There are numerous positive reviews of Yaqi brush products floating around on Badger and Blade, so I decided to take the plunge into direct-from-factory ordering and pick up a few items from their AliExpress store. Considering my interesting experiences with them so far, I figured it might be worth sharing, for the good of all you lovely people. 
Ordering on the AliExpress site was a bit of a headache, with some hidden fees for certain payment options and one failed transaction (because of a coupon that was offered as part of my initial registration then deemed 'expired' twenty minutes later...). Nevertheless, my order went through eventually. My purchase, which took about 20 days to reach me after ordering, consisted of the following:
The first thing I noticed was just how huge these brushes are! I thought that my Simpson Chubby 2 was a big brush, but both of these Yaqi brushes are much larger in both size and knot bloom.
The tuxedo knots in both of the brushes are quite soft and densely packed. The Mysterious Space brush, which is 26mm at the base, has a knot bloom about as dense as my Simpson Chubby 2, giving it significant backbone. The Monster Barbershop brush is not as densely packed, and probably contains about as many hairs as the Mysterious Space brush if I had to guess, but still is quite densely packed. It is worth noting, however, that the hairs in the Yaqi brushes are quite different from those in my Chubby 2, which is also a synthetic brush. While the hairs in the Chubby 2 are very similar (almost identical) to high-quality badger hairs in terms of thickness and durability, the Yaqi hairs are more akin to the hairs you would find in a woman's makeup brush. This is possibly unsurprising, given that Yaqi makes women's brushes as well, but it's worth noting that these knots are not interchangeable in terms of quality.
I have yet to use either brush during my shaves, as they both arrived giving off a chemical odor. I have, however, been breaking them in with a lather every day or so, until the smell dissipates. As you can see, both brushes are capable of making wonderful lather (the shots below are with Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood). Unfortunately, I did notice that the lather and water coming from the Mysterious Space brush was brown for the first two lathers. It is always worth cleaning a new brush before using it, but I found that discouraging. Luckily, however, neither brush shed more than a few hairs in this process. Like all synthetics, they dry quickly, and quite honestly probably dry faster than my Chubby 2.
Over the coming week or so, I will be testing out both of these brushes, so keep an eye out here for my in-depth reviews of their performance. However, I did test out the DLC-Yaqi OC razor this morning, so let's dive right into that!
The razor itself has quite a long open comb, which was one of the things that drew me to it. I actually didn't intend to buy a razor from Yaqi, but the cost and open comb sold me on the idea. Size-wise, it is just a tad smaller than my Merkur 23C in both length and head width. More noticeably, the Yaqi razor is rather top-heavy. I'm not sure if the handle is hollow, but it is made of aluminum, as opposed to the zinc alloy head. The finish is the same, however, and they make an attractive pairing.
Unfortunately, the razor does not function quite as nicely as it looks. The posts on this razor are rather fat, which meant that I had to force my razor blade (a Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharp Edge Yellow) into position. The posts are also short, and it feels like you need to over-tighten the handle just to get the blade to keep from wiggling about.
As you can see above (kinda), there is significant blade exposure with this head, both on the cutting edges and the sides. The significant overhang on the sides is more of a cosmetic issue than anything else, but is rather annoying when trying to load and unload the blade from the head. The extreme blade exposure, combined with the rather shallow blade angle, make this quite an aggressive tool. Adding into consider the weight of the razor head meant that I really only had to glide the razor over my face to get a very close shave.
As far as the handle is concerned, the tooled grooves help prevent finger slippage up-and-down the handle, but seem to encourage slipping around the circles themselves. I found myself having to be careful with my hold of the razor when the handle was wet, and even had to stop to dry it off at one point. That is not a big deal, but it is something to keep in mind.
The last piece I haven't mentioned yet is the brush stand, which I ordered 3 of because of its cheap price. The stands seem to be solid, single-piece constructions, and have a guide indentation in the back in case you want to mount it on the wall. It is too small for either of the brushes I ordered, but it does hold up my smaller brushes quite nicely. It seems like it would be rather difficult to mess up a plastic brush stand, and I am glad that they are the quality that they are.
I will be posting more detailed reviews of the brushes, as well as updates on the razor, as I continue to use them, so be sure to check back here and on my shave journal for more on that! I hope this was helpful for someone considering these products! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or would like different pictures, etc.
