Brush Chronicles #1: The Body Shop Synthetic Brush

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Here begins B&B's inaugural installment of The Brush Chronicles. Beginning on Monday, September 27, The Body Shop's synthetic shaving brush will be my lathering weapon of choice for the next two weeks.

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With more than 2000 Body Shop locations worldwide, this brush may be one of the easiest to actually put your hands on before buying. At just $11, it is within the budgets of most wet shavers. It is also the one most likely to be picked up as an impulse buy by significant others everywhere, and gifted along with some of the Body Shop's shave cream and balm. There are even some of us, myself included, who walked into a Body Shop looking for one thing, and walked out carrying home this brush. In short, this brush and Body Shop products are gateway drugs to traditional wet shaving.

For all that we talk about badger and boar brushes, you would think that they were the only game in town. If you're not a brush geek like me, you may not be aware of the increasing number of synthetic brushes being made by traditional brush companies, and to my mind, the Body Shop brush is the best known. This brush has received quite of number of reviews from B&B members over the years. Somewhat surprisingly, it is pretty favorably reviewed, given how we gush about the performance of silvertip hair and scrubby boar knots. It gets great marks for price, ergonomics, latherability and softness of tips. Its classic Persian Jar-inspired handle style is much loved. For the price, what's not to like? If you are looking to get one, walk into a Body Shop near you, or check out their website.

That's great, but why are we here?

All reviews attempt to take an objective view of a subjective tool. The purpose of the Brush Chronicles is to revel in subjectivity. It helps to find someone with similar shaving/lathering preferences and get their opinion about a particular brush and what tricks to use to make it work.

So, I'm leading this discussion, and here is background on me. I have a limited amount of time in the morning, so my shaving is pretty short and to the point. My prep consists of a hot shower. I prefer soaps of all kinds, but tend toward tallow and non-glycerin veggie soaps, pucks and sticks work equally well for me. I occasionally indulge in a nice cream. I face lather soaps 80% of the time, and bowl lather the other 20%. I bowl lather creams 90% of the time, and face lather the other 10%. I like brushes that are dense and scrubby. My DE of choice is a Mergress, but I am not ashamed to use a Mach3 cartridge if time is short. I follow with a warm water rinse then a cold water rinse, pat dry and apply aftershave. I exclusively use balms, regardless of weather. I consistently get DFS-BBS shaves this way, and my kids like to play "guess the scent of daddy's shaving cream."

For this Chronicle, I will use the Body Shop brush every day for two weeks (6 shaves per week, as I'm usually too lazy to shave one of the days on the weekend), and as this is a gateway brush, will use a cartridge razor as well. This will mimic the experience of most new wet shavers, and I will be able to tell how protective my lather is by how comfortable that cartridge works for me. Week One will consist entirely of creams:

• Body Shop Maca Root Cream
• CO Bigelow Cream
• Musgo Real Cream
• TOBS Shaving Shop Cream
• Trumpers Coconut Oil Cream
• Castle Forbes Lavender Cream

Week Two will be devoted to soaps:

• AoS Lavender Soap
• Ogallala Bay Rum Soap
• Trumpers Rose Soap
• Czech and Speake #88 Soap
• Palmolive Shave Stick
• Mitchell's Wool Fat Soap

I will bowl lather or face lather depending on my mood, and give the blow by blow of what I did to get that lather. If it's a bad lather, I'll tell you. If it's a great lather, I'll pat myself on the back and tell you too. It will be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

But, I want others who have this brush or want to pick one up to join in too. Please share your shaving/lathering style, and how the brush performs for you.

On your mark.....Get set....

 

[Darjeeling Express]

Bob, a fabulous first entry in what promises to be a wonderful project. Looking forward to all of your updates. We eagerly await.

 

[johnniegold]

Bob, thanks for setting the bar so high.

This will be a great segment for all members to give and take information regarding all types of brushes.

Nicely done.

I guess I better get to work.

 

[joshmpdx]

Outstanding, Bob!

I hope i've still got a couple of the BS Synthetics around, i'd really like to participate.

 

[TxPhoto09]

Bob, what a great idea!

Unfortunately, since the closest Body Shop to me is 129 miles, I won't be participating very soon. And since the Web site doesn't give the specs on the brush, can you tell us what the loft and knot diameter and overall sizes of the brush are?

 

[jkh]

I never wanted one of these brushes, until now. Looks like tomorrow's lunch will be spent at the mall.

 

[Ignatius]

Great first post

I look forward to reading about opinions on the face-feel of this brush; its seems to be the most unbelievably soft brush I've ever handled.

 

[blackfoot]

Awesome! Thanks.

