As you may have seen in "the haul" thread I received a full sandalwood kit from AOS for Christmas from my wife. It was so awesome that she gifted me this great set. I love sandalwood and everything in the kit smells great. The only downside is the brush. I had, on my wishlist, the Simpsons Commodore X2, and it doesn't bother me that I didn't get it. The thing that does bother me is that while my wife was at AOS talking to the salesperson, she showed him a picture of the brush I wanted ( the commodore X2) and he told her that the pure badger brush in this kit is comparable to that brush. Now I don't want to speak badly about this guy, I mean, maybe he thought it was something else, but I don't think that the Commodore X2 in best badger compares to this AOS brush in pure badger. Now, I could be totally wrong, I understand that there is no standard rating when it comes to brush hair, but how good could the low end brush that costs $55 from an already overpriced retailer going to be? If I am wrong, I'll be the first to admit it, just let me know. Now my questions is, there are three levels of brushes from AOS. Pure, Fine, and Silvertip - I currently have the pure. Do I just keep the pure badger (I already have a Tweezerman brush)? Or use part of my gift card that I received for AOS and upgrade to the Fine? I don't think I want to get the silvertip as I don't want to spend that much money when I think I can get something just as good for much less elsewhere. My wife was totally ok with me upgrading, so I'm not worried about hurting her feelings, but I'm wondering how the AOS Fine badger brush performs and is it worth it up upgrade or do I spend my gift card on creams, oils, balms, etc?
1. The grade of Best from Simpsons is pretty good hair. It depends on your preference but I would say Simpsons Best is better than AoS Pure. I have many Simpsons brushes, in Best and in Super, and also an older, large-size AoS Pure Brush that came with one of their kits. 2 and 3. If you don't keep it, what are you going to do with it? I don't think you can trade the brush back into AoS for credit towards an upgrade, especially since it came as part of a kit. 4. I don't have any AoS brushes in Fine or Silvertip but my suggestion is that you can get a better value for your money by looking elsewhere. There are plenty of good brushes so I won't list any here. If I had a gift card for AoS, I get their creams and soaps and that's it. I can't seem to find it on their website but even their block of alum is overpriced but I did see it in my local AoS store. Last Father's Day, AoS had a coupon for $10 off any purchase of $10 or more. I haven't had a chance to try their soaps yet but their creams are tops. I can't wait for June to come around again so I can stock up on their lemon cream.
If you can upgrade to the fine, then do that and you will thank your wife for being so nice and have a better brush to boot. Harmony and a better brush, that's the ticket!
Tom, my first question back to you is "Do you like a scrubby feeling brush with some scritch?" I've not used an AoS pure brush but I've read a little on them and they sound like they are a scrubby brush. If you have an appreciation for a very exfoliating brush, then you could keep it to have something different. Otherwise, see if AoS will let you trade it in as part of an upgrade. From a quick search it looks like this brush has sold recently anywhere from $15-33 on B/S/Ts. If you think you'd like a scrubby brush, keep it. If not, upgrade or sell it! Great job by your wife btw! Enjoy it all in excellent health. Have to keep the stubble away so you can cuddle with the new baby in a few short months!
If I were you I'd at least give it a try since AFAIK you can't return part of a kit for an upgrade, people still do buy used brushes so you could at least see how the thing performs - if it makes you happily surprised then it's a win, if not then get yourself something new
