Finally Compared Russian and Indian Astra Greens - Beware Hyperbole, Read at Your sanity's Own Risk.

Again, I only partially mean this to be serious.

I tried using Indian Astra Greens a couple months ago; they came in my Razor Emporium sample pack for sensitive skin. First shave went fine. Not the world's greatest shave, not going to inspire me to call them my top choice, but satisfactory if I don't have one I like better available to me. I think I have it as a 4/10 in my personal log.

I bought a huge variety collection someone had amassed, and someone else resold on eBay. A whole bunch of brands I hadn't come across, lots of Cyrillic labels, lots of a lot of Gillettes, Shark, Derby, the list goes on. I was so excited to start playing with this crazy, eclectic mix that I didn't really pay much attention at first to the Astra Greens (much less notice that they were packaged differently), and only noted that I finally had some Blues to give a go.

But hey, who can blame me for not noticing that all these Greens were Russian-made right away, when I was excited to find out how bad blades made under the branding "Sputnik" were?? (Not top 5, because of ingrown hairs after use, but disappointingly decent.)

So finally today, I decided to load a Russian Astra Green into the ol' 6C, and see if there was really that much of a difference!

...There was.

I'm pretty sure these blades advocate for annexing the Ukraine. My face felt like a small war of attrition had been fought on the Beard Front. My cheeks felt like birch had been filled to supply the world's plywood, my chin felt like the palace in the aftermath of overthrowing the Tzar!

I only shave around the edges of a beard; it was bad enough that the Indian blades were single shave, but these don't even last for one!

Okay, so the fun of what Russian hyperbolistic puns I can think of (just a sample, but you're welcome anyway), there really was a big difference just because of where they were made.

The Russian blades got logged at a 2/10 in my notes. Definitely did not work for me. The were coarse (not quite tugging), and the irritation really was bad. Razor was the same for both. Don't remember which soap I used with the Indian blades (I think it was Stem), but I know the Stirling Campania and beard oil pre-shave I used today wasn't an issue, and nothing I would have used then is, either. The only variable i can't account for was the place of production.

TLDR: I finally compared Russian and Indian Astra Greens. Not a huge fan of the Indian-made ones, they're servicable, but the Russian-made ones gave me an outright terrible shave and lots of irritation on their first use in the same handle.