 

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On your mark.....Get set....

....Go! And we're off.

Before I go into details of today's latherfest, let's look a little bit more closely at the tangible properties of the TBS Synthetic Brush. The knot on this brush is ~22 mm in diameter, and has a loft of 52 mm. I didn't use calipers to measure, just a regular ruler and my calibrated eyeball . Ignatius is absolutely correct. The brush is incredibly soft to the touch, with absolutely no scritchiness at the tips. The "bristles" have incredible backbone. To get any splay with the dry brush, you really have to press down on the tips, which presents challenges when lathering. It is not particularly dense, but with backbone like that, it would probably be useless as a shaving brush if it were. Also, the knot does not bloom like a badger or boar in any way, shape or form. I have used this brush about 20 times prior to kicking off this project, and it looks almost identical to the stock beauty shots of it that you get from the TBS website (Other than my brush being about 5x larger ).

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The brush generally feels fine in the hand, but because the handle is made of lightweight wood that does not seem particularly dense, it comes off feeling very light and insubstantial. A side effect is that when soaking the brush in a sink of hot water, the handle floats and keeps the knot submerged. One of the great things about badger brushes in particular is their ability to hold water that can be released and integrated during lathering. Synthetics don't hold water, so it presents a different issue when lathering.

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The brush on the left has been gingerly removed from the sink so as not to disturb any water residing in the knot. On the right, I have given the brush two good shakes. The bristles don't clump the way real hair does, so you may not be able to notice a difference. Take my word for it when I say that with one more shake and a quick towel off, the brush on the right is as dry as a bone. This presents a lathering challenge, as it does not perform the way any badger or boar brush does, so it requires a refinement of technique. And with that.....

 

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SOTD-Week 1, Day 1

Body Shop Synthetic Brush
Sara Bonnyman Lather Bowl
Body Shop Maca Root Cream
Mach 3 Cartridge with Rooney Handle
Feather Kanwa ASB

I thought that I would kick off the Brush Chronicles by putting the TBS Synthetic Brush to work with the first cream most people are likely to use it with, TBS Maca Root Cream. I first tried wet shaving about 10 years ago, and used a prior incarnation of this brush with The Body Shop's original shave cream. I loved the scent of that stuff, and was very disappointed when they discontinued it. Until today, I have never used the new Maca Root Cream. Previously, I would just lather the old version of the cream in hand and go from there, but I am using a ridged ceramic bowl which I use whenever bowl lathering soaps and creams. While showering, I soaked the brush in a sink of hot water.

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I have squeezed the obligatory almond-sized snurdle of cream into the bottom of the bowl.

Keeping in mind that one or two shakes dislodges virtually all of the water from this brush, I opted to use a smear-dip-lather process, in which the first step is to whisk the dollop of cream around with the almost dry brush, yielding this:

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It looks bone dry doesn't it? From there, I dipped the tips of the brush in the hot water, went back to the bowl for 10 seconds of whipping, followed by another dip of the tips and 10 more seconds of whipping:

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The lather is still very dry, and given the amount of initial product I used, there should be more. So back to the bowl. This time, I mixed for about 20 seconds after each dip, and dip-mixed twice more, for a grand total of 4 dips, and about a minute of actual mixing which yielded this:

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This is much better, if a little airy looking, and I felt that it was time to apply to my face. Now, since my prep consists entirely of a hot shower, I always spend about a minute scrubbing and applying the lather with a brush. This always does a nice job getting the beard ready. So after a minute of application, the lather in the brush looked like this:

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It looks like a transformation occurred while applying that lather to my wet face. It became much richer and thicker while applying (please note that I did not go back to the sink with the brush to pick up more water), and left me with another couple of passes in the brush. I am glad that I did spend some extra time face lathering this cream, since it gave me a much better lather than if I had simply painted it on and got to work. I will say, though, that the backbone of these synthetic bristles did not give a relaxing face massage. It took work to apply and the difficulty creating "splay" made it harder, so I'm hoping that with better creams, they lather up better in the bowl first. On the face, the cream itself did not feel airy, but it did not feel rich either, having the consistency of a more dense version of "Foamy" from a can. The scent? Meh. It smelled sort of medicinal and tart to my nose.

