Nymph Ladies Razor

Description:

Although, at a push, a man might use this razor it was clearly intended for use by women. The razor was originally sold in a cardboard box and a razor blade was included. (See pictures below).

The manufacturer was a firm named Souplex, located in Morecombe, which was founded in 1926. The firm specialised in making razors and blades in the 1930s and 1940s. They produced razors for men as well as the Nymph razors for women. They widened their range of plastic and metal products and abandoned the manufacture of shaving products in 1960 to concentrate on moulded plastic products. The business was taken over by an American company and was dissolved in 2006.

The Nymph razor was made of plastic, probably Bakelite. It was smaller than razors for men and though the blade was similar in design to those of manufacturers such as Gillette, the blade was smaller and only Nymph blades could be used. The razor was designed to be taken apart and stored in its plastic box. This made it ideal for carrying in a handbag, or toiletry bag when travelling.

The photographs of the object here show a used razor, without a blade and missing its original outside cardboard box. These are shown below. The razor case has a lid, with sections for the dismantled razor, which featured a removable handle, safety support and guard. The one shown is in green plastic, but there were other colours: blue, pink, white and yellow. The convex lid features a vacant Art Deco motif, but there are models which feature the brand name within the design.

The instructions on the paper wrapper of the blade advise users, for their comfort, to dip the blade in hot water to remove preservative and apply warm soap lather to the skin before use. The illustrations on the box and some blades show a lady holding her arms high exposing her armpits. I leave the reader to ponder why?