I'm a big fan of large short loft, luxurious, ultra-dense brushes for face lathering. The biggest problem with these brushes is that you generally have to pay top dollar for them, excluding many wet shavers from trying them out. With some luck they are just to smart to waist that kind of money for a shaving brush. I have however, found some quality alternative brushes that circumnavigate the high price point associated with luxury face lather brushes. Though to be warned most have a few quirks to them.
I attempted to take photos of the knots top down, but the Sophie and Posh are jet black so you could not see how dense they are.
Sophie Cosmetics Synthetic Body Brush
First off is the massive $23 Sophie Cosmetics synthetic body brush. I think this is an amazingly handsome brush, however it measures in at a face eclipsing 39mm x 68mm. Think of it as Simpson Chubby 4 size. Aside from a couple custom one off display brushes, this is the biggest "shaving brush" I can think of. It is fully capable of simultaneously touching my ear and mouth, if I apply a bit of pressure. This behemoth is ultra soft and ultra dense, in fact it is as dense a brush as I have ever used. Loft and knot size like this make the face feel of the Sophie just ridiculously big yet luxurious. To big I am going to assume for all but the most adventurous of wet shavers. The tips themselves have a slick silky quality to them.
Just for size comparison Chubby 2, Sophie Cosmetics, TGN STA 30mm
I'm not exactly sure what kind of beauty products one would apply with a brush this size or to whom but I for one am glad someone is paying attention to this market segment.
"Come give Miss Ele a big kiss"
The down side is that it is a bit floppy, not exactly in the way we all think of floppy badger brushes though. The synthetic bristles will flop, but they have a tendency to go back to their natural position, so if you make an effort to use only the tips, you can avoid much of this flop. Also the incredible dense synthetic hairs create a bit of suction in the bristles, enough that you can feel it on your face/palm when lathering this monster. Its somewhat floppy, there is no getting around it, I just want you all to know that is a unique kind of flop.
I have remedied this factor though, by adding rubber O Rings (size #50 at Ace 1 5/8 x 1 7/16) to the base of the knot 5 in fact if you can believe it. Normally I'm not a big fan of O Rings as the excessive variety of traditional and custom shaving brushes almost guaranties there is already a brush tuned to your needs. Here however, there is only one brush of its kind, so I got over myself and threw on O rings. The result after 5 rings is a 39mm x 52mm face lather monster. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this brush set up like this, and oddly enough does not take away from the appearance of the brush IMO. The rings look right home here and are almost natural with the other elements of the brush. The O rings really jack up the backbone as there is just no where for the bristles to go. The face feel is still massive with the rings, but its much much smaller than at the native loft. It is still quite soft at the 52mm loft, however the bristles will start to have some tiny hint of skritch, much like the textured feeling of many grades of two band hair badger hair. The support structure below it just has much less room to bend and cushion the tips. Realistically most shavers will need two or three rings, with five being a touch excessive for most faces.
This is a soap killer in the most aggressive scene of the word. The flat fan shape keeps all of the bristles in contact with your soap/cream. Consequently this massive dense brush rips hard soap from your puck with reckless abandon. It lathers quite efficiently too. Its as fast as many smaller less dense brushes. One pitfall of many big dense brushes is that they take a bit of extra time to load and lather properly. There is just more hair, soap, and water to mix up. Here however, the synthetic fibers seem to do this job quicker than any traditional brush even remotely close to this size. Even with the shorter loft, it holds loads and loads of lather. There is plenty to be had no matter how many passes your shave requires. Big dense brushes hog lather, and especially ith the O rings this brush is no different. The short loft keeps the hairs pulled tight together keeping the capillary forces very high. However at the native loft the lather flows much more freely as the bristles travel farther from one another. For most users there will be a balance to be tuned in here adding or deleting an O rings.
The handle is solid, well crafted, and handsome. It is made of wood and metal. With the bristles its quite hefty and feels solid in your hand. To be honest it feels like the bottom end of a base ball bat. You could also say it is shaped something akin to the Simpson Eagle though a bit less stylized. I have always loved this configuration, and even have several custom handles of similar design. It is extremely comfortable to face lather with and gives plenty of knuckle clearance for bowl lathering. Another factor worth mentioning is that this brush has shed ZERO hairs. Not one, this is a very rare thing in dead for a brush this dense.
This brush is kind of amazing, especially for $22, but at this size it is really only for the lunatic fringe among us. Bowl latherers who want a massive decadent brush will love this thing. Face latherers who want to try something akin to a Chubby 4 will enjoy this every bit as much with the addition of some O Rings. So if you want to try a massive dense luxurious brush that wont break the bank this IS your short list of choices. That or your the kind of sadistic freak who has a blood feud with your soap collection, this could be your weapon of choice.
