These are the fabled Lab Blue Personna?

The other day I was cruising the web and found an offer for what I thought were NOS Personna Lab Blues.  Haven't seen that wrapper for sale since they moved it to a plain white wrapper in the blue and white "comfort coated" box.  Anyway I ordered a big old box of them.  When they arrived it looked like I had purchased NOS but when I opened the box and unwrapped the blue wrapper I was met with a very attractive etched blade stating the usual Personna Super and Personna Made In USA on the blade.  Here's a picture of the new stock etched in blue wrapper and the comfort coated white wrapper with printing that looks like a kindergartener with a sharpie.  
 And a photo of the new etched blade up close. (What looks dark like printing is actually reflection.  It shows silver in real life but is hard to see)

I loaded one of each in Jagger DE89s to see how one stacks against the other.  This mornings shave showed a noticable smoothness given to the etched lab blue meaning less tug.  I lean toward the sharper blades and although I like Lab Blues well enough they are not my favorite.  That said, I got a good shave in three passes with etched on my left side and printed on my right.  Blades tend to perform better for me on the second shave so we will see what tomorrow morning brings.  Soap was Cold River Select "Fall 2015".    I'll take these blades to the finish and report back.

This mornings shave I swapped sides of my face with etched Personna on my right cheek and printed on left.  I'd be hard pressed to say one was different than the other and I suppose that is a very good thing.  Noticably sharper today than yesterday.  Both performed very well.  Soap was Black Tie Razors Black &Tan.  Brush was Teton Shaves 27mm Silvertip.

Well...with a soap as good as that.
I just discovered Gillette/Wilkinson Sword blades and haven't seen a difference between the Chinese and Indian versions.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Well...with a soap as good as that.
I just discovered Gillette/Wilkinson Sword blades and haven't seen a difference between the Chinese and Indian versions.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Good morning Dominicr.  Haha.  Yes the soap is certainly up to the task.

Pretty sure those are both Lab Blues. They change packaging and printing fairly often. As far as I know the only Personnas made in the USA are Lab Blues and Med Preps. Med Preps say something about “hospital use” on them.

I've given up trying to figure out which Personna blade is which. None of them perform that great for me anyways.

I could not possibly be more confused than I am right now.  A year and a half ago, I purchased some Lab Blues from a reputable seller.  When I got this ...



... I was taken aback.  As brother Lipripper660 put it, the blade [font=Roboto, sans-serif]looks like it was imprinted by a kindergartener with a sharpie.  So I sniffed around, and found a reassuring post[font=Roboto, sans-serif] on another forum, and from a shaver I respect (and who looks a lot like our own Hondo).  Feeling reassured, I let the matter drop.  [/font][/font]However, after reading through this thread, I  decided to look into things again and compare the four kinds of Personna DE blades I own with each other, with the OP photos, and with current ads on eBay.  Here is a side-by-side shot of my four Personna models:

Top Left: Med Prep; Top Right: Israeli Platinum; Bottom Left: Personna Comfort Coated; Bottom Right: Lab Blue

To my naked eye, the Lab Blues and Comfort Coated blades are imprinted identically.  I checked three of each, and they are cleaner than in the photo and indistinguishable by eye.

And for reference, here is some data about the packaging and provenance of these blade.  Feel free to skip over it.

MED PREP
      Feb-2018; Sold by Super Safety Razors and fulfilled by Amazon
      Wrapper:  LIGHT Blue, imprinted with "Personna", "Super", "Verona Va 24482", and "Made in USA"
      Glue: on wrapper, not on blade
   
LAB BLUE
      Feb-2018; purchased from eBay
      Wrapper:  Plain White
      Glue: on wrapper, not on blade
   
COMFORT COATED
      May-2014; shipped from and sold by from Amazon
      Wrapper:  DARK Blue, imprinted with "Personna", "Super", "American Safety Razor Co.", "Verona Va 24482", and "Made in USA"
      Glue: on wrapper, not on blade
   
ISRAELI PLATINUM
      May-2018; Sold by Saving Blade and Razors and fulfilled by Amazon
      Wrapper:  Plain White
      Glue:  None

A few things make me wonder whether the Comfort Coated blades, which I purchased in 2014, are any different from the Lab Blues from ebay, and whether any or all of my blades are Lab Blues.  Here's what's on my mind.

