What's new

Brush Chronicles #14: Omega B&B Essential Boar

After a long hiatus, we are proud to re-launch another series of installments of the Brush Chronicles, B&B's in depth examination of shaving brushes that puts them through their paces in all manner of uses. We hope to show what a brush can do and how well it can do it. The format is designed for one to two people to lead the discussion, posting regularly over the course of two weeks and recounting their experiences using the brush in question. The best Chronicles are those where many members join in the discussion and share their experiences. And the more pictures the better! So without further ado, I'm pleased to launch Brush Chronicle #14: The Omega B&B Essential Boar:



We have chronicled other boars in the past, including the Semogue 1305 and Omega 49 and like these two, the Essential Boar has a lot to offer. Those who are new to the board may not be aware that the Essential Boar is based on 2008's B&B Essential Badger brush:


At the time, the goal was to develop a reasonably-priced badger brush that delivered a comfortable handle and high quality badger hair. Fast forward almost four years, and the Essential was offered for the first time as a Boar brush in B&B Blue, with a dense 22 mm knot of select boar bristles, set at a loft of 54 mm. The undyed bristles are natural, "blonde" boar, and arrive with the tips already splitting, making for a soft brush right out of the box and a much more pleasant break in period. The brush is regularly issued in different handle colors, and several hundred have been acquired by shavers in the eighteen months that it has been offered. Let's see how it compares to other boar brushes.



(L-R: Omega 31064, 10081, B&B Essential, 10099, 81052)


(L-R: Omega 31064, 10081, B&B Essential, 10099, 81052)

The knot is very comparable in knot diameter and loft to the 10081 (Baby Beehive). Density is similar to the 10081 as well, being more dense than the larger 31064 and 81052. The latter two can feel a bit floppy to me. Unlike all of the other Omegas, the Essential Boar required very little break in. How about that other boar brush behemoth, Semogue? How does the Essential Boar compare?


(L-R: Semogue 1305, 620, B&B Essential, Semogue 1470, SOC)


(L-R: Semogue 1305, 620, B&B Essential, Semogue 1470, SOC)​

With the exception of the 1470, these Semogues have larger knots with higher lofts, by and large. I also note that the Semogues, despite their higher lofts, have more dense knots than the Essential Boar. The 620 is a touch less dense. All four Semogues had a pretty significant break in time of 2-3 weeks, and the Essential Boar was better out of the box, particularly with its pre-split tips, but after break in, all (including the Omegas above) were soft and lathered like champs. And yes, I didn't like the TM mark on my Essential and scratched it off.

So what happens next? I (and hopefully you) lather the heck out of all sorts of soaps and creams, in bowls and on the face. I'm hoping that someone contributes a palm lather or two. If you have an Essential and want to participate in this, come on in, the water's fine. Lather 'em if you've got 'em!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My B&B Essential Boar was acquired from the BST since I prevaricated too long on the initial offering. My little blue lathering machine has been with me for over a year now and is one of my two go-to brushes alongside a TGN finest badger.

Soft, backbone to spare, and capable of bowl and face lathering, there is not much I would change.
Looking forward to using it in a number of ways over the next week, including a palm lather as requested.
Thanks Bob for resurrecting the Chronicles, and a great brush to start with!
Lets see 'em people!
 
Day 1: Omega B&B Essential and Martin de Candre or An Italian and a Frenchman walk into a bar...

Martin de Candre is one of those soaps that is as apt to provoke threads gushing about how great it is, while 3 threads down the list is one complaining about the cost. Some people love the scent, others can't stand it. Heck, even a soap as mythical/legendary/overhyped/overrated as MdC is subject to the laws of YMMV! (YMMV) I have jars of the MdC Scented (which I like) and Fougerè (which I really like), but given the stockpile of soaps and creams at the top of my closet, I have not had much opportunity to put them through their paces. brucered was kind enough to give me a sample of the Fougerè when it came out last year, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the sample for several shaves. After finishing my last 3017 soap, I pulled my jar of Scented out of the closet and used it a few times last week. The stuff's good. Really good.

