Vintage Grooming Knowledge / Gillette Contour Plus (Lubrastrip)
Product ProfileGillette Contour Plus (Lubrastrip)
Identification notes for Contour Plus cartridge packs carrying the yellow Lubrastrip® branding — card print variants, barcode and batch codes, distributor markets, and the pack-size and promotional variants seen on shelf.
Seven-point verification standard
- 1. Identification — card layout, barcodes, batch codes logged
- 2. Manufacturing — pending: cross-reference batch codes to date ranges
- 3. Packaging — four card-back and four card-front variants photographed
- 4. Compatibility — pending: confirm against Atra/Contour handle generations
- 5. Rarity — pending: no comparison sample size yet
- 6. Collectability — pending
- 7. References — primary photography only; secondary sources not yet added
What Contour Plus (Lubrastrip) is
Contour Plus is the lubricating-strip version of Gillette's pivoting-head Contour cartridge — the same cartridge sold in the Americas as Atra Plus. The strip, branded Lubrastrip®, sits ahead of the twin blades and is called out in yellow on every card and blister pack in this set. All packs examined here state they fit "all Contour razors" and are manufactured by Gillette Deutschland GmbH & Co. in Berlin.
This entry documents eight physical samples currently on hand: four hanging cards (shown back-first, since that's where the identifying print sits) and four blister packs (shown front-first, where the pack size and any promotional banner appear). They are treated as two separate observation sets below rather than paired up, since it isn't established that a given card back and blister front photographed here belong to the same physical unit.
Reading the card back
Every Contour Plus hanging card in this set follows the same layout: Gillette wordmark and recycling arrows top, a shaving-technique pictogram strip, a "Made by" block, a barcode bottom-left and a printer's batch code bottom-right. What varies between otherwise identical cards is the descriptive text, the distributor list, and the small numeric codes printed in the top corners — together these are the most useful clues for telling one print run from another.
Back-of-card variants observed
- Corner code
- 6218 / 42
- Barcode
- 3 014260 207618
- Batch / print code
- 170009568
- Text panel
- Pictograms only — no multilingual description block; cross-sell panel shows unlabelled Gillette Series bottle silhouettes
- Distributor markets
- Widest list of the four: Annecy, Berlin, Brussels, Espoo-Esbo, København, Lisboa, London TW7 5NP, Madrid, Milano, Oslo, Rijswijk ZH, Stockholm, Wien, Zürich, Dublin — plus a Greek-market line (Metamarfosi / Marbo A.E.)
- Corner code
- 5164 / 31
- Barcode
- 3 014260 214111
- Batch / print code
- 170009338
- Text panel
- Full English / Swedish / Finnish description present; cross-sell panel shows labelled Gillette Series Gel, Shaving Foam and After Shave
- Distributor markets
- Shortest list: London TW7 5NP and Dublin (Daelgate Ltd.) only
- Corner code
- 5087 / 21
- Barcode
- 3 014260 220389
- Batch / print code
- 170009130
- Text panel
- Full English / Swedish / Finnish description present, positioned above the pictogram strip; no cross-sell graphic
- Distributor markets
- London TW7 5NP and Dublin (Daelgate Ltd.)
- Corner code
- 4854 / 13
- Barcode
- 3 014260 207601
- Batch / print code
- 170009608 (partial — print worn)
- Text panel
- Full English / Swedish / Finnish description present
- Distributor markets
- Nordic-heavy list: Espoo-Esbo, København, London TW7 5NP, Oslo, Stockholm, Dublin (Daelgate Ltd.)
Constant across all four backs: "Made by Gillette Deutschland GmbH & Co., Berlin – Germany"; ingredients listed as PEG-115M, PEG-7M, PEG-100, BHT; recycling-arrows mark top right; standard hanger-tab card die-cut.
Blister-pack front variants
The later grey-and-orange blister packs share one livery — the Gillette wordmark, an orange "Plus," a yellow Lubrastrip® panel with an arrow graphic over the cartridge, and an orange strip along the bottom edge of the card. Where they differ is pack size and whatever is printed in the yellow corner banner, which is the fastest way to sort a stack of these by offer or market.
- Cartridge count
- 10
- Corner banner
- None — instead carries a "France 98 Official Sponsor" badge
- Note
- The World Cup 1998 sponsorship badge is a useful dating anchor, placing this print run around 1997–98
- Cartridge count
- 12, printed as "12 / 10"
- Corner banner
- "10+2 FREE GRATIS"
- Note
- Bonus-cartridge multipack — base pack size of 10 with 2 free
- Cartridge count
- 6, printed as base 5 plus 1 free
- Corner banner
- "5+1 FREE GRATIS"
- Note
- Smaller multipack size than Front 2, same offer structure
- Cartridge count
- 5
- Corner banner
- "For Superior Smoothness and Comfort" (English / Swedish / Finnish)
- Note
- A claims banner rather than an offer — standard-line pack with no bonus cartridges or sponsorship tie-in
What these cartridges fit
All eight samples state they fit "all Contour razors." Gillette sold the same cartridge as Atra Plus in North America, so Contour Plus and Atra Plus handles are the expected match — this is stated on-pack rather than independently confirmed against a physical handle here, and is flagged under Compatibility in the verification checklist above pending that check.
Sources
- Primary: eight Gillette Contour Plus packs (four hanging cards, four blister packs) photographed and transcribed directly for this entry, August 2026.
- Secondary sources — manufacturer archives, collector forums, dated retail listings — have not yet been added; see the verification checklist above.