Semogue 620 Boar

I just love this brush, probably my favorite brush. If you face lather anything and like a soothing little scrub this is perfection.

Price: Boars rock and are hugely much less than badgers. This runs in the twenties but you get an awesome acrylic handle and its still much cheaper than badger.
Quality: Semogue is straight up quality and this is no exception.
Density: This is a reasonably dense brush, definitely not the densest but holds plenty of lather and gives it up well.
Stiffness of tips: Great backbone on this short lofted brush. Nothing floppy about it. Picks up the hardest soaps like butter.
Softness of tips: This brush is still breaking in but I think (hope) it will always have a gentle scrub. Some boars will be crazy soft to the touch, not this one though which I like.
Ergonomic: The awesome acrylic handle is just... awesome. Well made with a great feel in the hand.
Latherability: I face lather and this brush whips soaps and creams into a frenzy.

Well after two months of using my Semogue #620 I figured it's time to do a review.

I just like this brush a lot.

The reasons are many.

I like boar brushes over badger because as a face lather I enjoy the stiffness and scrubby feel boar provides. With a boar you can feel the brush exfoliate the skin where a badger just paints the lather on your face.

Is it a wire brush? No, not at all. With a good cream or soap you have plenty of lubrication. Moreover, if you want the feeling of a brush scrubbing cream or soap into your face you may want to consider the #620.

The price was in the twenties which is reasonable because it was shipped from Portugal. Thank you Vintage Scent.

Quality is top shelf for a boar brush. The handle is acrylic which is sturdy and works great for someone who soaks his brush in the sink while showering.

Density, no complaints at all.

Stiffness of Tips, this brush has a short loft and there is little if any floppiness which is why I like boar so much. When a brush is a badger or a boar with a tall loft they tend to paint lather.

Softness of Tips, if you like scrubby brushes you'll love the #620. Will it cause "brush burn"? No, it isn't a silver tip badger so if you like soft brushes this boar is not for you. In fact after two months of using my 620 brushes they have soften very little. Which I like and I have sensitive skin.

Ergonomic, as I mentioned I like acrylic handles. They just feel solid not like the cheap plastic handles you find with many boar brushes. Still, if you have large hands you may find this brush uncomfortable as it is small.

Latherability, all boar brushes seem to me to make a richer lather than a badger.

I like this brush so much it is my only brush now. The only thing I don't like is the black strip that is added. I'm hoping Semogue will come out with a 620 model without it in the future. Then I'll buy seven of them and have one for each day of the week.

If you like boar brushes that are scrubby then you may want to consider the Semogue #620 as your next brush purchase.

The Semogue 620 is the brush that finally convinced me that boar brushes can be an excellent alternative to badger. I like the density and backbone which this one maintains even after being soaked, and holds enough lather for 2 passes easily. A great face lathering brush. The only reason I marked quality as an 8 is because it was loosing a few bristles per shave for the first few weeks but it seems to have settled in.

After a dalliance with bowls, I face lather exclusively. I wanted a cheap but good back up brush, as my other is so dense it won't fully dry overnight in winter. I got this from someone who had too many boars, and it cost me $25AUD.

Having used this boar for a couple of weeks, the ability to really scrub and soften up that stubble with face lathering, is surely the main reason to use these stiffer brushes.

I started with a floppy vulfix 849, not a problem with creams, but needed a fair bit more work with hard soaps, it just splayed out on the puck. People using floppy brushes with soaps really need to spend extra time loading the brush up. Now I use a T&H 1/2 Silvertip and this Semogue 620 boar. Both are lather machines but with very different characteristics.

The Silvertip is a thick, luxury mop with backbone and is very easy to use. It retains a lot of water, but a good squeeze leaves it damp throughout, and it will load up any soap with ease in a few swirls.

When I first started with this boar, I couldn't get a enough lather for 2 passes with either cream or soap. The difference was the way the two brushes retain water, and I needed a bit of familiarity to get it to work well.

The Semogue releases a lot of it's water after a squeeze, so can be a bit dry to lift soap, and if I didn't squeeze enough, too wet, and would create suds on the puck. So I leave a few drips on the puck and firmly squeeze the brush.

