I’m just going to lay it out there: I hate shaving. In fact, of all the tedious and (tragically) necessary tasks, there may be few things I enjoy less (though my larger-than-life laundry pile is coming in at a close second right now). For the anti-shaver, winter is a blessed season. Subbing short skirts and Daisy Dukes for long pants and tights means I get a mini vacation from my nagging razor and have five extra minutes to spend catching up on “House” episodes while I do my makeup. Best part is, with the exception of my somewhat dismayed husband, no one is the wiser.

So, needless to say, I wasn’t exactly banking on warm feelings and fireworks when I gave the new Gillette Venus Embrace a test run. But, horror of all horrors, I actually enjoyed shaving this morning.

In my haste to get this unpleasant task over with, I am often an erratic shaver. With other razors, this often leads to inevitable nicks, cuts and neglected areas of unshaven leg, but the Embrace was right at my pace. The “ribbon of moisture” that surrounds its five blades makes for such a smooth shave that, even throughout my wildly unpredictable shaving patterns, it felt great and didn’t reduce my ankles and kneecaps to a bleeding mess post-shower.

One little caveat that seems to crop up with all razors: the price of blades. The razor alone (with one replacement cartridge) will run you $12. But the blades? For a set of 4, you’re looking at $15.50 and for 8, a whopping $28.50. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather just buy a new one.

So am I saying that I’ll eagerly jump into the shower tomorrow morning, excited to greet my razor? It’s pretty possible that I will do exactly the opposite and forgo it for another day. However, it is also quite possible that I’ve been unfairly judging the act of shaving all these years based on a few (well, maybe several) bad razors. So for all you naysayers out there: give the Venus Embrace a shot and your better half might just let you back into bed tonight.