Embrace Your Inner Goddess (Gillette Venus Embrace)

Member Name: cazkins

Product:	Gillette Venus Embrace
Date:	02/07/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Practical yet attractive design, leaves skin smooth and soft

Disadvantages: Pricey

My previous razor was the trusty Venus original, which I had in both blue and pink. I don't think I would have bothered upgrading to Venus Embrace if it wasn't for the £10 Gillette voucher I had, because the price of the refill blades is quite steep. I chose to go for the Embrace razor, from a choice of their ever-growing range, probably because of the offer that was on at the time (yes, I'm a sucker for a bargain!).

Venus Embrace is a newer addition to the Venus range, produced by Gillette. Gillette are a leading brand when it comes to razors, so I expected this product to be reliable and live up to its claims.

The motivation behind Venus tends to be about releasing your 'inner goddess', and as you can easily tell by their advertising campaigns, the range is directed towards women. There may, however, be guys out there who have an inner goddess just waiting to be released, in which case this product may be perfect!

I find the advertisements a little misleading, as shaving your legs wont quite make you feel, or look, like those women jumping around looking gorgeous. Having smooth skin nonetheless does seem to boost your confidence and make you feel clean and sexy, so I think it's quite important to choose a decent razor that works well.

Venus Embrace is set apart from the rest of the range as it has 5 blades that are surrounded by a 'protective ribbon of moisture'. This ribbon then enables the blades the glide smoothly whilst adding moisture along the way. Gillette claim this razor with 'hug to each curve' to get 'virtually every hair'. Sounds great!

The razor can be bought on it's own, priced at around £6.84 (Boots) though there are often some offers about for Venus. At the moment (30.6.09) it's on sale at £4.56 Boots. This comes with a shower pod, the razor itself and one blade. Some stores also have a promotional pack, which includes the previously mentioned plus a pack of 3 razors. The pack is a much better buy, as I paid around £7 in Savers for this, which is great considering the pack of 3 razors itself costs £7.82.

The razor handle has a new grip, which designed to allow easier shaving and prevent it from slipping out of your hand, which is quite easy when you're in a shower. This is green & blue in colour, complemented by the same colour packaging on the box. I think the colour scheme is pretty as it's quite summery and modern. The pod, which it comes with, is white with sucker grips on the back. You can put this on the tiles in your bathroom and click the razor on the front of it, plus there's a space in the centre so you can open it and store new blades in there. Overall, the design of the razor itself and storage is practical and attractive, so 5/5 for that.

The blades themselves are individually wrapped in a small plastic carton, so they're safe to store or carry if you're travelling. They click onto the razor easily, and are equally as easy to remove by pushing down a bit of plastic at the top of the razor body (this prevents the blade from coming off when you don't want it to). Each 'razor' itself is made up of three blades, surrounded by the moisturising ribbon. It's well designed and gives a much better attempt at removing all hair than razors with only one or two blades.

Gillette also make a variety of shaving gels, and they recommend a different type with each razor they bring out. I think that's a bit of a con, though I do prefer Gillette shaving gel over others and so choose whichever I can find cheapest which is good for sensitive skin and smells nice.

When used with a shaving gel, Venus Embrace does seem to glide very smoothly, and is manoeuvrable enough to go around curves fairly easily. You should still rinse the blade after every stroke or two to make sure the blades get a clean sweep of your skin. I find that overall I get a close shave with this razor, and my legs do feel much smoother and softer. I think the moisturising ribbon does actually help, not only to make the blade glide, but in gently nourishing your skin.

It's not a perfect shave, but then again I don't think you can get a perfect shave with any razor. That said, it's the best razor I've used so far for getting close to the skin, getting all the hairs and leaving my legs silky smooth.

I would definitely recommend Venus Embrace if you're wanting to update your razor, though the only downside, which is quite a big one, is the price of the separate blades. I'm still giving this product 5/5 because I was impressed by it as it was an improvement to the original Venus, though I would recommend shopping around for a promotional pack with the razors included.

Summary: A razor that gives the closer and smoother shave it promises