Plisson L'occitane - review

Finally was able to buy this brush, as it was out of stock for a while. As soon as i saw it on stock, i ordered it from L'occitane website.

The price was around $40 for me, in Europe. Got the shaving soap too, and i enjoyed free shipping, few samples and a free hand cream that they were nice to add to my order.

The brush comes with a plastic stand too, so it's a nice value for money. Packaging looks very nice, professional look, hard cardboard.

Right out of the box, my reaction was "wow, this is soft". You almost feel the tips. The handle looks sturdy, made of wood. You can actually see wood grains through painting if you are looking close enough, it gives a nice appearance. There are some imperfections, as the paint is usually having a hard time getting nicely around the edges on wood surface, but nothing that you can observe if you are looking at more than 20 cm away.
While dry, the bristles feel a little springy, but this effect disappear when wet.

Now, my first test lather was with Nivea Sensitive, hand lathering. At first, had some problems in getting enough water, as i started with brush dry and added some water over the cream. Once i added more water, the lather exploded into the brush and all over my hand. I noticed the backbone, that is pretty much nonexistent.

Got over fooling around and went into actual shaving. I've heard people arguing that usually, synthetic brushes are poor performers with hard soaps and face lathering. So, my thought was "well, let's put this theory to the test".

Grabbed my Tabac soap with the intention of face lathering. Firstly, i tried to add few drops of water over the soap and start with dry brush. That did not worked too well, so i added few more drops, and, it started to load up very easy and fast. Used very short period to load it up, less than with my Omega 10066, just to see how efficient it really is. Probably around 15-20 seconds of loading it up. The results were spectacular, three passes + touch ups. The lather was equally distributed on all three passes.

The feeling on the face is very nice. You have to apply very low pressure for it to splay, and it splays very easy. With lather, it does not feel floppy at all when you level up the lather. Excellent performer.

Now, the ergonomics are nothing to write home about. The handle feels a little bit odd. If i keep if from the base, i feel that i'm too low, if i'm keeping it from the top, near the area where loft meets the handle, i feel that there's no point in doing that, as i can't press on bristles like i do with my boar too efficient. But it's ok.

Sorry for long post, but i'm pretty excited about it. Gonna try to resume and add some points easier to follow.

The good
- It's synthetic. Dries up in few minutes, does not smell like any animal, no animals were harmed in making of this brush and it does not require breaking up period.
- It keeps lather very well. In comparison with my boar, it distributes lather more equally on multiple passes.
- No backbone. I find this a good thing, as it does not require pressure to splay. Very straight forward, easy to use.
- It's very efficient with creams and soaps. Tabac, 15 seconds loading up with not so much water, three passes, says it all. Much more efficient than my Omega 10066, where i was having either to load much more, to reload in the middle of the shave or to add some cream for the third pass.
- It's cheap. For $40, i'm sure that you can get much worse brushes.
- It's soft. Very soft. Imagine the softest thing. Now imagine it two times softer.

The bad
- It's synthetic. It's something special about natural fibers. When i first broke in my boar brush, i was looking forward for next shaves, as the brush was getting better and better. The whole process of breaking it up is nice.
- No backbone and too soft. I know, i'm just typing stuffs from "The good", but, i like the overall feeling and backbone of boar brushes. Having to press more makes you work a little more harder for your lather. There's something inexplicably pleasuring about this.
- The handle. Being made of wood makes me thing it will encounter some problems in time, but i hope not too soon. The overall design of it, feels just odd for me. Would have like it to be a little bigger and with a different shape.

 

Great review! Thanks for your thoughts. I think the Plisson is a great brush, too.

 

This brush has been my daily driver since I bought it. I'm a big fan.

 

+1

I hated the handle in the beginning (which I went on about here) but after a while I forgot how much I disliked the handle and started to focus on how much I enjoyed the knot.
Half-full glass baby, half-full!

The only issue I have is that the handle did, in my case, start to crack/chip a bit and I've heard other having similar issues with everything from the knot falling out to discoloration on the handle next to the knot, etc.

