th shave you know to get rid of them. The NOS tricks you by getting through the 4th shave and then during the 5th shave it all goes pear-shaped and I usually swap blades mid-shave.

I have enough NOS blades, so Belgium - your stocks of current production blades are safe. At 15c/blade retail price they are great value as the NOS blades are in demand. If one of the European/UK stockists could get these in at even 30c/blade then they would FLY off the shelves.

[Toddy]

Nice to know they are still available - I have had friends go looking for them when the visit France and have all turned up blank recently so I assumed they were no longer available. Are there any online retailers?

[haiti222]

Did they go to Monoprix? That was the only place I saw them in France last time I was there.

[chrissss]

Carrefour have those but for 2€15 the 10 pack

[TAM340R]

these blades can be found in supermarket here for about 1.5$ the pack of 10 blades, if you want some ...

Hi Chriss,


May I ask you where in Belgium can you find them?
Perso I m buying them in France for 1.7 €.....would be happy to source them in Belgium .

Thanks

Tam

[zwartw]

Hi, I bought a pack of these on holiday in France and had two great shaves so far. Wish I had bought more because I think they will become my favourite blade!
Do you know if there are any websites that sell them?

- Willem

[SmokeyD]

Chrisss, great to know Carrefour carries them. Will surely check them out one of these days. Thanks for the info.

[Oel]

The counterpart of the gillette bleue blades are the gillette super silver blades. But it seems that these are discontinued, the rotbart extra dunn seem to be discontinued also. I cannot find them in any store that sold them anymore.

It is a littlebit off topic but hopefully they won't discontinue the Gillette bleue blades.

[freeze205]

I'm in France right now in holiday and I've found them in each supermarket we visited so far (Super U, Auchan and Carrefour). I've read some good things about these blades so I already have a nice stock to carry home to Belgium (Flanders). I've never seen them at home by the way.
I paid 1.68 euros for a pack of 10 at Auchan. And while here I also picked up a bottle of Mennen Skin Bracer. Same story as the blades, great reviews on that here at the forum and not available at home.

[Rivguy]

This was my blade today and is in my top five favorite blades. They are outstanding.

Regards,

Doug

[jwilock]

The counterpart of the gillette bleue blades are the gillette super silver blades. But it seems that these are discontinued, the rotbart extra dunn seem to be discontinued also. I cannot find them in any store that sold them anymore.

It is a littlebit off topic but hopefully they won't discontinue the Gillette bleue blades.

I bought a pack of these recently just to get the order to free shipping level. Was pleasantly surprsed!

[jwilock]

Nice price on those blades in France. If they're as good as the NOS ones in plastic dispensers then snap up a whole bunch of them while you'r in France.