Your $17 investment will do just what you want it to do: 1) work well now, and 2) teach you what you do and don't like about brushes (too stiff/floppy? too scratchy? etc), so you can make a more educated decision on future brushes.
Errr. Somebody buy the vulfix. Its an awesome brush and you wont need to replace it like the tweezerman and VDH. I saw the VDH brush at CVS today for $8. Thats rediculous.
Bryan , so far the Tweezerman is doing ok for me, Actually I made a mistake it was $12. Anyway seems to be working fine and like you said I will figure out what Im looking for in a brush before spending $135 on one.
I got one of those last month. Decent brush. My $35 C&E Pure Badger seems to holds more water so I use it when I feel like a soap as it's a little stiffer but for creams the $20 Chinese brush can't really be beat. I was hoping for the C&E Best Badger but it wasn't available.
Been using the Chinese brush for three weeks with great results on soaps and creams. Holds an amazing amount of lather. Feels great on the face. Achieved better results when using like a paint brush as opposed to a circular motion. While it does shed a few hairs its worth the $20US. Dries incredibly fast as opposed to a badger.
I started with a $30 Omega badger from amazon. Thought it was good stuff compared to the boar brush I used for years. It is shamed though by my C&E Superbadger. I would recommend an inexpensive pure badger, just because of the comparative joy you will experience when upgrading to a super. (Also, I understand how hesitant one is at the outset of this adventure to spend much on a single item)
I've been using the Chinese brush for a week. Cost was under US$20 including postage. Delivery was average-slow, about 14 days from China. The bloom seems a little lopsided. The handle is functional, but mine arrived with scratches, not a big issue. The bristles feel nicer than my TBS synthetic. It feels much better than Omega boar brushes I felt at the local store. There's a mild animal smell that I can't seem to remove, even after "baths" in shampoo, borax, Omega shave soap... The smell isn't strong enough to be noticed in normal use. It has shed a few hairs. Maybe one hair every 3-4 uses. It's a big brush, and as one poster above said, holds a huge amount of lather. Circular motions don't seem to deposit much lather though, so painting motions will have to be used.
Usually the odor will disappear in three or four days of regular use, some brushes will take longer. By the end of this next week it should all be gone with repeated use. Have you tried washing in some anti-bacterial type hand soap? That seemed to help some on my Omega boar although it took repeated use to make it go away entirely. Somone on this forum or B&B suggested washing in Peroxide would do the trick, but I'm not sure that won't damage the brush so use caution there.
Thanks Tim, I guess I'll try the disinfectant we have lying around the house. If that doesn't work after a week or two, I'll try some diluted hydrogen peroxide. One thing I notice about this Chinese brush, compared to the TBS synthetic, is that the lather almost makes itself. After charging the brush with soap or cream, a dozen swirls in the bowl is enough to make a nice lather if the brush had enough water. With the synthetic, I had to swirl and pump the brush continously for about a minute or so to get a lather. Unfortunately, the new brush doesn't seem to help the lather from the C&E Nomad cream; that's still rather thin, drying and not-slick. It works very well with Omega soap and Palmolive (EU) cream.
Yeah, the badger is just so superior at holding water it will definately blow the synthetic away. I can't help you with the creams since I don't use those. Good luck with the odor thing, it will almost surely resolve itself over time whatever you do though.
It seems that the odor from the Chinese brush has disappeared. My brush now smells faintly of Tabac soap. Didn't need to use the peroxide.
Haha, I'm not a fan of the Tabac scent, but I'd rate it a notch above the wet badger smell. I just tried face lathering with the TBS synthetic brush, and my skin felt more raw than ever, before shaving. Could one call this brush burn? There was even a weeper from the lathering action. Ouch. Face lathering with the Chinese silvertip doesn't seem to work for me. The brush appears to be too floppy, and lather takes forever to build up.
I just wanted to add that if you do want a great startup brush the C&E Best Badger's model number is 130291 (I keep posting that, I know). I say that because it can be found with a little persistence, and I just want everyone to know the number so they can search for it as I did. Anyway if you decide not to spend that much I have heard good things about the Tweezerman that can be found on Amazon for like ~$10.
I received a Vulfix #2233 from a TSD member today. Comparing it to the Chinese silvertip brush, the knot size is the same (22mm), but the loft is smaller. I find the Vulfix easier to maneuver due to the smaller size. The larger handle of the Chinese brush is more comfortable in my hand. The Chinese brush lathers faster (probably due to the larger size), but the Vulfix seems more willing to release the lather. Quality of lather seems identical. In terms of feel on the face, it's a close call. I would give a slight edge to the Vulfix, as I can do the circular motions to lather up. Both are floppy brushes, and neither are particularly dense. Price-wise, even used, the Vulfix cost twice as much as the Chinese brush. Whether it's worth twice as much...I'll have to use the brush a bit more to find out.
