My razor is an old Gillette from the 40s, sold by the Co-op. I used to use exclusively Feather blades, but it became difficult to get one colour (the sharper ones - I can't remember which colour) here, so I switched to Astra. I only use Taylor's of Old Bond Street, either the Sandalwood Soap or the Tobacco Cream, which is a fairly new one. As others have said, a key tip is to just allow the weight of the razor to do it's job rather than pressing down.
Does anyone else here shave in cold water? I used to use hot, and do the whole hot towel on the face thing, but I've found I get better results in less time just using cold. I believe there's some logic to this (although it could be total nonsense) - cold causes metal to contract, which at least in theory causes the blade to be sharper. At these temperatures I'm not convinced that this would make any discernable difference. However, the other point is that we use hot water to soften the hairs. Apparently this can cause the hairs to bend slightly when passed with the razor, causing them to cut at more of an angle (and hence leaving a bit more of the hair there). Whereas with cold, the hair slices clean through.
I suspect this is all total nonsense, but it has definitely worked better for me and I wonder if anyone else has tried it.