I saw Clarion's YouTube vids for the boar lathering challenge and was blown away by the lathering abilities of the Semogues he used -- 830, Excelsior '09 LE, and an Owner's Club. I've never seen such great face lathering and was wondering what's going on there. A few of the things I'm curious about:
-- Do boar brushes need to be broken in to perform to that level?
-- I noticed his technique was not to mash the bristles down on the face, but instead to let the tips do most of the work; is that standard boar brush technique?
-- Are those special or out-of-the-ordinary Semogues in terms of performance? That is, are they "better" or higher quality since they're not regularly offered brushes (830 not included)?
-- Are there any Semogue brushes in their regularly offered line-up that would perform comparably to the '09 Limited Edition or Owner's Club brushes?
-- Is the great lather Clarion is getting simply a product of the brushes' specs (loft and diameter), or do these brushes use a different quality boar hair than other boar brushes?
-- Where in North America can I find a decent selection of Semogues? In Canada, we have Fendrihan, which offers boars in 1305, 1470, 1520, 1800 and 2000. Not bad, but I was under the impression Semogue offers a ton more.
For some background on my brush history, I have the following:
-- Simpson Commodore X1 (great for soaps, not so great for creams)
-- EJ BBB (great for creams and soaps, but too floppy)
-- Omega Boar 10275 (not impressed, I wanted a small, short loft boar for face lathering, can almost count the number of hairs)
-- Omega ????? (the ubiquitous ones sold at big chain drugstores, only had it a week or so, no opinion yet)
Thanks! Please check out my PIF if you haven't already.
-- Do boar brushes need to be broken in to perform to that level?
-- I noticed his technique was not to mash the bristles down on the face, but instead to let the tips do most of the work; is that standard boar brush technique?
-- Are those special or out-of-the-ordinary Semogues in terms of performance? That is, are they "better" or higher quality since they're not regularly offered brushes (830 not included)?
-- Are there any Semogue brushes in their regularly offered line-up that would perform comparably to the '09 Limited Edition or Owner's Club brushes?
-- Is the great lather Clarion is getting simply a product of the brushes' specs (loft and diameter), or do these brushes use a different quality boar hair than other boar brushes?
-- Where in North America can I find a decent selection of Semogues? In Canada, we have Fendrihan, which offers boars in 1305, 1470, 1520, 1800 and 2000. Not bad, but I was under the impression Semogue offers a ton more.
For some background on my brush history, I have the following:
-- Simpson Commodore X1 (great for soaps, not so great for creams)
-- EJ BBB (great for creams and soaps, but too floppy)
-- Omega Boar 10275 (not impressed, I wanted a small, short loft boar for face lathering, can almost count the number of hairs)
-- Omega ????? (the ubiquitous ones sold at big chain drugstores, only had it a week or so, no opinion yet)
Thanks! Please check out my PIF if you haven't already.