Today, I put the Essential Boar and MdC through their paces in test of bowl lathering. I have only face lathered MdC until now, so this was as much an assessment of how the soap does as well as how the brush can handle it. I know that many claim to be able to do 6 swirls on top of the soap and get enough lather from MdC for 10 passes, but I wasn't taking any chances. My usual M.O. is to swirl a damp brush on a soap for a full minute to put the soap out of its misery as quickly as possible ensure full loading, but in a concession to the legend of MdC, I swirled my damp Essential Boar on top of the jar of MdC (which had been wetted with a little water during my shower) for only 30 seconds. The load looked like this:



You can see the nice protolather that was forming, and the good dose of soap accumulated at the tips of the brush. From there, I took it to the bowl, and progressively added water to build the lather. I had to add a lot of water, to be honest. I either overloaded the soap (more likely) or MdC is particularly thirsty. I haven't seen much talk about MdC having huge capacity for water like some soaps, so I'm inclined to believe that I overdid the loading. C'est la vie. I'd rather have too much soap loaded than too little. After about 2 minutes of drip-swirl, drip-swirl, I had a nice lather in the bowl:



Don't let the larger bubbles at the very bottom of the bowl fool you. The majority of the lather accumulated on the sides and was very well hydrated. I spread it around in the bowl a bit prior to taking the photo. I prefer to face lather soaps because that virtually ensures the combination of slickness and cushion that I prefer, but I must say, the MdC lather that came out of the bowl was quite good. The EJ DE89L with a SuperMax Stainless glided across and I had no irritation. After two passes, I was good to go. The B&B Essential did a very nice job whipping it up into a lather. It took a bit more effort than the badgers, as there was less water hiding in the knot, but I still ended up where I needed to be.

EDIT: One thing I will point out about the Essential's handle is the curve of the lower half hangs onto the side of the bowl very conveniently. Personally, one of my bugaboos is a brush that slides into the bowl of lather, handle and all, while I'm shaving.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My first B&B Essential Boar brush was the Smoke handle.

$smokeBBessential2.1.jpg

It's fantastic brush and a phenomenal value for what it cost. It hasn't left my rotation since I received it last year.

For me it works equally well face lathering or bowl lathering. It has yet to meet a soap it couldn't whip into a

creamy slick lather. Below are some images of my first bowl lather.

B&B Essential Boar vs Gold Dachs Spezial.
proxy.php
 
My first B&B Essential Boar brush was the Smoke handle.

View attachment 450284

It's fantastic brush and a phenomenal value for what it cost. It hasn't left my rotation since I received it last year.

For me it works equally well face lathering or bowl lathering. It has yet to meet a soap it couldn't whip into a

creamy slick lather. Below are some images of my first bowl lather.

B&B Essential Boar vs Gold Dachs Spezial.
proxy.php

Is that one still available?
 
B&B Essential was my first boar. I forget about it sometimes, then come back and enjoy it. It's a really solid brush, great knot, fairly dense, and tips were splitting upon arrival. No real glue bump to speak of and the bloom is very controlled. Also, actual specs with calipers were dead on to the advertised specs.

The only knock on the brush for me is the handle. I like to grab brushes near the base and this one is awkward to hold on to. Other than that, it's an ideal first brush IMO.
 
My first B&B Essential Boar brush was the Smoke handle.

View attachment 450284

It's fantastic brush and a phenomenal value for what it cost. It hasn't left my rotation since I received it last year.

For me it works equally well face lathering or bowl lathering. It has yet to meet a soap it couldn't whip into a

creamy slick lather. Below are some images of my first bowl lather.

B&B Essential Boar vs Gold Dachs Spezial.
proxy.php

I was hoping you would pop in, Chris!
 
Apologies for less than stellar pics, but as ordered inspired by Bob, I hand lathered MW Maestrale last night for the first time.

Results were very pleasing for a quick straight shave.

$uploadfromtaptalk1400607003721.jpg$uploadfromtaptalk1400607080785.jpg$uploadfromtaptalk1400607100432.jpg
 
Last edited:
Glad to see The Brush Chronicles return! I don't have a B&B boar, so I am going to have to enjoy from the sidelines.
 
