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L'Occitane travel brush (synthetic)

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.
 
Thanks for the quick review. I have never set my eyes upon one of those brushes- any chance you could post a picture for me please?
 
$LOccitanebrush.jpg There you go, David! It's not a bad brush actually. I hope my review didn't come off too negatively, the only reason I wouldn't buy another synthetic brush is that I just prefer my badger and boar brushes more and this was purely for amusement and novelty. I saw that it had very mixed reviews and I do think the whole assembly is a little too long but the brush performed ok for me. I'm not sure if they've changed the composition of the bristles to a better synthetic or what but it gave me a decent lather with the AoS shaving soap (I've not tried it with creams). I would rate it as a 6.5 out of 10 or maybe 7 out of 10. It was a bit pricey at $30 for what it is and how small it is but I needed a back-up for my Vulfix travel brush (http://badgerandblade.com/reviews/s...lfix-travel-super-badger-shaving-brush&cat=38). Fully assembled, the brush is about 14cm (5 inches) tall with a quite small knot, I'd almost say it's on par with the 16mm knot I got from TGN for a brush I restored some time back. Disassembled and in 'storage' mode, the brush is 8 cm (3 1/8 inch) tall.

Hi Bob, what is it that you don't like about the brush (out of curiosity, I wonder if they're the same things I noticed about the brush). I do think that, possibly, the 'snap-fit' of the pieces fitting together are bound to loosen over time and it is quite light (almost too light).

I hope to have a more comprehensive review uploaded to the reviews page once I've gotten a third or fourth shave with this (to test creams). I'd buy this again if it were on sale but I don't know if I would recommend anyone pay full price for this brush.
 
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Thanks for the pic and the info Michael. Don't worry about Bob, it was early and he may have been short of coffee :001_tt2:
 
I thought the hair wasn't bad, but it shed like crazy. I re-knotted it, and it's a fantastic travel brush now.
 
View attachment 206679 There you go, David! It's not a bad brush actually. I hope my review didn't come off too negatively, the only reason I wouldn't buy another synthetic brush is that I just prefer my badger and boar brushes more and this was purely for amusement and novelty. I saw that it had very mixed reviews and I do think the whole assembly is a little too long but the brush performed ok for me. I'm not sure if they've changed the composition of the bristles to a better synthetic or what but it gave me a decent lather with the AoS shaving soap (I've not tried it with creams). I would rate it as a 6.5 out of 10 or maybe 7 out of 10. It was a bit pricey at $30 for what it is and how small it is but I needed a back-up for my Vulfix travel brush (http://badgerandblade.com/reviews/s...lfix-travel-super-badger-shaving-brush&cat=38). Fully assembled, the brush is about 14cm (5 inches) tall with a quite small knot, I'd almost say it's on par with the 16mm knot I got from TGN for a brush I restored some time back. Disassembled and in 'storage' mode, the brush is 8 cm (3 1/8 inch) tall.

Hi Bob, what is it that you don't like about the brush (out of curiosity, I wonder if they're the same things I noticed about the brush). I do think that, possibly, the 'snap-fit' of the pieces fitting together are bound to loosen over time and it is quite light (almost too light).

I hope to have a more comprehensive review uploaded to the reviews page once I've gotten a third or fourth shave with this (to test creams). I'd buy this again if it were on sale but I don't know if I would recommend anyone pay full price for this brush.

I thought the synthetic knot was better suited to scouring pots and pans than putting on my face. It was much too stiff.
 
Bob, that was one of the things I noticed. It's not nearly as bad now (I've been tinkering with it and I was swirling it on the palm of my hand and also splaying the bristles to see if that had an effect, as I read about in some threads about earlier synthetic brushes). I did a trial run the first day and it was a...unique feeling. Still, it's 'acceptable' now but I wouldn't rush out and buy a second.

Vlad, I think I saw your re-knot (another reason I got the brush, in case I wanted to re-knot it with badger for the future). So far mine hasn't shed but I'm looking forward to it if it does...one more reason to do another restoration. ;)

David, no worries. I'm glad the image was useful, the stock image from the L'Occitane website doesn't show it broken down which is a shame. It gives you more of a sense of what the brush looks like when broken down into its three parts.
 
The old Travel brush had the white synthetic knot which was as hard as nails. L'Occitane updated it to the badger coloured synthetic version, which was much better, but still to harsh for me - I use it for cleaning the keyboard on my mac ��

A few bucks on eBay and a cup of boiling water later and I've replaced the knot with a Silvertip Bagder.
It's now a superb traveling brush.

Right on! I still use my re-knotted L'Occitane when I travel. It's perfect.
 
I bought two of those thinking they would be good collapsible quick-dry travel brushes. Yes they are collapsible. Yes they dry quickly. No they are not good. I once read a review that described the brush as like "lathering with a bullet tip". That is accurate in my judgment. Not until I was gifted a RazoRock Plissoft did I realize that not all synthetics are nearly unusable. I am now down to only one away-from-home kit, and in that kit I now have a WCS travel brush container and a RazoRock 24mm in lieu of that L'Occitane en Provence. The two L'Occitanes now sit unused in the cabinet.
 
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