Taylor of Old Bonds Street, or TOBS, as it is endeariningly called on the online forums, is probably the most popular of the English shaving creams on the market. On Fendrihan’s, the Canadian men’s grooming goods e-tailer, listing shaving creams in order of the most popular reveals that four of the top eight best selling creams are from TOBS. Now, that might not be reflective of the entire world, but its certainly enough to get an idea of its popularity.

For this shave review shoot, I decided to whip up the cream with my Kimson Genuine Horn Handled Brush that I mounted a TGN Finest 24mm knot in. I used a Pottersong Shaving Scuttle, which I filled with hot water to get a nice warm lather. TOBS creams are so rich in lather that they work great in hot, warm or cold water. I’ll be using my Bluebeard’s Revenge Scimitar DE razor with this shave as well, which is identical to the Edwin Jagger DE98 razors.

The Jermyn Streetn Shaving Cream is one of the “sensitive skin” formulations of shaving cream from TOBS, and has a slightly different ingredient list. It has less chemicals in it, no coloring agents and also costs slightly more than their normal creams. It performs fantastic just like their regular creams do, though does have a slightly different feel to it. The 150g tub lasts quite a while because you really don’t need much cream to get a three-pass shave.

A quick, medium pressure swirl on the surface gets a good amount of cream on the brush, I think I took a little bit too much on this one, but the more the merrier. Like most of you, I have enough shaving cream to last me a decade and most of it will expire long before I finish using it. Speaking of expiry, the TOBS tubs all have the Good for 12 Months after opening labelling on it, which means that its should be used up within 12 months of opening.

The scent is hard to describe. Tobs calls it “bergamot, lemon, lime and lavender supported by a heart of geranium, neroli and amber resting on a substantive base of musk, patchouli and vanilla” I suppose that’s accurate, it is a complex cologne type of scent that’s quite rich and warm, without being too strong. I wouldn’t call it an everyday scent for myself, but its quite pleasant.

Jermyn Street from TOBS lathers like a champ, even in a hot shaving scuttle, and is possibly the easiest shaving cream I have ever lathered. The lather is rich, and creamy… possibly slightly too rich for my tastes and it actually interferes a bit with razor glide. This cream isn’t quite as thick as Proraso, but it lathers more easily and has more cushion. Also, the Tobs tub is an excellent vessel for dispensing cream.

There’s a nice lather shot of my brush, showing the nice rich lather achieved. Probably whipped up enough lather for four passes, thought I rarely do more than three passes. Overall this is an incredible shaving cream, and amongst the best. Its not the most moisturizing cream, but it has a great scent, and lathers like no other cream I have used. The cream is a bit thick for me, but it is easy to lather and quite effortless to use. Making it a good cream for those with difficult water conditions or those days when you just don’t want to try too hard!

Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Coconut Acid, Glycerin, Triethanolamine, Theobroma Cocoa Seed Butter, Parfum, Sodium Hrdoxide, Bisabolol

Scent: 8/10

Lather: 10/10

Cushion: 10/10

Glide: 6/10

Moisturizing: 6/10

Packaging: 7/10

Value: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Associated Products Used in This Review: Kimson And TGN Finest Brush, Pottersong Shaving Scuttle, Bluebeards Revenge Scimitar Razor.

Not saying that this is a bad knot at all, but when you’ve got as many brushes as I do, its hard to find a good, compelling reason to use this brush over most of my other brushes. It appears at first look to be similar to the TGN Best Badger hair, and similar to the Edwin Jagger Best Badger grade as well. However, in use, it feels quite different. This is one of the most prickly badger hair brushes I’ve ever used. It reminds me a bit of my Omega black badger hair brush, but with less backbone.

As you can see, the knot is a mix of banded and grey hairs, with some naturally terminating but mostly trimmed hairs. The trimmed hairs are the culprit here for creating such a prickly, scritchy brush. I personally don’t mind a little bit of scritch, but this brush is almost unusable for me unless I do nothing but paintbrush strokes. That’s unfortunate since I set the brush quite low for the purpose of face lathering. And even set that low, it doesn’t have too much backbone. I ended up setting a second one for my friend 2mm lower to around 41mm and its seems to have improved backbone. The brush shown in the photos is the aforementioned brush I made for my friend. I drilled out the Whipped Dog handle and got it set nice and low.

