Hello all,
I thought I'd do a brief review on my latest brush- the Simpson Special S1 Pure. Keep in mind that at present I've only used it once- will endeavour to update this post as I use it more and form a proper opinion.
Simply put, it is (as far as I am aware) the cheapest brush that Simpson make. Which makes it perfect for me- a tightars...err bargain hunter who isn't (yet?) prepared to drop hundreds of dollars on a brush, but who DOES want to try a Simpson. To put things into perspective: my last brush purchase was a $9 Tweezerman from Amazon (a great brush for the price, but that's a story for another day!).
Anyhow, enough waffle. Here's some pics:
The brush in its rightful place:
Comparison shot with my other brushes and some Arko:
Initial thoughts:
Price- I paid a total of 21.50 pounds for this. More than most of my brushes, but not insanely expensive. I'm pretty happy with the cost.
Size- Smaller than I expected, although I wouldn't consider it tiny. Makes me wonder how small a Wee Scott must be!
Aesthetics- I really like it- very 'old world' and classy looking (personal opinion though, your taste may vary). Slightly disappointed that the Simpsons logo is a sticker (not sure if this is the same for the more expensive ones?)
After one shave:
tl;dr summary- awesome first impression, but need to spend more time using it to form a proper opinion
As mentioned, the size of the brush is smaller than I expected. Then again, this suits me fairly well as I have a small face / hands. When I use my brush with the largest plume (the unmarked brush second from the right in the pic) I tend to get lather everywhere because it covers so much of my face. The size of this Simpson is pretty much optimal for me.
Being a 'Pure' I was expecting this to be fairly scratchy (based on what I've read about Pure vs Best etc). I didn't find this to be the case- it felt fairly mild actually. Not sure if this is because I'm used to using fairly scratchy brushes like my Vie Long. Overall, I'd call it slightly scratchy, but not overwhelmingly so.
In terms of performance this little brush is amazing. The shave consisted of:
34C w/ Voskhod
TOBS Sandalwood Soap (bowl)
TOBS Sandalwood balm
With this combo, my process is: soak the brush in warm water for a few minutes, shake excess water away and swirl in TOBs soap bowl a few times, whip up the lather in my shave bowl, lather up.
Using the Simpson and following the above steps I produced an awesome lather with ease. I can usually get a good lather out of TOBS, but it requires a bit of work in the shave bowl. Not with this brush though!
Given that it was a first use, I expected some shedding. There was one or two bristles that shed, but not all that much. The Tweezerman, for example, shed quite a lot for the first 6 or so shaves.
Overall, very impressed and happy with the result after the first shave. Looking forward to trying more soaps and seeing how things go.
I thought I'd do a brief review on my latest brush- the Simpson Special S1 Pure. Keep in mind that at present I've only used it once- will endeavour to update this post as I use it more and form a proper opinion.
Simply put, it is (as far as I am aware) the cheapest brush that Simpson make. Which makes it perfect for me- a tightars...err bargain hunter who isn't (yet?) prepared to drop hundreds of dollars on a brush, but who DOES want to try a Simpson. To put things into perspective: my last brush purchase was a $9 Tweezerman from Amazon (a great brush for the price, but that's a story for another day!).
Anyhow, enough waffle. Here's some pics:
The brush in its rightful place:
Comparison shot with my other brushes and some Arko:
Initial thoughts:
Price- I paid a total of 21.50 pounds for this. More than most of my brushes, but not insanely expensive. I'm pretty happy with the cost.
Size- Smaller than I expected, although I wouldn't consider it tiny. Makes me wonder how small a Wee Scott must be!
Aesthetics- I really like it- very 'old world' and classy looking (personal opinion though, your taste may vary). Slightly disappointed that the Simpsons logo is a sticker (not sure if this is the same for the more expensive ones?)
After one shave:
tl;dr summary- awesome first impression, but need to spend more time using it to form a proper opinion
As mentioned, the size of the brush is smaller than I expected. Then again, this suits me fairly well as I have a small face / hands. When I use my brush with the largest plume (the unmarked brush second from the right in the pic) I tend to get lather everywhere because it covers so much of my face. The size of this Simpson is pretty much optimal for me.
Being a 'Pure' I was expecting this to be fairly scratchy (based on what I've read about Pure vs Best etc). I didn't find this to be the case- it felt fairly mild actually. Not sure if this is because I'm used to using fairly scratchy brushes like my Vie Long. Overall, I'd call it slightly scratchy, but not overwhelmingly so.
In terms of performance this little brush is amazing. The shave consisted of:
34C w/ Voskhod
TOBS Sandalwood Soap (bowl)
TOBS Sandalwood balm
With this combo, my process is: soak the brush in warm water for a few minutes, shake excess water away and swirl in TOBs soap bowl a few times, whip up the lather in my shave bowl, lather up.
Using the Simpson and following the above steps I produced an awesome lather with ease. I can usually get a good lather out of TOBS, but it requires a bit of work in the shave bowl. Not with this brush though!
Given that it was a first use, I expected some shedding. There was one or two bristles that shed, but not all that much. The Tweezerman, for example, shed quite a lot for the first 6 or so shaves.
Overall, very impressed and happy with the result after the first shave. Looking forward to trying more soaps and seeing how things go.
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