Shaving Brush Reviews

If you have come over to the side of wet electric shaving and have picked a favorite shaving cream from my list of reviews(LINK), you’ll need some way to lather up that cream and apply it to that handsome face. That’s where a good shaving brush comes in. By using a brush like this you’ll get a great, even consistency of lather and will use the foam from the bowl in a more consistent way.

You’ll notice that all of these brushes use badger hair for the actual bristles. Although there are brushes out there that use other materials, even synthetics, badger hair is generally considered one of the best choices.

Investing in a brush is not a big purchase, but you should use one rather than not. If you are going to use one, it might as well be a good one. After all, it’s your skin, which is worth more than a few bucks.

Here I’ve listed and reviewed some of the most popular shaving brushes you can buy online today. My top picks are listed at the top and the rest are in no particular order. So now let’s brush up on on our brushes, shall we?

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BEST OVERALL:
VIKINGS BLADE Luxury Shaving Brush

Vikings Blade has made a name for itself as a purveyor of fine shaving products. They market themselves as upmarket and a bit more fancy than the average product, so let’s see if that extends to this badger brush.

The price is certainly much higher than I’ve seen with other brushes. While I am certain there are probably more expensive ones out there, for the average person this is probably as pricey as it gets without resorting to something made from the bones of rare or endangered animals.

The Vikings Blade brush comes in a lovely container, which immediately sends the message this is special. The brush itself has a great-looking alloy base which they describe as “Swedish”, whatever that may mean. The handle is made from onyx, giving it a nice heft and, I suppose, making it less likely to fall over. Still, we often associate being weighty as meaning something is higher in quality, so that weight gives the impression of value. It also means the brush is less likely to fall over, but that’s just a bonus.

Vikings Blade claims that the badger hair that they use is of a higher quality than usual and should therefore be more, er, badgery, I guess.

Overall people are really happy with this product. I was surprised that people were so positive, given that in the end most of these brushes are pretty much the same product. Whether it’s good marketing from the company or simply better quality, it seems that this brush is a shoe-on for top pick.

SECOND PICK:
Fento Badger Brush with Chrome Razor Stand

It’s good to have a brush, but it’s not so good to have nowhere to put it. Luckily Fento has a solution to this prob: a chrome stand. Yes, OK that’s not so exciting, but really finding a stand that looks good and is meant to work with your brush is actually pretty hard. So it’s nice to have something like this which fits neatly.

Unfortunately, the other side of the stand is meant to hold a manual razor, which defeats our purposes since this site is all about electric shaving. Still I don’t think it is a complete waste, it could hold a toothbrush or something, or a manual razor for just in case.

On the quality of the chrome stand the customers who have bought this are very happy indeed. It seems to be well made and the weighted base makes for confident use. The inclusion of the stand is not just for looks or convenience though, it helps to drip- and air-dry the brush,which means it should last longer.

The other aspect of the product has to do with the bristle density. Fento says that this brush is a denser design, which means an airy lather and a better distribution on your face. The brush itself seems to keep to its claim of creating a better lather. It’s soft and dense, making for good application not just on the face, but anywhere on the body.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

BEST VALUE FOR MONEY:
Escali Pure Badger Shaving Brush

This brush from Escali is one of the most popular shaving brushes out there. It looks pretty traditional with it’s light brown veneer finish.

The manufacturer says that their brush will exfoliate gently, lift up any beard hairs and bring the water right where it needs to be.

Does it live up to these claims?

With almost no disagreement, it seems as if everyone who has bought this brush is super stoked with how soft it is. It starts out being a little stiff, but softens up in short order. Some people have however reported that the brush has a bad smell. That seems to be inconsistent though, only coming from a minority of complainants.

The biggest selling point of the Escali is its quality in relation to the price. The really fancy brushes can easily go for sixty bucks all by themselves. The Escali may not be the cheapest, but it is way better than a five dollar brush any day.

AKPOWER Brush Set Review

Here we have the only brush on this page that’s faux badger hair – a synthetic replication. Is that automatically a bad thing? Since the synthetic stuff is more consistent in quality you know every brush will be more or less the same. It also helps that synthetic brush hairs do not require the killing of badgers, but then again the badgers get culled whether their hairs are used or not.

Additionally, this also means that you don’t have to deal with the initial shedding that happens with badger hair brushes. Most importantly, it should have no smell. Sometimes badger hair can smell pretty bad, at least at first.

For your money you don’t just get a brush though. There’s also an included acrylic drip stand and a resin soap bowl. Making for a nice complete kit. The stand also has a slot for a manual razor, but you’ve surely gone electric by now, right?

People who have used the brush mostly have the same general impression. The product comes across as having high quality, but doesn’t come across as high-end the way that the Vikings Blade does. The various parts are also smaller in size than expected, but not to the point where it affects the functionality of the brush. In fact, many people see this as a plus point in bathrooms with limited space.