A top down shot to give you a sense of the density of the brush. Its sort of a medium density, or average density if you will. Certainly not as dense as the Extra Hair Silvertip from Ace Shaving or any of the TGN knots for that matter. This brush knot was a bit of a disappointment because I was expecting so much more given the large amount of praise from a couple of the members on the forum. Perhaps they like scritch more than I do. One thing this brush does a great job with is flow through. It paints the lather on no problem and gives it up if you need it. Overall I would considering it an acceptable knot and probably comparable to big name entry level badger brushes, but nothing special. If these were available as a single purchase for 1/3 the price, I would recommend for a casual shaver that just needs something that works. For enthusiasts, I think there are better options out there.

Ace Shaving Best Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 4
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 5
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 4
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 4
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 6
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 8
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

Proraso Green Eucalyptus and Menthol Shaving Cream is probably one of the most iconic shaving creams in all of shavedom, not to mention one of the top Shaving Creams from Italy altogether. This shave cream has probably been reviewed a multitude of times, and I have tried not to read other Reviews prior to writing this in order to keep my thoughts my own and unaffected by others’ opinions. My experience is positive, and comes after using the shave cream about 50 times over the course of about six months. This review is of the new current formulation that is SLS and paraben free.

For the photo shoot shave, I decided to use my Simpson Chubby CH1 brush, along with a Pottersong Shaving Mug and the Bluebeards Revenge Scimitar DE Razor. I typically do an actual shave on my reviews, and this is what I used this time around. I don’t usually bowl lather my chubby, but for a shaving cream review photo shoot, its more effective at showing the lather generation. Proraso Shaving cream comes in a metal tube, resembling toothpaste, and holds 150ml in the full size tube.

Please excuse the dried up Proraso crud that built up along the edge of the tube, but it usually happens to most creams anyway. I just forgot to clean it up before the shoot! Its more authentic this way anyway, right? The scent of the Proraso Green is sort of a Menthol, mixed with a fresh clean smell. Its got a hint of Eucalyptus, but I wouldn’t say its pure menthol and eucalyptus scent. Its very refreshing and a fantastic summer scent and experience overall.

I used about a small almonds worth of shaving cream in this example, and that generated enough lather for two passes, even with this lather hogging Simpsons Chubby CH1. While the Proraso doesn’t generate quite as much lather as the popular English creams like the 3T’s (Trumpers, T&H and Tobs). It does lather up quickly, and creates a very slick lather. Its not quite as cushiony as the English stuff, but I find it plenty good for me.

While the scent and menthol kick is great to me, its probably not for everyone. Some people with very sensitive skin find the menthol a bit overwhelming, because the feeling after shaving with Proraso Green is often described as “Face Freeze”. I am a huge fan of menthol in general, even outside of the summer months. The tingling and refreshing feeling I get after a Proraso Green shave is awesome!

Here’s the Chubby loaded up with lather after working it for roughly 30 seconds in my Pottersong shaving mug. The mug helps greatly with speeding up lather production so my arms are less tired and I can spend more energy on actual shaving. Proraso Green has average moisturizing, nothing spectacular but my face doesn’t feel dry afterwards. It is just such a fantastic performer in so many ways that I find myself grabbing it when I want a satisfying shave quite often. The excellent lather production, refreshing scent and feel, great value and superb glide it gives really does make it a stand out product in the cluttered Shaving Cream space. I highly recommend it!

Here are the SLS and Paraben-Free ingredients, which still contain a fair bit of unpronounceables including some ingredients which are considered risky if you’re an all-natural kind of shaver.