Ordering on the AliExpress site was a bit of a headache, with some hidden fees for certain payment options and one failed transaction (because of a coupon that was offered as part of my initial registration then deemed 'expired' twenty minutes later...). Nevertheless, my order went through eventually. My purchase, which took about 20 days to reach me after ordering, consisted of the following:
- Yaqi 26mm Mysterious Space brush with tuxedo synthetic knot (1)
- Yaqi 30mm Monster Barbershop brush with tuxedo synthetic knot (1)
- DLC-Yaqi Open Comb razor (1)
- Yaqi razor stand for 24mm brushes (3)
The first thing I noticed was just how huge these brushes are! I thought that my Simpson Chubby 2 was a big brush, but both of these Yaqi brushes are much larger in both size and knot bloom.
The tuxedo knots in both of the brushes are quite soft and densely packed. The Mysterious Space brush, which is 26mm at the base, has a knot bloom about as dense as my Simpson Chubby 2, giving it significant backbone. The Monster Barbershop brush is not as densely packed, and probably contains about as many hairs as the Mysterious Space brush if I had to guess, but still is quite densely packed. It is worth noting, however, that the hairs in the Yaqi brushes are quite different from those in my Chubby 2, which is also a synthetic brush. While the hairs in the Chubby 2 are very similar (almost identical) to high-quality badger hairs in terms of thickness and durability, the Yaqi hairs are more akin to the hairs you would find in a woman's makeup brush. This is possibly unsurprising, given that Yaqi makes women's brushes as well, but it's worth noting that these knots are not interchangeable in terms of quality.
I have yet to use either brush during my shaves, as they both arrived giving off a chemical odor. I have, however, been breaking them in with a lather every day or so, until the smell dissipates. As you can see, both brushes are capable of making wonderful lather (the shots below are with Taylor of Old Bond Street Sandalwood). Unfortunately, I did notice that the lather and water coming from the Mysterious Space brush was brown for the first two lathers. It is always worth cleaning a new brush before using it, but I found that discouraging. Luckily, however, neither brush shed more than a few hairs in this process. Like all synthetics, they dry quickly, and quite honestly probably dry faster than my Chubby 2.
Over the coming week or so, I will be testing out both of these brushes, so keep an eye out here for my in-depth reviews of their performance. However, I did test out the DLC-Yaqi OC razor this morning, so let's dive right into that!
The razor itself has quite a long open comb, which was one of the things that drew me to it. I actually didn't intend to buy a razor from Yaqi, but the cost and open comb sold me on the idea. Size-wise, it is just a tad smaller than my Merkur 23C in both length and head width. More noticeably, the Yaqi razor is rather top-heavy. I'm not sure if the handle is hollow, but it is made of aluminum, as opposed to the zinc alloy head. The finish is the same, however, and they make an attractive pairing.
Unfortunately, the razor does not function quite as nicely as it looks. The posts on this razor are rather fat, which meant that I had to force my razor blade (a Gillette 7 O'Clock Sharp Edge Yellow) into position. The posts are also short, and it feels like you need to over-tighten the handle just to get the blade to keep from wiggling about.
As you can see above (kinda), there is significant blade exposure with this head, both on the cutting edges and the sides. The significant overhang on the sides is more of a cosmetic issue than anything else, but is rather annoying when trying to load and unload the blade from the head. The extreme blade exposure, combined with the rather shallow blade angle, make this quite an aggressive tool. Adding into consider the weight of the razor head meant that I really only had to glide the razor over my face to get a very close shave.
As far as the handle is concerned, the tooled grooves help prevent finger slippage up-and-down the handle, but seem to encourage slipping around the circles themselves. I found myself having to be careful with my hold of the razor when the handle was wet, and even had to stop to dry it off at one point. That is not a big deal, but it is something to keep in mind.
The last piece I haven't mentioned yet is the brush stand, which I ordered 3 of because of its cheap price. The stands seem to be solid, single-piece constructions, and have a guide indentation in the back in case you want to mount it on the wall. It is too small for either of the brushes I ordered, but it does hold up my smaller brushes quite nicely. It seems like it would be rather difficult to mess up a plastic brush stand, and I am glad that they are the quality that they are.
I will be posting more detailed reviews of the brushes, as well as updates on the razor, as I continue to use them, so be sure to check back here and on my shave journal for more on that! I hope this was helpful for someone considering these products! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or would like different pictures, etc.
You're probably right Frank. I never was any good at betting.
