Wet Shaving in Sweden? (2024)

Mach 3 reigns supreme in Sweden, only challenged by Gillette Fusion. Even the Gillette blades which apparently are made in Sweden are virtually impossible to find here, and in the few places where they can be found, a pack of 5 blades command a price of at least $7.

Since there appears to be at least 10 Swedes here, i start this thread to ask if someone has seen good shaving supplies sold in Sweden?
(Commanding online can get you anything of course, but it would be nice to have an option to get stuff from a "real" store too.)

The best thing here is that all pharmacies carries styptic pencils!

I also wonder if anyone knows anything about Matador or other defunct Swedish makers of razors?
Here are a few pictures I found of a Matador razor and razor blades:

Real life bricks-and-mortar stores in Sweden... NK in Stockholm? I read a blog somewhere about a guy who bought a Dovo straight razor there. Expensive, though. Otherwise ICA and COOP have Palmolive shave soap sticks and shaving cream, and Åhléns has a no-name German pure badger shave brush which is ok. COOP has a cheap Chinese made boar bristle shave brush which is ok for the money, but sheds like crazy in the beginning. MAXI has some cheap shave brush too, but I haven't tried that one yet...

I wouldn't try using those Matador blades. I bought a cheap Chinese DE razor at a barber where I live, and got a pack of five Record Lyx 10:an razor blades, unused, but they didn't look very good.

minstrel said:

I wouldn't try using those Matador blades.

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Really?
But they are only $4 for the 15 packs at a running auction!

minstrel said:

NK in Stockholm?

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That might be something to check out. I was there two weeks ago to check if they had any DE razors, which they hadn't, but at least they carried Gillette blades (and moustache wax!). I didn't look through what they had to offer very thoroughly though.

I think I should check out some health food stores too, at least they use to have some shaving products from Weleda (reviewed here).

Edit: I found an auction for Record Lyx blades too!

Hi there,

It's not that easy to find quality shaving supplies in Sweden (it's not easy anywhere in the world, I believe). Try Parfymeri L in Sturegallerian. They have a Vulfix badger brush (but you have to ask for it, because they don't have it on display) and a couple of creams (none of the more traditional, though).
I think the market for vintage Gillette razors is pretty good in Sweden; because of the low demand you can get a good price if you have a look in flee markets or on Tradera.

Alex

I really like the old razor blade packs anyway:

There are a few handmade shaving soaps available from health food stores, made by for example "Bubbel & Skum", "Klockargården" and "Lukta Gott", all of which seems to be based on olive oil and contain beeswax and clay.

I have my doubts about their lathering perfermonces though. I tried to lather with a soap from "Klockargården", but the lather collapsed almost immediately.

I'm going back home to Norway for a while, and I think I'll have to visit my friends in Sweden soon in order to check out the Swedish shaving goodies... In the meantime, could you guys recommend any good websites for Swedish-made products?

PS! I like the Viking blades. Too bad they aren't in production.

Well, I cant say I have discovered any Swedish shaving goodies yet.

But as minstrel and Etalex said above, at the auction site tradera you might find old Swedish safety razors and straight razors very cheap.

Some of the shaving soaps I mentioned are available on the internet too, though I have no idea if any of these soaps really can produce decent lather!
Swedish soaps (sites are only in Swedish):
bubbelskum
luktagott
lendelunden

Do you know what the current status of wet shaving culture in Norway is? Maybe there are some Norwegian shaving soaps to look for when I'm in Oslo next time?

Just a point of interest related to this discussion: over 30% of the subscribers to my YouTube channel are out of the US. Of those the largest percentage is the UK but after that Sweden, Finland, and Norway make up the bulk of the rest!

--Mark

kalle said:

Well, I cant say I have discovered any Swedish shaving goodies yet.

Do you know what the current status of wet shaving culture in Norway is? Maybe there are some Norwegian shaving soaps to look for when I'm in Oslo next time?

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Hehe. Well, let me know when you find a soap that lathers. Now, you don't only have problem with shaving soaps, you can't make beer either over there!

I haven't been in Oslo since I started traditional wetshaving. But I know for sure you will find shops in the city centre that carry famous brands like L'Occitane. In Bogstadveien, there's an insanely expensive barbershop though (well everything is f#### expensive in Norway after 4 years in the UK).

On the other hand, I have found a Norwegian soapmaker, Fitjar soap (English version is available). I'll order her shaving soaps once I'm back in about 3 weeks and test them out.

mantic said:

Just a point of interest related to this discussion: over 30% of the subscribers to my YouTube channel are out of the US. Of those the largest percentage is the UK but after that Sweden, Finland, and Norway make up the bulk of the rest!

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Cool. I haven't really noticed any other members here at B&B from Norway, but surely there must be?

Well, in response to the vicious attack on Swedish beer I'll just have to say: You're right in part. At least the beers from the big Swedish breweries use to be a bit boring, and couldn't match the great beers of Czech Republic. We have some very nice "microbreweries" though! (OK, that was a bit off-topic. Further beer discussion in a thread about beer please! )

And I too started using a DE thanks to mantic! I'm using the videos to convert more Swedes!

And for the archives: I found out that there is a shop in Stockholm called "Ligne de Vie" where you can buy the shaving soap from L'Occitane, at $53, so I guess it might be better to look for exclusive shaving soaps on the web after all.

EDIT: I checked out the big department stores in Stockholm, but didn't find very much:
NK: Tabac & Crabtree Sandalwood shaving soap
Pub: Nothing that I could see
Åhlens: Tabac & Palmolive shaving soap

Wetshaving is really nothing big here and i don't think it will be either.

Vendors have such huge prices as well so that noone really want's to buy from them.

It's a Best Badger brush. Compared to the Åhléns brush, it's probably a bit thicker and better made, but they are about equal in performance, as far as I can tell. The Åhléns brush is pure badger, so it's even lower grade badger hair than the Edwin Jagger brush at Gents.

The Edwin Jagger brush from Gents is my regular shaving brush, along side a cheap "no-name" badger hair brush (looks like a Tweezerman, but without the logo).