Further to discussion in a thread on another forum, I thought I'd post up my thoughts on these two brushes in order to add my two-penneth worth to the excellent reviews already undertaken by people far more knowledge about brushes than I.
In order to gauge the scale of the scale of these two brushes, I have started by picturing them alongside a Rooney 3/1 I recently purchased.
Starting with the Prince
As you may already know, I'm a bit of a fan of the WSP Stubby (extra-firm) given to me by my Dipesh recently, so I thought I'd compare the two together to start with:
Two things immediately struck me as noticeable; the knot in the Prince is, as previously stated by Lee (asharperazor), denser than the knot in the Stubby, and the handles are noticeably different (as can be seen from the photo).
As I bowl-latherer, I thought I'd put the Prince to the test first. Here's the result using some Vulfix cream:
Gobs of thick creamy lather were what I ended up with. The result is certainly better than the Stubby (which is an excellent bowl-latherer in itself). This is, I think, down to the lack of the glue bump in the knot (which shortens the effective knot length of the Stubby).
The new handle, whilst not up there with the best turned handles, is an improvement over the handle on the Stubby as well in that it is far less slippery-when-wet compared to the handle of the Stubby.
The Prince has nice, soft bristles and was a joy to use when the lather was painted on my face, with no scritchiness evident.
All-in-all I would say that Prince is a definite improvement over the Stubby and is definitely a keeper for me.
Moving on to the Monarch.
I've photographed it next to a Kent BLK4 for comparison, as the brush is in the style of the Kent with slight differences between the two handles:
So, the question is, how well does this brush bowl lather some Vulfix cream?
Here's the answer:
The knot on this brush is seriously nice.
It's very soft, with no hint of scritch, and has far more backbone than I thought it would have.
I could have sworn that I was using a Simpsons Best or Super knot when it was being used on my face - it felt that good.
Here's the after shots of the two brushes:
Conclusion
Overall, I would say that these brushes represent excellent value for money.
The handles are not up there with the likes of Simpsons, Rooney and Morris & Forndran but then the brushes are significantly cheaper (even with the added Customs charges if you are importing them into the UK).
The handles are, though, certainly on a par with Kent and Edwin Jagger brushes for example.
So, in conclusion, I would say that both the Monarch and Prince appear to be great brushes which are being sold by Lee at a great price.
They've certainly made me think twice about Made in China brushes and I look forward to trying out more of Lee's brushes in the future.
In order to gauge the scale of the scale of these two brushes, I have started by picturing them alongside a Rooney 3/1 I recently purchased.
Starting with the Prince
As you may already know, I'm a bit of a fan of the WSP Stubby (extra-firm) given to me by my Dipesh recently, so I thought I'd compare the two together to start with:
Two things immediately struck me as noticeable; the knot in the Prince is, as previously stated by Lee (asharperazor), denser than the knot in the Stubby, and the handles are noticeably different (as can be seen from the photo).
As I bowl-latherer, I thought I'd put the Prince to the test first. Here's the result using some Vulfix cream:
Gobs of thick creamy lather were what I ended up with. The result is certainly better than the Stubby (which is an excellent bowl-latherer in itself). This is, I think, down to the lack of the glue bump in the knot (which shortens the effective knot length of the Stubby).
The new handle, whilst not up there with the best turned handles, is an improvement over the handle on the Stubby as well in that it is far less slippery-when-wet compared to the handle of the Stubby.
The Prince has nice, soft bristles and was a joy to use when the lather was painted on my face, with no scritchiness evident.
All-in-all I would say that Prince is a definite improvement over the Stubby and is definitely a keeper for me.
Moving on to the Monarch.
I've photographed it next to a Kent BLK4 for comparison, as the brush is in the style of the Kent with slight differences between the two handles:
So, the question is, how well does this brush bowl lather some Vulfix cream?
Here's the answer:
The knot on this brush is seriously nice.
It's very soft, with no hint of scritch, and has far more backbone than I thought it would have.
I could have sworn that I was using a Simpsons Best or Super knot when it was being used on my face - it felt that good.
Here's the after shots of the two brushes:
Conclusion
Overall, I would say that these brushes represent excellent value for money.
The handles are not up there with the likes of Simpsons, Rooney and Morris & Forndran but then the brushes are significantly cheaper (even with the added Customs charges if you are importing them into the UK).
The handles are, though, certainly on a par with Kent and Edwin Jagger brushes for example.
So, in conclusion, I would say that both the Monarch and Prince appear to be great brushes which are being sold by Lee at a great price.
They've certainly made me think twice about Made in China brushes and I look forward to trying out more of Lee's brushes in the future.
