I only have a couple of brushes, a badger in Best and a badger in Silvertip. I wanted to start playing with more brushes. At the same time, SWMBO has me on her watch list.I noticed in a post that the new B&B Omega Essential boars were out. Hmmm, boars are cheap as hell. I can sneak $20 without SWMBO killing me.
The WCS website image of the sea foam green handle does no justice to this brush. I thought the color was a solid green, it is not. The acrylic is a translucent green. The top section looks like it is a solid white about 1/8 under the surface, so there is a nice little 3D depth there.
I know that I hate prickly brushes. I had always thought that boar would be stiff and scratchy like a straw broom. Feeling the dry boar brush, I thought that this was true. WRONG.
Let the boar soak and it is so, so, much softer, but retains most of the backbone. My first brush was an EJ medium best badger. When it was new, it was already soft, but had a lot of prickly tips that would poke your skin. This boar brush is not yet broken in, but even in this state I would not call it prickly, just that the tips are courser than the badger. However, the boar tips are going to split and get even softer.
Laugh at the current hype of 2-band badgers, this boar has amazing backbone for face lathering .again $20 brush not a $100- $200 2-band badger.
Lather making, OMG this thing is a machine. I dont even try to use any methods to create lather. I soak the brush and add drops of water to the top of hard soaps, like I do with badger. What I dont do is stress about how much water to retain in the brush. Just lift the brush for a couple seconds and let gravity do its work, whatever water remains is the correct amount to get you 80-90% to the perfect lather. You only have to fine tune the lather by possibly dipping the tips or adding some drops to the brush. I lather MWF without trying. I have hard water and badger brushes dont like it very much, maybe boars love it.
Dont get me wrong, I still want to buy a couple more badgers (Shavemac silvertip or D01 3-band or 2 band or ), but I am now a boar lover and have to now try a Semogue 620.