While the bristles are not as soft as the top quality badger hair, they are better than the lower quality genuine stuff. There are also no notable build quality complaints and the performance of the brush is good according to people who have used it.

I think this is a great all-in-one set and would make a great gift, whether to yourself or someone else.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Justice Shaving Company

The Justice Shaving company brings us this mid-priced badger hair brush without much fanfare. All the usual benefits of a badger hair brush are listed and by this time you should know them well, but just in case you skipped straight to this review here they are again.

Justice says this is a 100% badger hair brush with no synthetics to fill in the core. It’s a dense brush, but a soft one, making for a thick lather and gentle exfoliating action.

What do the good people say? Well, the Justice brush is a product very much in the middle of things. No one has any complaints about the quality, which is a good thing since it means that at least it doesn’t literally fall apart to the touch, which seems to be an actual thing that happens.

The overall consensus seems to be that this is an excellent brush for getting started. In other words, if you have no idea whether wet shaving is something that you want this is a low-cost way of trying it out that won’t give you a bad experience by virtue of cheapness.

It’s rare for a product to be so effortlessly neutral. Often things have one or two glaring flaws or are excellent but very pricey. Among all this Justice has just gone ahead and made a brush. Just a brush. A Just-ice brush. Aren’t puns fun? No? OK, I’m sorry.

Either way, if you are not ready to commit to wet shaving (since when have men had commitment problems?) this is a pretty good choice, since fifteen dollars is not an unreasonable price to pay for the privilege of trying something new.

Bassion Hand-crafted Shaver Brush

I’m always wary of products that use the fact that they are “hand crafted” as a marketing term. First of all, why would something made by a human be better than something made with the laser-precision of a robot? Which might very well actually use lasers to make stuff, I might add.

In any case, “hand-crafted” could simply mean assembling pieces that were machine manufactured, so does it really matter?

Anyway, Bassion makes the point that this is completely natural badger hair and wood. That it has been designed to last many years and that the design is meticulous. Fair enough, Bassion, fair enough. That does not, however, make it any different than any of the other bazillion badger hair brushes on the market.

The company does however say that the density and softness of their bristles are a selling point, implying that it’s better than the competition. It is true that some brushes skimp on the thickness of the hairs or use hairs from the coarser part of the animal. Bassion says they’ve done neither of these things.

I have to say though, despite all the claims that Bassion makes, there’s no way to ignore all the people who have some serious complaints about this product. The most worrying accusations come from those who say that the brush is not made from badger hair at all! They claim it is, in fact, nylon. That’s plain awful, if true. Not that there is anything wrong with nylon, but that the maker would lie about it.

Badger hair or not, they all seem to agree that the quality of the bristles is a problem. The number of people who have had to glue the brush back together again is also another big red light. No, dear bearded friends, I do not believe anyone should buy this, even if it were a single dollar.

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

Perfecto Badger Shaving Brush Review

The Perfecto brush bucks the trend of brown wood-finish handles and goes for a lovely, expensive-looking black finish.

Personally I think that polished black is the classiest finish of them all, but obviously that’s going to depend on each person’s individual taste. The fact is, however, that almost every other badger brush I’ve seen uses a woodgrain finish and this is a welcome change.

Other than the color change, there doesn’t seem to be much here that differentiates the Perfecto from any other badger hair brush. As usual, the makers say it will create a rich lather, get water where it needs to go, and lift beard hairs.

The responses from buyers paint a different picture, though. Lots of people have the same complaints about this brush – they say it is scratchy; that it never stops shedding and that it isn’t as big as some other popular brushes.

On the other hand there are just as many people saying the brush is good for the price, which is admittedly quite low.

Personally, I think this at the very least points to inconsistent quality control. Although this is one of the cheapest badger hair brushes, I don’t think the savings are worth the gamble and would probably avoid it in lieu of something better.

Reviews Conclusion

When I put together these reviews I usually look at which products are the most popular in order to decide what to review. After all, these are the products everyone is most likely to consider. As you’ve probably noticed, almost every single shaving brush here is made with badger hair. This means that badger hair brushes are the most popular product, which I found really surprising. Sure, badger hair is generally better than synthetic brushes and it is true that they have become cheaper, but since this is a byproduct of badger culling in various parts of the world I’m surprised not more people are opposed to it.

Either way, I expected to see more synthetic brushes among this lot, but clearly that did not happen. The majority claim to be real badger hair.

Ultimately there is very little to choose between one brush and the next, so we really have to rely on what people said it felt like to use. Still, I think my best picks are still clear winners and I hope they’ll serve you well if you choose to buy one. The worst brushes here literally fall apart, so at least we can be saved from that particular inconvenience.