As mentioned in the first post, I am using a cartridge for the duration of the experiment to mimic what a neophyte wet shaver would likely use. For me, this consists of a Mach3 cartridge with a nice handle made by Rooney that I picked up when I started. I did a two pass shave, one north-south and the other ATG . Pass one went uneventfully and felt reasonably comfortable, so I did a quick rinse and re-lather. Importantly, the lather in the brush had not dried out, and had the same consistency as when first applied a few minutes earlier. The ATG pass went ok, but I picked up a small weeper that I attribute more to the blade than the lather. Please note as well that cartridges work just fine for me, and I have none of the issues re: in grown hairs and broad irritation that some have. Of course this is a fresh cartridge so all bets are off tomorrow . I finished the shave with a warm water rinse (WWR), cold water rinse (CWR), pat dry and application of Feather's Kanwa ASB. Following dry down, I am left with a nice DFS. The Maca Root extract in the cream is supposed to be soothing and beneficial for the skin, so I may have gotten a double dose of comfort with the witch hazel-containing Kanwa.

So how did the lather rate? On a scale of 1-10, I would rate it a 5. The cream itself is not in the same league from a cushion, glide and performance standpoint as other creams. As I have not tried this cream with a badger, I cannot compare it to the TBS synthetic-generated lather. I will say that the dip and mix technique used here is a bit tedious, as I always try to build the lather a bit at a time by adding water, and the residual water in badger brushes makes that process go much more quickly. As the week goes on, I may try to dribble water down into the breach of the brush so that it holds and releases more as we go.

 

[Darjeeling Express]

Bob, what great comprehensive step by step analysis. Thank you so much for this effort.

 

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SOTD-Week 1, Day 2

Body Shop Synthetic Brush
CO Bigelow Cream
Mach 3 Cartridge with Rooney Handle
Feather Kanwa ASB

After yesterday's so-so lathering experience with the Maca Root cream, I was looking forward to today's shave with CO Bigelow (COB aka Proraso) cream. It was a little humid here, and I recalled my experience face lathering COB on a recent trip to Florida. Face lathering this eucalyptus oil containing cream really intensifies the cooling effect, so I figured, why not?

Once again, I soaked the TBS synthetic brush in a sink of hot water while I showered. I followed Luc's cream face lathering instructions, starting with the amount of cream pictured below:

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After giving the brush a good shake, I dipped the tips in the sink and set to work face lathering. I kept at it for a full minute, going back to the sink to wet the tips of the brush for a total of four times. I will spare you the pic of my ugly mug, but I achieved a nice thick, creamy, slick (and really cooling) lather with no muss or fuss. The brush itself was just as stiff as yesterday, but not uncomfortably so. Perhaps the layer of cream that was smeared in into my beard was very protective. Regardless, it was quite good, and was left with about 3 passes worth of lather in the brush:

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Once more to the Mach 3 for the shave, and it was clearly more comfortable than my experience yesterday with the Maca Root cream. The lather was very slick and cushioning, and the N-S pass proceeded without incident. The lather in the brush was nice and stable, and following a quick rinse and reapplication, the ATG pass and touch up (which got no extra lather to help) were quick and effective. WWR, CWR, pat dry and application of the Kanwa ASB left me with an indisputable BBS shave.

On a scale of 1-10, I give this lather an 8, slick, cushioning and protective. The shave was very comfortable, and done from start to finish in 10 minutes (the luxury of the cartridge shave, but I would have easily been finished in 15 with a DE). The synthetic brush did a perfectly acceptable job, and the progressive returns to the sink for a little more water were not a problem or tedious at all. Perhaps that is because my face lathering routine involves regular returns to the sink for a little more water anyway. The lather was as good as those COB face lathers that I have done with the Rooney Heritage Beehive that costs 16x as much. Two shaves in with one so-so shave, and one excellent shave. Tomorrow's shave will be with Musgo Real, the best performing cream I have ever used, and I'm really curious to see how this brush treats it.

For those lathering along at home, how is the brush treating you?

 

[BaldRick]

Awesome summary so far - I have often considered trying one of TBS Brushes - purely as a cheapie travel brush along with a tube of Kappus Rasiercreme or Palmolive Lather Shave in the toiletry bag.

Looking forward to the following installments.

A Big thanks for all your work here.

 

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SOTD Week 1, Day 3

Body Shop Synthetic Brush
Sara Bonnyman Lather Bowl
Musgo Real Cream
Mach 3 with Rooney Handle
Feather Kanwa ASB

I think we made some progress yesterday with the brush, and got a very nice lather out of the COB cream. Obviously, this cream is significantly better than TBS Maca Root cream, which had something to do with it, but I also face lathered instead of working from the bowl. Today, another favorite cream gets put to work, Musgo Real. For me, this cream has given me the best shaves of any cream I have used. It has a fantastic Old World, Barbershop scent [insert YMMV here], and its ingredients include lanolin, which really has a beneficial effect on my skin. The legendary Mitchell's Wool Fat soap also contains lanolin, and if you can get a decent lather from THAT (which we will try next week), most will gush about the performance. Musgo Real was the cream I used when I attained the finest DE shave I have ever gotten, so I was very hopeful that yesterday's great shave was not a fluke with the TBS brush.