1. First and as mentioned above, I can't tell the Lab Blues and Comfort Coated blades apart by eye.  
   
2. The Comfort Coated 100 blade box looks like the box shown on Amazon today (here).  The wrapping seems the same as what I have, but the blades are shown on Amazon with four arrowheads, and these arrowheads simply are not on my Comfort Coated blades.  This is a shot of the box I got in 2014 with a wrapper and one of the blades beside it:
   
3. 
   
4. The third picture on the product page, which shows the bottom of the box, still identifies Personna as a registered trademark of Energizer.  This is actually a good thing, because while it was true when I bought my box, it is no longer the case.  The Energizer reference dates my box to pre 2015, because Energizer was spun off to Edgewell Industries, whose assets - including the Personna and Comfort Coated trademarks - were purchased by Accutec in 2015 (see the footnote on this page).  And Lab Blues aside, the corporate history has helped me to accurately identify Med Preps, something which I discuss at the end of this post.  BTW, addition to Personna, Accutec also owns GEM. 
   

Moving along, the plot thickens.  I checked ebay a short while ago for Lab Blue ads.  The first ad that popped up showed blades and wrappers like the left side in the OP photo:


The second ad showed the Kindergartener sharpie version in the white wrappers, as on the right in the OP photo and also like the ones I got last year from eBay.


Are all of these Med Preps?  If I correctly understand Lipripper660font], I think the answer is "Yes".  But wait. ...

The third ad showed two photos.  The first photo had different packaging from mine and showed white wrappers but no blades.  The second showed the same package and blades as mine, but with the white wrappers instead of my blue and white [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]wrappers.  Here is the first ...

and the second ...


Are Comfort Coated blades a new kind of Lab Blue?  I cannot find "Lab Blue" or similar labeling printed on any packaging I own or have seen.  [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]So at this point, [/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I'm wondering if I [/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]w[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]as[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] sold Lab Blues in the Comfort[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif] Coated box, or if I don't own any Lab Blues at all[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif].[/font]

Now, about Med-Preps.  They are still in production.  I have found two stock numbers for DE prep blades on Accutec:  74-0002-0000 for 100 blades and 74-0010-0000 for 250.  The first six digits will appear on the package:

Note that on these Med Prep wrappers, the blue is lighter than on my 2014 Comfort Coated wrapper, and there is no  longer a reference to the American Safety Razor company.  I mention this in part because the left hand OP photo seems to resemble the Med Prep wrapper, which I suspect is newer.

Finally and FWIW, I tried resizing photos, but whatever I'm doing doesn't make them smaller.  If I knew how, I would have done so.

Comfort Coated and Lab Blue are one and the same. You won’t find Personna calling any blades it currently sells Lab Blues. They come in a few varieties of packaging and wrapping, but none say Lab Blue to my knowledge.

It’s simple. If it’s made in the USA and it doesn’t say “hospital use” it’s a Lab Blue. Those are the only Personna blades made here.

Now, why the hell do we call them Lab Blues when Personna doesn’t? I have no idea.

Comfort Coated and Lab Blue are one and the same. You won’t find Personna calling any blades it currently sells Lab Blues. They come in a few varieties of packaging and wrapping, but none say Lab Blue.

It’s simple. If it’s made in the USA and it doesn’t say “hospital use” it’s a Lab Blue. Those are the only Personna blades made here.

Now, why the hell do we call them Lab Blues when Personna doesn’t? I have no idea.

Many thanks Shane! I did catch your earlier remark about the varieties of packaging, but this post hits the nail right on the head for me.

Pretty sure those are both Lab Blues. They change packaging and printing fairly often. As far as I know the only Personnas made in the USA are Lab Blues and Med Preps. Med Preps say something about “hospital use” on them.

Personna might be the most confusing blade on the planet.  I think you got it correct.  Med preps are still made in Verona and state on the blade "for hospital use". Some think there is no difference between this blade and the lab blue/comfort coated blade barring an additional cleaning.  Others claim there is a vast difference between the two.  My face doesn't feel any difference but my wallet does.  The name lab blue came most likely from the first days of our shaving revival when Personna were found in laboratory supply catalogs.  Med preps were use of surgery prep and lab blues were used for specimen microscopic slide preparation and were packaged in a blue wrapper, thus "lab blues" was the moniker slung on them by the shave community.  Personna never called them that. Personna swapped blue to white wrapper a couple of years backand hired the kindergartener with the sharpie and the new lab blue was born.  The etched blade I ran into seem to be the new laboratory marketed blade and I suppose the comfort coated will start wearing the new branding.