I love that they keep making razor blades that fit on any Venus handle you have, though. I’ve only had 2 or 3 handles in the last.. 8 years. It’s the same with Venus Embrace so I used the handle I already had and put it on in the same way.

But the similarities end there. Venus Embrace is much larger than the previous Venus blades (regular and Divine) in both width and height. This occurs for a couple reasons. Embrace has an extra blade and the whole head is surrounded by a “ribbon of moisture.” It’s sort of like a mini Intuition but, thankfully, not that large.

Still, it’s large enough that it threw me off. With practice, I’m sure I’d get used to it but because I was used to the smaller blades, I found myself using the Embrace at the wrong angle more than once. This resulted in definite discomfort as the razor scraped against my skin in a weird way. And I’m not sure that the extra blade made much of a difference.

And the moisture ribbon was just annoying. It honestly felt more like plastic than anything else. Like any other Venus razor, it would offer some moisture for the first thirty seconds of shaving, then I would need to add shaving gel to help the razor glide. This same thing occurred the first two or three times I used the razor blade, because the strip would be able to soak up water as my razor sat in the shower unused. But after the first few uses, the moisturizing ribbon just seemed to quit working.

The other complaint I have is that the added size from the moisture ribbon makes it hard to get into all those little nooks and crannies when you’re shaving. Maybe not a problem with legs or the underarm area but it becomes more difficult around the bikini line and intimate areas because the edge of the blade is about .5 centimeters in from the edge of the head of the razor. It makes it that much harder to get the details.

I switched back to a Venus Divine cartridge before I really needed to because I was sick of hurting myself with the Embrace and it was just too bulky for my liking. It seems like other Venus customers agree because both the original and Venus Divine are higher rated on Gillette’s site for its Venus razors.

Until Wal-mart runs out. Then I make some sacrifices and I decide maybe I can just use the regular Venus blades and it will all be okay. WRONG! I was wrong. I tried to live with it but was just so sick of the blood on all my white linens. I broke down and made Ryan take me to the ghetto Wal-mart to go back to my former love. I will never forsake you again, Venus Divine. Never. I promise. I now know why I left Venus for you and, with you, I will always stay.