The brush is still available here in the US in a lot of their physical stores for $30 (or you can go in and whine about the cracked handle like I did and get one for $25) and I would still consider this brush to be quite the bargain - especially considering that I now use it about 80% of the time....

Maybe I should buy some more.

 

I dont see it on their site.

 

I believe these days only in their actual physical stores here in the US

 

I understand that is not available as online purchase in some countries. Here, in Romania, it is.

Yes, i expect the handle to have some problems in time, as it's wood. But, to be honest, in my books, if this particular brush takes up at least 1000 uses (around 3 years used daily) before breaking, i would not have a problem with it.

 

I use my Plisson probably 90% of the time, WD synthetic (older fiber version) 5% and split between WD silver tip and Fido (Turkish #6) the other 5%. The plisson just performs well for me with any soap.

 

Thanks. Nearest store to me is a couple hours away. Unfortunately

 

Might be worth giving them a call and see if they have any in stock and asking if they can send one to you.
I've never tried that but the worst that can happen is that they say no

 

Well, as i said in review, i really enjoyed the customer experience. The free stuff, the nice lady that took her time in telling me everything that she will put in the package, etc. I'm gonna give an assumption here, that can or cannot be real. They did not made them available as online purchase because they usually stock small numbers of them, and, as we saw in the past, some people bought few of them just to list them on ebay at higher prices, as soon as they went out of stock on the official website. My guess is that making them not available online in some areas is their response to that specific issue. So, a phone call might help. You might also ask about their affiliations. Here, there are few pharmacies that sell their products, and i would have been able to get the brush from an physical store if i would have one of those pharmacies around my location.
I must confess, one of the reasons that led me to get this brush, was the availability of it. As it was out of stock for a wile, and saw people saying good things about it, as soon as my email popped the alert that it's on the stock, i bought it. I don't know if it's a marketing strategy or they really do not produce so much brushes. I tend to think of the second, as they are not specialized in shaving equipment, i don't think they expected so many people to want this specific brush.

 

Great review and very similar to my own thoughts on it. I've been trying out some other brushes lately and it has really made me realize just how good the Plisson pour L'Occitane is.

For those looking for it, I heard a rumor that L'Occitane will be reintroducing it with a sturdier handle in time for Father's Day. Also you can buy a brush with the same knot in a variety of handle options directly from Plisson. I believe the cheapest ones are around $40 USD.

 

I purchased the Plisson about 8 months ago from the L'Occitane store in my local mall and from the first moment I opened the box, I was blown away by the quality of this wonderful brush and how silky smooth the bristle felt especially considering it is a very inexpensive brush. When I started using it, I was again blown away by how much lather this brush generates and how wonderful it felt on my face. Hard to believe that this is a synthetic brush as it works pretty much like a high quality badger brush with virtually no breaking in needed. I have no problem with the handle and also the fact that this brush comes with a nice quality brush stand for about $40 is amazing and it does not matter what soap I use the results are always excellent in my opinion. Enjoy this brush!

 

I prefer it now, over my badger 2-band, boar, mixed and horse brushes.

 

I have used one every day this month for face lathering, and love it every time.

 

I've been wanting to get one. I currently use a Muhle Silvertip Fibre, but it's too springy for face lathering, so I had to switch to bowl lathering. Is this the same brush? I don't think this is a US site, but they will ship to US for $6.

http://blaireauxplisson.com/en/39-shavingbrushes-fiber

 

Yes, there are the same fibers. Handle differ, being acrylic handle, but i think this is a plus from wooden handle from L'occitane one.

 

Amazing brush! First time it didn't perform that well and was a bit stiff. Unlike what people say, even a synthie needs to be broken in. I wonder how the synthie compares to Plisson's high-end offerings. Are the silvertips as soft?

 

I have both the plisson as well as the grooming company with the same fiversion set a little deeper. They are great brushes. For me though I keep reaching for my simple boar brushes. Not sure why I just do.