Perhaps a little late to the party, but I asked Paul to delay sending me a brush 'til I was back from holiday ...
Back, refreshed and ready, here's my
First Impressions.
I have previously owned two brushes from Vie-Long, neither of which I liked not least because of quality issues. I had a horse hair and I had a mixed horse/boar hair. Both exhibited issues with the knot, which was irregular in shape showing poor collecting and crimping, and both had rock hard protrusions at the base due to sloppy glueing.
Could the synthetic be different?
No nasty protrusions but there is an irregular shape. I wonder if they're making the knots themselves or buying them in.
Now, we get onto the look and the feel of the brush ...
The handle is good and solid, like a stout Rook on a chessboard. It stands well, announces its presence, holds well in the hand with what is perhaps too precise an edge on the base giving a little discomfort in use. It does have some good ergonomics for face lathering. But, it has a funny little knot sticking out of the top of it! Too short for the proportions of the handle, in my opinion. I absolutely understand why the knot is short, making this a good face latherer. I would like to know just how deep it is set. Slightly wider would have gone a long way to setting the proportions right for a "stubby" but it would still look too short for the handle.
Before Vie-Long made a synthetic brush, I did
Permit me a slight digression ... Vie-Long's Amphora handles really are attractive to my eye, and I do like synthetic brushes. I love how this handle feels in the hand and it really makes for a cracking face latherer, and so I decided to set the knot in deeper than I normally would to give a shorter loft and designated the brush purely as a face scrubber! Just that slightly wider knot makes all the difference, no?
How about the fibre?
The short loft gives a strong spring and so the tips do not feel as soft as a higher loft. That in itself may be a positive, certainly for folks who enjoy face lathering with a short boar, may be a negative for folks looking to modern synthetic for the softest of brushes. The fibre is slightly shiny and has a close crimp.
Some comparisons to other fibre:
vs Silvertip Fibre (on the right)
vs Purtech (right)
vs Kent (right)
vs older generation (right)
In terms of look and feel, the fibre is between that older generation fibre and the Kent, given its shininess. The crimp is tighter than all those I've compared with and it's only when we get to Purtech and Silvertip Fibre that the fibres lose that shiny nylon look.
In summary: Poor! Not a brush you'd say "that's an attractive brush". I think the knot is too small for the handle. Too narrow and too short. The fibres do have a nylon look to them and the springiness marks it very much as a cropped synthetic brush. It doesn't scream quality and
on looks alone, it is not a brush I would buy.
... onto my
First Shave with it:
Lathered up with Vie-Long's new shaving stick (made by LEA) applied to a wet face, dipping the brush in water gave a good amount to build that lather. I did not get a lot of sling. I was expecting to given the shortness and springiness of the fibres, but it didn't happen. Yes, three or four splats on the mirror, but not at all what I had expected to happen.
Out of curiosity I made a couple of bowl lathers and they came up well. I even got a pretty decent lather out of Eucris, which is an absolute sod if you over-water it from the start.
In summary: Good! In purely functional terms, this brush does what it should: holds the right amount of water, not too much, not too little, and effectively builds lather. It holds well in the hand, ergonomical, safe and lets you get on with a good face scrubbing, which it does well.
In a blind test, I would say
this is a good brush, but boy do its looks let it down.
I will continue to use this brush over the next couple of weeks to see how it plays with different soaps, see if it breaks in a little and perhaps give it the boiling water soap to try to even out that kink in the knot.