Item Description
The Body Shop makes a synthetic brush which retails for about $10, and isn't all that bad, although clearly you shouldn't expect miracles from a brush this cheap. I should mention that the brush I have here is the one that The Body Shop introduced somewhere in 2007. The model they had before that had all-white hairs and a black ring at the base of the hairs, and was by all accounts a bad brush. I don't know what the models before that one were like. Now that is out of the way, on to the review.
Like most synthetic brushes (besides the Omega Sintex and the Culmak) the hairs are wavy, which keeps them from clenching together when wet, and presumably also helps a little bit in holding more water. Speaking of water, it does hold some water but like most synthetics it will quickly release the water it holds, and you will not get the continuous automatic water adding you'd get from a soaked badger brush. It does build lather though, and not bad lather either.
There's roughly five minutes between taking the brush out of my bowl and taking the picture, because it took a little hunting for that piece of fabric I had for the background of the other two pics. And it wasn't until I'd cleaned the brush and put everything away that I noticed that the shots I wanted to use were a bit overexposed, so only the top-down shot looked okay. Still, you should get the idea, the lather is just fine, but you need to add a bit of water while you're lathering to compensate for the fact that the synthetic hairs don't absorb any water.
When it comes to applying the lather to your face you'll definitely notice how springy the hairs are. You can mash the brush into your face with some force to make the hairs separate, but you'll only end up with a small amount of lather where you're brush has gone, and you'll have to apply the lather with a painting motion to get a bit more coverage.
If you enjoy lathering directly on your face, this brush will probably not suit you. And perhaps the stiffness isn't for everyone, but if I had to choose between this brush, and the more floppy Omega Sintex, I'd pick this one. Mainly for the softness of the tips.
I haven't mentioned the handle yet. The handle is nice enough, the Russian birch certainly looks good, but has a stupid little design flaw. The handle is wooden and coated with something to keep the water out, however the base of the handle is angled which means that the coating along the edge of the base rather quickly wears away (or at least did on my brush). In turn this means moisture can get under the coating of the rest of the base, you can see the result in this picture (the chip that's out of the coating is my doing).
It doesn't seem to have affected the wood any though, so I'm not particularly concerned. If you have this brush and are concerned, I'm sure that sanding down the edge and covering the wood that you've exposed while sanding with something like super glue would solve the problem quite easily.
Overall, quite a nice little brush.
To discuss this review, click here.
Like most synthetic brushes (besides the Omega Sintex and the Culmak) the hairs are wavy, which keeps them from clenching together when wet, and presumably also helps a little bit in holding more water. Speaking of water, it does hold some water but like most synthetics it will quickly release the water it holds, and you will not get the continuous automatic water adding you'd get from a soaked badger brush. It does build lather though, and not bad lather either.
There's roughly five minutes between taking the brush out of my bowl and taking the picture, because it took a little hunting for that piece of fabric I had for the background of the other two pics. And it wasn't until I'd cleaned the brush and put everything away that I noticed that the shots I wanted to use were a bit overexposed, so only the top-down shot looked okay. Still, you should get the idea, the lather is just fine, but you need to add a bit of water while you're lathering to compensate for the fact that the synthetic hairs don't absorb any water.
When it comes to applying the lather to your face you'll definitely notice how springy the hairs are. You can mash the brush into your face with some force to make the hairs separate, but you'll only end up with a small amount of lather where you're brush has gone, and you'll have to apply the lather with a painting motion to get a bit more coverage.
If you enjoy lathering directly on your face, this brush will probably not suit you. And perhaps the stiffness isn't for everyone, but if I had to choose between this brush, and the more floppy Omega Sintex, I'd pick this one. Mainly for the softness of the tips.
I haven't mentioned the handle yet. The handle is nice enough, the Russian birch certainly looks good, but has a stupid little design flaw. The handle is wooden and coated with something to keep the water out, however the base of the handle is angled which means that the coating along the edge of the base rather quickly wears away (or at least did on my brush). In turn this means moisture can get under the coating of the rest of the base, you can see the result in this picture (the chip that's out of the coating is my doing).
It doesn't seem to have affected the wood any though, so I'm not particularly concerned. If you have this brush and are concerned, I'm sure that sanding down the edge and covering the wood that you've exposed while sanding with something like super glue would solve the problem quite easily.
Overall, quite a nice little brush.
To discuss this review, click here.
