Hi all, I purchased this L'Occitane synthetic travel brush Monday afternoon along with some Art of Shaving lemon shaving soap. This is my first and only synthetic brush (I doubt I will be purchasing more). It's quite interesting and I only picked it up on a lark thinking that it would be pretty but not very functional given some of the reviews I had seen on the board about it. I have to say, the synthetic bristles are a bit scritchier than I like but it didn't rip apart my face as I feared and I wonder if the quality of the bristles has improved since some of the earlier reviews. The water retention isn't great but it whipped up a rather decent lather with the soap and I felt protected as I shaved with my TTO this morning (Indian Wilkinson blade). I won't be converting to synthetics any time soon (I prefer badger and boar) but this will make a nice expendable travel brush for me.