Day 2: Omega B&B Essential Boar and Shulton Old Spice Cream

Our senses of smell being what they are, familiar scents can carry us back to places long forgotten. Wet shaving is the source of so many of these scents, Clubman....Aqua Velva....Bay Rum...Old Spice, that the mind can wander while shaving here in 2014 and take us back decades to the time we sat on booster seats in the barber chair or stood next to Dad in the bathroom while he shaved. That original Old Spice scent, once so common that you could get inexpensive cakes of fantastic shaving soap loaded with the scent in addition to the aftershaves and colognes, is now produced in relative obscurity (to most North Americans and Europeans, anyway) by the Shulton company in India, hewing tightly to the original formula. Nah, that Proctor and Gamble stuff just isn't the same. Don't believe me, take a look at dcobranchi's awesome analytical chemical takedown of the contenders and pretenders to the original Old Spice. Though the legendary shave soap is relegated to overpriced auctions, you can still score the Old Spice scented shaving cream at very reasonable prices. Today, I took that cream for a spin.

Candidly, I use this cream for the scent, as I find the performance of the cream to be relatively mediocre. For me, cushioning is ok, but it lacks something in the slickness department. For today's shave, a bowl lathering of OS, I squeezed a small dollop of the cream into the bottom of my bowl:



My Essential Boar had been soaking in a Hull Pottery OS mug during my shower, and I squeezed most of the water out of the knot before going at the cream with it. Once again, a combination of swirls and additions of water to the bowl whipped up a very nice lather in no time flat. This being the Brush Chronicles, I threw caution to the wind and decided to try and remedy the slickness problem and.....wait for it.....added more water. That really went a long way toward improving the quality of the lather. You'll see in the picture below that there are some large bubbles in there, but the quality of the lather at its core was slick and hydrated.


The shave I got from this lather was really quite good. I'm a two pass shaver, daring to go ATG on the second pass, and I had no issue whatsoever with irritation, which can happen sometimes when I'm messing around and get a mediocre lather. As good as the shave itself was, the scent was that much better. I have generally used the Essential Boar for face lathering, but I'm pretty pleased with what it can do in the bowl. Despite its relatively short handle, the brush's longer loft and the not-so-high sides of my bowl make the two a nice combination. There is no knuckle banging and I'm not getting a handle coated in lather. All in all, it was a pretty great shave.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My first B&B Essential Boar brush was the Smoke handle.


It's fantastic brush and a phenomenal value for what it cost. It hasn't left my rotation since I received it last year.

For me it works equally well face lathering or bowl lathering. It has yet to meet a soap it couldn't whip into a

creamy slick lather. Below are some images of my first bowl lather.

B&B Essential Boar vs Gold Dachs Spezial.

Holy lather shots Chris! You just helped sell another 1000 of these brushes. Awesome lather!
 
Jeremy! Considering this Chronicle got me to try a boar in the first place, and this one is the Chronicle to end all Chronicles, I am honored that you have checked in.

Well thank you, Bob! I had one of those B&B Essential badger brushes. Great brush and it was like $50 or $60.

Holy lather shots Chris! You just helped sell another 1000 of these brushes. Awesome lather!

Yeah right!?!?

Thanks so much, Bob.

*Reaches into the cabinet to extract a B&B Essential Boar*

Pics or it didn't happen!
 
David and Shawn, you guys hosted an awesome Brush Chronicle about the Omega 10049. I know David owns or had owned both the 10049 and the B&B Essential boar and a bettin' man would guess that Shawn owns or has owned both too ... so ... let's hear some comparisons! Inquiring minds want to know.

I've got an Omega 10098. I call it the Wet Noodle because, well, I hope it is obvious ... if not, I need a more descriptive name. I assume the same name doesn't apply to the B&B Essential with a 54mm loft?
 
Pics or it didn't happen!

Hey man... you know me!


proxy.php



Thoughts... whilst the Omega 49 is a fantastic value brush and a great lather-maker, for me it had simply too much loft and was unwieldy. The B&B Essential on the other hand benefits from a smaller knot and lower loft and is a very versatile brush because of that. This brush was soft and performed well straight out of the box and is very enjoyable to use.
 
I do have a B&B Essential boar. It's a pink BBE and I have been undecided on whether or not to use it, normally all of my gear gets used but this brush is different.

I still have the Omega 49 and it doesn't see much use for the same reasons that David mentioned. I have face lathered with it and while it works it is awkward. Where this brush shines is bowl lathering. I believe that I paid just under $10 for my brush and it's a great value. One thing I noticed about the BBE boar is that it appears the tips are already split, or starting to split so the break in process is going to be much faster than the usual process with a boar.
 
Love to see you guys back in the saddle with a new Chronicle! I was asking a few members recently about the performance of the B&B Essential Boar, so this is great timing.
 
Top Bottom