Apart from that tweak, it loads up just as quickly as the Silvertip, makes a great lather, is much stiffer and scrubby on the face. I don't find it prickly, but others might.

So cheap brushes like these can do just as good a job as an expensive brush. I like both, and the T&H provides more pampering and luxury, and that's mostly what you're paying for IMO. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Thought I would post a review of one of my favorite brushes. It is really hard to go wrong with any of the semogue boars, so here we go:

Price: 10 - for $25 shipped overseas it is hard to beat this value for any brush, let alone one of this quality.

Quality: 10 - Really love the acrylic handle, and it is why I chose this brush over the ones with the wooden handle. While not the top tier of semogue boar bristles, this is still a very high quality boar knot. After 2 months of use the sticker is still quite attached and the brush continues to break in and get better. Has shed maybe 3-4 bristles total over that time, so it is well made.

Density: 9 - while still quite dense, it is not as dense as the semogue 830. Still has plenty of backbone and I can face lather quite easily with this brush.

Stiffness of Tips: 10 - this brush has more backbone than any brush I own. It devours soap. With a 22mm knot at 50mm loft, I don't see how you could even have a shorter loft. The dimensions are just right.

Softness of Tips: 7 - Out of the box this brush is quite prickly, but after 2 months of use it is really breaking in. This brush is not at all like the 830 or 2000 that I own where those brushes were quite broken in on arrival. After 2 months of use I'd say only ~33% of the bristles have split. I think this brush will need a good 6 months or longer to fully break-in, but it continues to get better with each use. I don't expect it to ever be as soft as the 830 though, but I still love the feel of it on my face.

Ergonomic: 7 - takes a little bit of a hit here as the handle is pretty small and awkward. The 2000 has a great handle, but this one loses points to how small it is and it isn't the most comfortable handle in the world.

Latherability: 10 - Out of the box I could easily get enough lather for 2 passes. However, now that it is broken in a lot more I can easily get enough lather for 3-4 passes. The latherability has got a lot more consistent now.

Overall Impressions: This is one of my favorite brushes. I like short, dense and scrubby brushes for face lathering and this one meets all my expectations. For the price, it would be very difficult if not impossible to find a badger that performs as well. If you are a face latherer and like these qualities in a brush, you owe it to yourself to pick one of these up. Just be patient with it though as it will take some time to show its true character. I expect mine to only get better in time, but love it the way it is now.

Whenever I use shave sticks this is my go to brush, it really removes all he soap from my face & turns it into lather. It took a while for the tips to flag, it was well worth the wait. It still has alot of body.

A great brush for face lathering soaps & sticks.

I really wanted to like this brush, but I've found that it's still on the prickly side, even after break in (I have the 1520 also, same knot, different handle).

If this brush had the same backone it has, coupled with the soft tips of the LE 2009, it would be my perfect face lathering brush!

John

So a $25 boar, eh? I bought this hoping it would be "the one", as far as boar brushes are concerned. I only face lather soaps, and I found my Vulfix 2233 boar to be too floppy for my purposes, although it is a very soft brush with a great handle. The Semogue 620 has a 22mm knot diameter and 50mm loft.

It appears to be a very well made brush, and the solid acrylic handle has nice heft and lends an air of quality to the brush. I really dig this handle. It's comfortable to use and looks great. I even like the Semogue label. I've only used the brush a few times, so I can't really speak to it's long term durability. I'm expecting Shavemac/Rooney level of quality, though.

This is a dense brush, with rather firm, scrubby tips and a ton of backbone. More backbone than any other brush I own, in fact. It's made me stop thinking I "need" a Rooney Finest. I expect the tips to soften up a lot as they split, but the 620 isn't uncomfortable to use, as is. If you're missing your Boreal 976 (discontinued) that you too hastily sold, this may be a suitable replacement. I actually like this Semogue better than my Boreal 976. I always felt my 976 was too bulb-like and that I was lathering with a brush the size of a pea. It felt as if only the very top of the brush was contacting my face. This is not the case with the Semogue 620.

This brush murders soaps. It's all I could hope for in a boar brush, and it has fully met my expectations. Do I wish it cost a little less? Sure, but the price is fair. Is this "the one" boar brush? For me, definitely!

Please feel free to discuss this review here (photos are there, too).

-Andy