Simpsons Best Badger Shaving Brush (Chubby CH3 Best)

Short and stubby, easy to navigate around the face, softer than my Kent BLK-4 and incredibly dense. This is not the easiest brush to master IMHO, but once you do, you will love it. It won't whip up mounds of frothy lather right away, it takes a bit of time to find the sweet spot. Part of this has to do with the density of the knot. At first, I went from library paste to foam but once I began to get a feeling for the peculiarities of the density and loft, I really started to enjoy using it. It does seem to have a pronounced "wet dog" smell after the first 3 or 4 shaves but it disappeared fairly quickly. Because of the density it will want to stay damp for 24 hours or more even if shaken dry and blotted off in a dry towel. Just be sure and spread the bristles out in a fan after rinsing and toweling dry rather than leaving them compressed in a tight wad. My brush lost 2 bristles the first day and a bristle a day for two days after that. If you lose more than that something is wrong. This is a supremely maneuverable brush. The density combined with the short loft allows you to "paint" the lather very accurately. This is an excellent face lathering instrument. Despite that, I used it with some Proraso Blue cream to bowl lather with excellent results... Still not my first choice for bowl lathering but for the record, I am not the #1 fan of bowl lathering so perhaps others would be a better judge of its merits in that area. In summation, it ties for first place among my brushes. But... It is my favorite badger brush beating out my silver-tip Kent BLK-4 and silver-tip Semogue 730 HD. IMHO, I feel that upgrading to Simpsons "silver-tip" version of this brush is not worth the extra expense. $140-$150 more for a bit more softness and density seems to be a little excessive to me. Hope this review helps. Update: After 2 months the thing started shedding like a Golden Retriever in the spring. I'm a month past the return date so I'll contact Amazon Customer Service and see what they will do.

Love this brush! Just received the brush this morning. It didn't smell bad at all. I let it soak for a while and shampooed it to clean it for the first time. This brush is so densely packed! It is way more dense than my Duke 3. (Love that brush too) I did two practice lathers in my hand with my usual shave soap. Whatever small amount of smell it had, it is now gone. I took a shower and did my first face lather with this incredible brush. For a Simpsons "Best Badger" shave brush, it feels as good as my other silvertip brushes. I like that this Chubby 2 in Best Badger because it has more backbone than my silvertip brushes. I like that for face lathering. I'm very impressed. I know all brushes have a break-in period and I cant wait to see how this brush feels in a month or two. I have watched the brush very closely sense I've been working with it and it has not shed one hair as of yet. Awesome! If you have any doubts about getting this brush from Amazon/Alorssa, I would say it is the real deal Chubby 2 and it would be a fantastic buy for anyone. I may have to get a Chubby in Super soon too!

What is there left to say about the Chubby 1 that has not already been said. I am grateful to own one of these big beautiful shaving brushes as they are the pinnacle of shaving brush luxury. The performance of this brush is amazing and I am proud and pleased to have the Chubby 1 and Chubby 2 in my lineup. Ok you want the details...They are thick with a massive amount of hairs packed into the knot.....they are soft and workable...they hold a massive amount of water...they are incredibly good at whipping up a lather....and it's no wonder they are LEGENDARY. I mean you don't need it... you can get by without it or with others...but holy sheet cake they are luxurious and high performance. There are plenty of times I prefer boar for that extra stiff satisfying SCRITCH. I have some boar bristle brushes to accommodate these times and so should you but, the Chubbies are just so sensuous and luxurious! I mean if you are an avid wet shaver, and you enjoy those peaceful pampering moments in the shave den with a rich great smelling shave cream and a razor sharp blade of choice...the Chubby delivers the thrills....

I was hesitant because I had seen quite a few reviews that mention shedding, but, I've had mine for a week now and I've lost one hair. I've used it about 15-2 times in the past week just to break it in and still only lost 1 hair. Perhaps some people got bad batches. My favorite thing about the brush is how dense it is. I used boar brushes for a while so that I could load hard soaps easier. With the chubby 2 I've had no issues loading harder soaps. It holds a ton of water. Even after squeezing it out (gently) I find that during loading there comes a point where the water in the brush finally makes a connection with the soap and a beautiful, perfect lather just explodes. The brush is well built and feels great in the hands. I put it next to my AOS pure badger brush and my absurdly tall Omega 48 brush for size comparison. Its BIG without being TOO big.

This is the best shave brush I have used and I have used/tried around 20. (UPDATE: I've now tried the Chubby Ch2 and think I like the slightly less humongous size) Generally I prefer the big boar brushes (e.g. Omega 48 or Semogue Owners Club), but I own a lot of badger brushes too and few horse hair brushes. Most everyone genuflects before badger brushes, especially silvertip, but I find them too stringy with no stand up to grab and hold soap, to stimulate the face, or to make a good lather and when they do stimulate the face, it's a funny pricking by the badger needles. Incidentally, such genuflecting differs by country. Italians love boar brushes (and are the source of the best ones IMO). in the U.K. and the U.S., badger seems to be universally viewed as the premium best. HOWEVER, this Chubby 3 has a HUGE and TIGHT knot and the bristles stand up firmly. It holds all the soap I need and is lathers in a bowl or on face in seconds. It's funny that you need to spend $300 on a badger brush to finally get one that's better than a $20 boar brush. Footnote: as far as size goes, I also like the Chubby 2 which is a tad cheaper and only slightly smaller/narrower. My wife uses that so I had to get this one. On the whole, I like the 3 over the 2 but only a little and not sure it's worth more bucks. UPDATE: it arrived with a hairline crack in it that was almost like a mere line in the plastic. However, it has expanded. It still doesn't alter the usage, but I can see that the crack has widened. This probably bodes ill for the longevity of this brush, so I'm taking a star off.

World Class badger brush. This badger is firm and soft, working soap into a slick protective lather quickly. The 23mm knot is extremely dense and tightly packed. The tips are not uncomfortable if you are face lathering with firm swirling strokes. They feel more silky if you are painting on lather already bowl prepared. The brush is deceptively small in appearance compared to my 23mm Super Badger (Col Conk/Vulfix) or my Semogue Boar 610. The handle is not going to be comfortable in very large hands. If you have huge hands and don't mind laying out the extra cash, the Chubby 2 or 3 should be considered. If you don't want to spend more than this brush costs, you might consider the Duke 3. The small size of this particular Chubby does not affect how well it quickly produces a fine rich and slick lather. Unless you have huge hands this Chubby is a World Class Joy.

Great brush, but after a few months , started shedding hairs. Disappointed

This brush is awesome. Big, full, and with enough backbone to handle hard soaps if you give it enough time. Cleans and dries easily and holds more lather than you could possibly use. The price is steep, but if you want a classic shaving product that will stand the test of time and deliver awesome results, then this is the brush for you. My biggest problem with this brush is that I don't need to use nearly as much cream as I use with other brushes and so I end up wasting cream. It's ridiculous how much lather you can make with the Chubby 2.