I’ve long been puzzled by the admiration many express for Semogue boar brushes, since my experience with Semogues has been at best so-so and generally worse, whereas I have had uniformly good luck with Omega boar brushes: they break in quickly and easily, feel good, and perform well.
But hope springs eternal in the human breast, and I just received the new Semogue 1305 brush shown in the photo. It costs about 25% more than the Omega 20102, so in terms of value it’s not so good. But in terms of feel, it’s very nice indeed. I made a few practice lathers before using it today. Unsurprisingly, the lather was gone after the first pass, and I ended up having to reload before each pass, but that’s not all that unusual for a new boar brush. I would expect in a few more uses the lather will last the whole shave through.
The handle feels good in the hand (though I know the paint tends to chip if it gets a knock), and the knot feels quite nice on the face. This one might well turn out to be good, though priced high compared to the 20102, which has proved to be an excellent brush.
Yardley is a wonderful soap, not made for decades, with a traditional lavender fragrance and a rich creamy lather. Three passes with the RazoRock stainless Stealth easily produced a trouble-free BBS result.
A splash of Chatillon Lux’s Champs de Lavande and the weekend begins.
Filed under: Shaving
