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Shwmae pawb - alright all!
Where to begin? Firstly, it's brush, no questions asked. It has a resin handle, available in 3 colours - black, ivory and horn. From said handle, a plume of badger hair sprouts. Nothing more to be said in this respect.
It has a nicely minimalistic silvered lettering on the handle. The handle is also nice and chubby and stubby and weighty. It feels good in the hand and is by no means uncomfortable. As a reference, my Razorock Synth has a significantly smaller (in diameter) handle and this can get a little uncomfortable to use for, e.g., bowl lathering where grip seems to have more of an influence (subjective, I know).
But, how does it perform? This is, rather obviously, the question which needs the most depth. It was tightly packed when first received (I'll get onto general packaging/shipping a little later), and it smells a bit funky... not typical wet-dog smell but quite ammoniacal, bleachy. It's been treated probably quite heavily to do away with the 'badger-funk'. I'm fairly used to these sort of smells given my profession (R&D Chemist) but I can see why they might be an off-put to anyone else. That being said, two lathers in, it's dissipating nicely. I digress, I test lathered/cleaned the day I received it and it managed to make light work of Fine Platinum soap. I thought I'd give it a good run and introduced the slightly dampened brush to the soap and a lather quickly erupted. In fact, there was a lot of lather. It was worked right the way through the brush and took a good while to wash out - it does hold a lot of soap/water. My usual wringing/shaking of brushes gives far less lather in the tub than this did. I can only assume that it's the badger's qualities vs synthetics, which I'm used to.
Trialling this brush today, I managed to whip up a bountiful lather in not a lot of time. Due to the sheer size, I found it harboured a lot of soap, so a lot of water was required to make a decent lather. That works fine for me! I slathered it on my chops and neck. It scrubs well, with fairly soft tips out of the box, though I don't doubt they'll soften over time. It's wide splay and thick knot gave me enough backbone to really get into every nook and cranny, so no neck was left un-soaped. It paints well, it scrubs well, but I did fine it hoarded the lather a little at the base. This isn't an issue in my opinion, though, as it produces so much you don't notice it holding onto any.
It's barely shed anything. I have introduced a new step into my morning ritual - blow drying the brush post-use. I have a nice comb which aids this.
Onto packaging. It arrived promptly (11 days from China, if I remember correctly), and was packaged securely. I opened it to find a mass of green, thin, paper shreddings surrounding the brush.It was certainly secure in it's box. I opted for the paper box and this is absolutely fine. It's pretty sturdy but the dye used to colour it is not a fan of water. It does tend to run in contact with water. The brush also comes with a cheap-looking, plastic stand, which holds the brush well and should perform no worse than any other brush stand. Nothing more to be said. It can also be bought in a wooden box which, from what I've heard, is fantastic quality for only a couple of quid more.
So, would I recommend it? If you want an inexpensive (circa £40 delivered for the paper box, 2-band finest variant) big brush, this is probably the place to turn. Compared to the Body Shop synthetic I started out with, it is softer. Compared to the Razorock synthetic I own, it's far tougher, but definitely not a point against it - it doesn't really feature much 'scritch'. It really does do well getting into every little crevice it can find, and I've had no lathering problems with the two soaps I've tested it with (Fine Platinum and P&B Sanskrit).
If, however, you want something comparable in softness to a synthetic, this might not be it. If you're used to higher-end brushes, this might be a step down for you. As a beginner in the wet-shaving world, however, there's nothing better to get into badgers. It gives you a respect for preparation and care routines surrounding brushes, which is often overlooked with synthetics.
In short, it's a great brush which does all I need it to. It's soft at the tips and firm throughout the knot. ~£40 down, I think I'll get my money's worth from this big, badgery beast. I can only assume it compares to some higher-end brushes for a fraction of the price.
If I've missed anything or you want any further information, pop a comment below. Otherwise, pop a comment below to let me know how I've done! I can do shorter reviews in future, if required!
