For my 30th birthday my friends the Tublord and Frito were kind enough to give me a Crabtree & Evelynn shaving brush and some Nomad shaving cream. I love the shaving cream; in combination with the quality brush it cut down on skin irritation dramatically.

In my travels back and forth from Canada to the United States, I somehow lost the brush. Saddened, I went to Nordstrom and bought a kit that came with lotions and a badger brush for $35 dollars. Let me tell you, the Art Of Shaving package has decent pre and post shave lotions. The shaving cream is alright at best, but the brush is a floppy abomination. The fact that a badger had to lose hair for this brush infuriates me. I will now be hunting down a Crabtree & Evelynn store in LA in order to score a new brush and get some more Nomad shaving cream (in bulk).

After I had made my mistake I actually found a mens shaving website that gave an excellent review to the crabtree & Evelynn brush and a dismal review to the Art Of Shaving tool.

I should have known better. Once you find a quality brand, support them for your own benefit.

For those of you that haven’t used a brush to apply shaving lotion – you do not know what you are missing.