As a note of interest Sophie makes a 27mm x 52mm variant of this brush that many out there could be more comfortable with. However, I have not tried it so I cant comment on it.
I attempted to take photos of the knots top down, but the Sophie and Posh are jet black so you could not see how dense they are.
Sophie Cosmetics Synthetic Body Brush
First off is the massive $23 Sophie Cosmetics synthetic body brush. I think this is an amazingly handsome brush, however it measures in at a face eclipsing 39mm x 68mm. Think of it as Simpson Chubby 4 size. Aside from a couple custom one off display brushes, this is the biggest "shaving brush" I can think of. It is fully capable of simultaneously touching my ear and mouth, if I apply a bit of pressure. This behemoth is ultra soft and ultra dense, in fact it is as dense a brush as I have ever used. Loft and knot size like this make the face feel of the Sophie just ridiculously big yet luxurious. To big I am going to assume for all but the most adventurous of wet shavers. The tips themselves have a slick silky quality to them.
Just for size comparison Chubby 2, Sophie Cosmetics, TGN STA 30mm
I'm not exactly sure what kind of beauty products one would apply with a brush this size or to whom but I for one am glad someone is paying attention to this market segment.
"Come give Miss Ele a big kiss"
I have remedied this factor though, by adding rubber O Rings (size #50 at Ace 1 5/8 x 1 7/16) to the base of the knot 5 in fact if you can believe it. Normally I'm not a big fan of O Rings as the excessive variety of traditional and custom shaving brushes almost guaranties there is already a brush tuned to your needs. Here however, there is only one brush of its kind, so I got over myself and threw on O rings. The result after 5 rings is a 39mm x 52mm face lather monster. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this brush set up like this, and oddly enough does not take away from the appearance of the brush IMO. The rings look right home here and are almost natural with the other elements of the brush. The O rings really jack up the backbone as there is just no where for the bristles to go. The face feel is still massive with the rings, but its much much smaller than at the native loft. It is still quite soft at the 52mm loft, however the bristles will start to have some tiny hint of skritch, much like the textured feeling of many grades of two band hair badger hair. The support structure below it just has much less room to bend and cushion the tips. Realistically most shavers will need two or three rings, with five being a touch excessive for most faces.
This is a soap killer in the most aggressive scene of the word. The flat fan shape keeps all of the bristles in contact with your soap/cream. Consequently this massive dense brush rips hard soap from your puck with reckless abandon. It lathers quite efficiently too. Its as fast as many smaller less dense brushes. One pitfall of many big dense brushes is that they take a bit of extra time to load and lather properly. There is just more hair, soap, and water to mix up. Here however, the synthetic fibers seem to do this job quicker than any traditional brush even remotely close to this size. Even with the shorter loft, it holds loads and loads of lather. There is plenty to be had no matter how many passes your shave requires. Big dense brushes hog lather, and especially ith the O rings this brush is no different. The short loft keeps the hairs pulled tight together keeping the capillary forces very high. However at the native loft the lather flows much more freely as the bristles travel farther from one another. For most users there will be a balance to be tuned in here adding or deleting an O rings.
The handle is solid, well crafted, and handsome. It is made of wood and metal. With the bristles its quite hefty and feels solid in your hand. To be honest it feels like the bottom end of a base ball bat. You could also say it is shaped something akin to the Simpson Eagle though a bit less stylized. I have always loved this configuration, and even have several custom handles of similar design. It is extremely comfortable to face lather with and gives plenty of knuckle clearance for bowl lathering. Another factor worth mentioning is that this brush has shed ZERO hairs. Not one, this is a very rare thing in dead for a brush this dense.
This brush is kind of amazing, especially for $22, but at this size it is really only for the lunatic fringe among us. Bowl latherers who want a massive decadent brush will love this thing. Face latherers who want to try something akin to a Chubby 4 will enjoy this every bit as much with the addition of some O Rings. So if you want to try a massive dense luxurious brush that wont break the bank this IS your short list of choices. That or your the kind of sadistic freak who has a blood feud with your soap collection, this could be your weapon of choice.
As a note of interest Sophie makes a 27mm x 52mm variant of this brush that many out there could be more comfortable with. However, I have not tried it so I cant comment on it.
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Great to come up with more approachable options for folks to try. Really like the Sophie. Very nice looking (even with the O rings, as you say.
) and how they would translate to mens shaving, and what they do for skin care.