Enjoy, folks!
Where to begin? Firstly, it's brush, no questions asked. It has a resin handle, available in 3 colours - black, ivory and horn. From said handle, a plume of badger hair sprouts. Nothing more to be said in this respect.
It has a nicely minimalistic silvered lettering on the handle. The handle is also nice and chubby and stubby and weighty. It feels good in the hand and is by no means uncomfortable. As a reference, my Razorock Synth has a significantly smaller (in diameter) handle and this can get a little uncomfortable to use for, e.g., bowl lathering where grip seems to have more of an influence (subjective, I know).
But, how does it perform? This is, rather obviously, the question which needs the most depth. It was tightly packed when first received (I'll get onto general packaging/shipping a little later), and it smells a bit funky... not typical wet-dog smell but quite ammoniacal, bleachy. It's been treated probably quite heavily to do away with the 'badger-funk'. I'm fairly used to these sort of smells given my profession (R&D Chemist) but I can see why they might be an off-put to anyone else. That being said, two lathers in, it's dissipating nicely. I digress, I test lathered/cleaned the day I received it and it managed to make light work of Fine Platinum soap. I thought I'd give it a good run and introduced the slightly dampened brush to the soap and a lather quickly erupted. In fact, there was a lot of lather. It was worked right the way through the brush and took a good while to wash out - it does hold a lot of soap/water. My usual wringing/shaking of brushes gives far less lather in the tub than this did. I can only assume that it's the badger's qualities vs synthetics, which I'm used to.
Trialling this brush today, I managed to whip up a bountiful lather in not a lot of time. Due to the sheer size, I found it harboured a lot of soap, so a lot of water was required to make a decent lather. That works fine for me! I slathered it on my chops and neck. It scrubs well, with fairly soft tips out of the box, though I don't doubt they'll soften over time. It's wide splay and thick knot gave me enough backbone to really get into every nook and cranny, so no neck was left un-soaped. It paints well, it scrubs well, but I did fine it hoarded the lather a little at the base. This isn't an issue in my opinion, though, as it produces so much you don't notice it holding onto any.
It's barely shed anything. I have introduced a new step into my morning ritual - blow drying the brush post-use. I have a nice comb which aids this.
Onto packaging. It arrived promptly (11 days from China, if I remember correctly), and was packaged securely. I opened it to find a mass of green, thin, paper shreddings surrounding the brush.It was certainly secure in it's box. I opted for the paper box and this is absolutely fine. It's pretty sturdy but the dye used to colour it is not a fan of water. It does tend to run in contact with water. The brush also comes with a cheap-looking, plastic stand, which holds the brush well and should perform no worse than any other brush stand. Nothing more to be said. It can also be bought in a wooden box which, from what I've heard, is fantastic quality for only a couple of quid more.
So, would I recommend it? If you want an inexpensive (circa £40 delivered for the paper box, 2-band finest variant) big brush, this is probably the place to turn. Compared to the Body Shop synthetic I started out with, it is softer. Compared to the Razorock synthetic I own, it's far tougher, but definitely not a point against it - it doesn't really feature much 'scritch'. It really does do well getting into every little crevice it can find, and I've had no lathering problems with the two soaps I've tested it with (Fine Platinum and P&B Sanskrit).
If, however, you want something comparable in softness to a synthetic, this might not be it. If you're used to higher-end brushes, this might be a step down for you. As a beginner in the wet-shaving world, however, there's nothing better to get into badgers. It gives you a respect for preparation and care routines surrounding brushes, which is often overlooked with synthetics.
In short, it's a great brush which does all I need it to. It's soft at the tips and firm throughout the knot. ~£40 down, I think I'll get my money's worth from this big, badgery beast. I can only assume it compares to some higher-end brushes for a fraction of the price.
If I've missed anything or you want any further information, pop a comment below. Otherwise, pop a comment below to let me know how I've done! I can do shorter reviews in future, if required!
Enjoy, folks!
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