If you have been around wet shaving for a while, “GEM” probably makes you think of single edge blades: the thick, one-sided blades with a folded spine that fit GEM-style razors. The Personna GEM Platinum Diamond Glide is not one of those. It is a standard double edge blade, the same format as every other blade in our double edge blade range, and it fits standard DE safety razors. The carton says so in plain print: “GEM Double Edge Blades”.
The mix-up is common enough that at least one retailer listing we came across describes these blades as made for single edge GEM-style razors. They are not. If you own a GEM single edge razor, this blade will not fit it.
The 100-blade carton states a few things worth knowing:
That is the extent of what the packaging commits to. “Platinum Diamond Glide” is the maker’s own name for its coating; the carton does not explain how it is applied or what it is made of beyond the name, so we will not guess.
Interest in this blade has grown in the wet shaving community over the past year, mostly by word of mouth on forums.
On Badger & Blade, a thread started in December 2025 by a long-time member called it his new go-to blade, describing it as comfortable and long lasting, and reporting 7 to 10 shaves per blade in his own use. Another member replied that the blade seemed to be gaining quite a following. A newer shaver who tried it after a few weeks on Personna’s Comfort Coated blades found it sharper and closer in his razor.
Those are personal reports, not a specification. Shave counts in particular depend on beard, prep, razor and how fussy you are about the last shave, so treat 7 to 10 as one man’s experience rather than a number to expect.
Not everyone is converted, and the most useful voices are the ones with a comparison.
In the same Badger & Blade thread, a self-described Comfort Coated fan rated the GEM as the better of the two at equal prices, but said that if the GEM cost about a quarter more per hundred, he would happily stay with Comfort Coated. On another wet shaving forum, a reviewer placed it well below blades such as Feather and Kai in perceived sharpness, describing it instead as a balanced, gentler blade closer in feel to Comfort Coated and Astra Superior Platinum, without surpassing them. A customer review at a US retailer is blunter still: a good blade, but they prefer the Comfort Coated.
Some forum members believe the GEM is the successor to Personna’s Comfort Coated blade. That may be true, but we have not seen the maker say so, so we treat it as community speculation.
Based on how people describe it, rather than on any claim from us:
The honest answer, as with any blade, is that your own face settles it. The best way to judge is to run it alongside two or three others for a few shaves each. Our guide to choosing and testing a DE blade sampler explains a simple way to do that, and how to choose the right safety razor blade covers what sharpness and smoothness actually mean when people use those words.
We offer the Personna GEM Platinum Diamond Glide as the full 100-blade carton, or as 10 individually paper-wrapped blades taken from that carton.
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