So let's go, starting with the obligatory shot of the almond sized dollop of cream in the bowl.

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For kicks today, after soaking the brush and bowl in the sink of hot water, I gingerly took the brush out, and let it drain naturally next to the sink. I did not give it a good shake before starting to work the cream in the bowl. I was hoping that I could eliminate the tedious swirl-dip swirl-dip process from Monday. Big mistake. The water in the brush just rushed out when I started swirling, and was left with a mass of frothy suds in the bowl . Empty bowl. Rinse bowl. Squeeze another dollop and start over. Back to the swirl-dip again.

After rinsing the brush out and giving it a good shake, I started again. After spreading the cream over the bottom of the bowl with a few good whisks, I dipped the brush in the sink, mixed for about 10 seconds and repeated, giving me this:

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The lather was still quite dry and had an airy appearance, so I followed up with another dip and vigorous mix of 20 seconds this time, and a repeat, for a total of 4 dips and 60 seconds mixing, giving me this:

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The volume of lather is good, but it is still on the airy side, and lacks the characteristic silky, richness that any number of badger brushes can produce. Anyway, to the face we go, and following one minute of scrubbing and painting, the brush looked like this:

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Yet again, the lather in the brush transmogrified (shout out to Calvin and Hobbes for teaching me that word in 1984) during application, and it was much richer than that in the bowl. On to the shave. The N-S pass with the cartridge was generally uneventful, but much less comfortable than yesterday's shave with COB. A quick warm water rinse, relather (nice stable lather in the brush ) followed by the ATG pass gave me a fine DFS, but slightly uncomfortable to obtain. WWR, CWR, pat dry and application of the Feather Kanwa ASB, and I was good to go. I have been using the Kanwa ASB all week because it is generally unscented, and since the creams' scents stick around for me, I do not get any interference from the aftershave.

I am disappointed with this lather, giving it only a 6 out of 10. I never thought I would ever say that about a Musgo Real lather. It was not rich and slick like I have come to expect, and had a distinctly airy quality. Here, two hours later, my face feels great, so the lanolin and other ingredients in the cream had their usual effects, but the TBS Synthetic brush did not do right by the cream. If the lather feels airy, there are obviously a lot more tiny bubbles being created. With the stiffness of this brush, it's working more like a whisk to aerate than it is to mix and incorporate. This tells me that I'm probably putting too much water into the lather in the bowl, and the dip method doesn't allow me to control it. Tomorrow, I will be more miserly in the amount of water I add, and dribble it in by hand, miniscule amounts at a time and see how that works out. TOBS Shaving Shop cream is on the bill for tomorrow, and I really dig that scent .

 

[jkh]

Bob, great play-by-play commentary so far. I stopped into the mall last evening with the intention of purchasing this brush and much to my surprise The Body Shop was just gone I asked the barista at the coffee bar across the way if they were gone or had just moved. She indicated they were gone daddy gone.

transmogrified (shout out to Calvin and Hobbes for teaching me that word in 1984)

Outstanding

 

[beginish]

Bob, great play-by-play commentary so far. I stopped into the mall last evening with the intention of purchasing this brush and much to my surprise The Body Shop was just gone I asked the barista at the coffee bar across the way if they were gone or had just moved. She indicated they were gone daddy gone.



Outstanding

When I finally hit the perfect lather with this, I will give a Marv Albert-caliber "Yes!".

At least there are still 25x as many Body Shops as C&E's!

I often wish that I had a transmogrifier here at work for certain people.

 

[brianw]

Bob... these are fantastic read's... any of the tests to be with soaps (I'm kind of a soap guy) ??

 

[beginish]

Bob... these are fantastic read's... any of the tests to be with soaps (I'm kind of a soap guy) ??

Oh yes. Starting next week:

Monday: AoS Lavender
Tuesday: Ogallala Bay Rum Stick
Wednesday: Trumpers Rose
Thursday: Czech & Speake #88
Friday: Palmolive Shave Stick
Saturday/Sunday: Mitchell's Wool Fat. In a bowl.

 

[vitaman]

Great work!! Bob. These are not only top notch reviews of TBS synthetic, but great tutorials for the new wetshaver. Thanks for your time Bob!

 

[RayH]

On a personal note, I have The Body Shop Synthetic Brush and didn't like the way it lathered compared to either a badger or boar. I don't think it's suitable for it. I had similar problems with the stiffness of the bristles. And the same airy lather. I have found a use for it though. I use it for applying talc after I shower. It's great for that.