Simpson Colonel X2L Best

I got this one of the BST so new it hadn't even started to bloom yet.
It's my favorite brush and the one I use almost exclusively.
I bowl lather and it works excellently for that.
I tried face lathering and it lathers great but the scritch is slightly more than my face can handle so it will remain my bowl brush.
Nice backbone so I can lather anything with it. Creams, croaps and hard soaps. It lathers them all to a fine, creamy lather.

This was my first good quality brush and the brush that has made me look forward to getting up in the morning to shave.
It lathers easily and without hardly any effort. It does tend to hog lather, but there's plenty for 2 solid passes and enough for a third, but it gets thin. The backbone on this is great, it gives lots of resistance when loading, yet yields on the beard when face lathering to make for a great feeling. I rated it a 5 on tip stiffness, but I think this is a positive. The "trunk" of the bristles remain stiff, but the tips are yielding. They are still a bit scratchy to let you know you're getting it worked in, but pleasurable.
I love this brush.

Picked this brush up after my Duke 2, which i found a tad small in the handle.

The colonel is great for bowl, face lathering and is a perfect match if you like to do both.

Handle is nice and long, doesn't klang around the scuttle and works great for face lathering as well.

Only problem I have with it is the lettering comes over very quickly, actually after the first weeks, it's near bare in the writing.

If you can live with the lettering issue, it's the best bang for the buck out there in a $60-80 badger.

My Colonel was my first entry into a higher quality brush. It has exceeded all expectations. I gave it a 10 across the board, except for latherability. It lathers great, but is a tiny bit of a lather hog. At its price, I simply don't think that there is a better brush out there. It destroys soaps, lathers creams very well, has great backbone, and the tips are just right-soft, but every so slightly scritchy to really work the lather in. You can easily spend more on a brush that is nowhere near as good.

My current favorite. I prefer it slightly than my Duke 2 because of the practical handle which makes bowl lathering easier. It has the most backbone of any brush that I have used, yet it has the softest tips. It is the perfect size. Big brushes don't massage the face while applying lather and usually the some lather ends up in the nostrils and ears.
It is one of the more affordable Simpson brushes and it's worth it for anyone interested in high end brushes.

The Col. X2L is also my favorite brush.

In addition to the Col. I have a number of brushes including the B&B 2009 Special edition a TGN Best Badger and a number of older Eveready Badger brushes. The Col. is by far my favorite, being the right combination of soft tips with plenty of backbone for picking up soap from the puck and building a great lather in the bowl or on my face.

I am rebuilding some old Eveready Brushes with TGN knots, and the Col. is my model for what I want them to be.

This is a nice, dense brush with a plenty of backbone to get the job done. I like it best for lathering soaps, but it will work ok with creams as well. I find it a bit harder to release lather than some other brushes that I've tried, but not to the point where it's unpleasant to use this brush. The handle is about the perfect size to fit into my hand, and the weight is awesome as well. Loading from soaps is a snap, and making lather with creams or soaps is a breeze as well. The price is absolutely right on this brush; it's at about the sweet spot for cost/benefit on brushes.

Marco, superb review, I can't agree with you more. The Colonel is one of my favorites.

The Simpson Colonel X2L Best is here!
Last week I placed an order at Vulfix, after a pleasant phone call with Brett, whom I immediately want to thank for his help and courtesy. I simply wanted to add another great brush to my collection. This brush had to respond to 5 requirements:

1. It had to be a Simpson. I’m a huge, huge, huge Simpson fan and I honestly believe that Simpsons are great, fantastic, outstanding brushes. Or, to be more precise, I truly think that they are the very best shaving brushes in the World.

2. It had to be in Best badger hair. As confirmed by both Brett (Vulfix-Simpson General Manager) and Mark (Vulfix-Simpson Managing Director), the current Best hair grade is of exceptional quality: soft tips, great backbone and nice scrubby feeling on the skin. I can personally confirm, since my Duke 3 Best is a soft brush, with an excellent backbone and also a densely filled knot, that allows it to work wonderfully with both soaps and creams (the Duke 3 Best is also my absolute favourite shaving brush, of them all).

3. It had to have a knot diameter of 22/23 mm, filled with good density. This knot diameter size is my favourite: not too big, not too small. Simply perfect.

4. It had to have a nice looking, large handle. Just like my beloved Duke, it had to be a brush with a beautiful, comfortable handle, easy to keep in the hand.

5. It had to be reasonably priced. I was looking for a high quality brush at an affordable cost.

The Colonel X2L Best responded to all these points, therefore I pulled the trigger on this gorgeous model.