Fusion5® ProGlide® Manual Razor Blades

Full Disclosure: I was sent the Gillette Fusion Proglide Flexball razor via BzzAgent for free.Until last spring I was a Gillette only shaver. I'd been using them for about ten years, first the Mach 3 and then the Fusion. They were great. I had no complaints about them other than the cost of refills. When I switched to the Fusion Proglide Power it was even better. It was without a doubt the best shaving experience I've ever had. When I was sent the new Flexball I decided that I like it, it gives a great shave. Just as good, if not slightly better, than the Power. And with the added benefit of not needing a battery. If you're looking for a new Gillette Razor this is probably it.There's an issue though. My facial hair is coarse and grows fast and even the Proglide cartridges only last about a week and a half of shaves two if I push it. So when you see the marketing for "one blade every four weeks" the caveat is important. If you have coarse or fast growing hair like mine it's one blade every two weeks.That being said lets talk about the subscription plan. With the new Gillette subscription plan the first thing I realized was that it wasn't through Gillette. After signing up it turned out that it was a portal that redirected me to Amazon where I had to then select again that it was a subscription. That frustration aside lets talk price.For me I go through about eight razors in three months. So by selecting that option that's $4.24 per cartridge or $135.64 per year.If you noticed earlier I mentioned that I *used to be* Gillette only. Well last year I decided I wanted something cheaper. I was looking at safety razors but I thought that 1) I've never used one before and wasn't sure I'd like it and 2) I'm not quite hipster enough :).Instead I thought to try one of the shave clubs. So I looked into them and then after some searching found that the one I was about to go with was actually just repackaging razors sold by a different company. I looked it up and that company also sold razors, just not through a subscription plan. So I ordered through them and the total cost for a years worth of razors, all bought at the same time, wound up being $85 after shipping costs or $1.78 per cartridge. Now the blades aren't as high quality as the Gillette proglide ones, they're more like the regular fusion ones but for some reason through the shave plan the regular fusion blades actually cost more per blade.So, thank you Gillette, you make amazing razors, but I'm going to go with saving money. (This review was collected as part of a promotion.)