Ingredients: Aqua, Stearic Acid, Cocos nucifera Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Glycerin, Lactic Acid, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Menthol, Camphor, Eucalyptol, Eucalyptus globulus Leaf Oil, Pentaerythriytyl Tetra-di-t-butyl Hydroxyhydrocinnamate, Sodium Metasilicate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Hydorixyethylcellulose, Sodium Hyrdoxymethylglycinate, Geraniol, Parfum

Scent: 7/10

Lather: 8/10

Cushion: 9/10

Glide: 8/10

Moisturizing: 7/10

Packaging: 7/10

Value: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Associated Products Used in This Review: Simpson Chubby CH1 Brush, Pottersong Shaving Mug, Bluebeards Revenge Scimitar Razor.

Since all manufacturers have different ideas of what is a “best” or “finest” badger, keep in mind that TGN’s rating system only applies to their own brushes. I decided to break it down into individual reviews with a rating system that compares them with each other. Similar to the rating system that I use for all the other brushes I review, but with less categories since these are just knots. Hope you enjoy the reviews!

1. The Golden Nib TGN Best Badger Shaving Brush Knot Review
2. The Golden Nib TGN Finest 2-Band Badger Knot Review
3. The Golden Nib TGN Silvertip STD XH Badger Knot Review
4. The Golden Nib TGN Super Badger Knot Review
5. The Golden Nib TGN Silvertip Badger Grade A Knot Review
6. The Golden Nib TGN Super Silvertip Badger Knot Review

Now down to the meat and potatoes. How does this sucker stack up to the TGN Silvertip Grade A and Finest knots? Well, I think it fares quite well. Unfortunately I only have experienced this knot in a 20mm size set at a low loft of around 42mm, so I can’t give quite as good an impression of it as I can the Grade A and Finest, both of which I have several of. One limiting factor of this is that this knot is only available in three sizes: 20mm, 22mm and 24mm. Another is that there are just too many choices and the descriptions from TGN are all the same, so a lot of buyers will gravitate towards the tried and true which are the Grade A and the Finest in this case.

While I don’t own a 20mm Silvertip Grade A to compare directly, the Super Silvertip appears to me to be more densely packed. My reasoning is because it has that quality that when you rub the hairs around when wet it feels a bit like a Simpson Chubby or a Shavemac D01 where the hair kind of stays where you moved it and it feels kind of “solid”. While its not as dense as the aforementioned brushes, its still dense, and has somewhat poor flow through for a brush of this size. My other 20mm brushes give up lather more easily.

Here is the close-up of the Super Silvertip. You’ll notice that there aren’t quite as many hooked tips as the Grade A knots, which means the knot doesn’t have the same gel-like tips that the Grade A develops. However, the tips are a bit twisty and they do stick together a bit. That’s a quality that the TGN Super Badger, with its treated tips, seems to lack altogether.

The tips are all natural on the Super Silvertip, and overall the knot seems to have slightly thicker hair than the Silvertip Grade A. I don’t notice as many hairs breaking in use, and the knot seems to lather soaps a bit better. This is an interesting knot, however, because I find that while it doesn’t have the heavily hooked tips, it still feels very soft on the face, but has a bit of scrub as I can still feel the hair fibers on my face. I wouldn’t describe this as “pillow soft”, but it has zero scritch. The backbone on this knot is also a bit hard to describe. While its not floppy at all, it doesn’t have the springyness of the Grade A, but it really handles itself well with soaps due to the density. The backbone is actually very good, but it just shows it slightly differently. Overall its a very satisfying knot that builds me some fantastic lather and does a great job with soaps as well as creams. I don’t think it holds as much water as the Grade A, but its no slouch.

TGN Super Silvertip Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 8
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 8
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 7
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 8
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 6
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 4
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

The TGN Silvertip Grade A is a dense silvertip badger knot, that features relatively fine hairs. Of all the The Golden Nib’s knots I’ve tried, the Grade A has the most fragile hairs and some care should be taken when using it. I wouldn’t be quite as aggressive with this knot as I would be with a TGN Finest, so generally that means avoiding triple-milled soaps and sticking with creams or croaps. This is a great cream brush, and actually does well with soaps but I found that I was losing about one hair each time I used it with soaps, and they weren’t falling out of the knot, they were actually breaking from loading the brush.

The hair has a general springyness to it, and has good bounce. It actually has very good backbone compared to most 3-Band Silvertip brushes, more than what I’ve seen from Shavemac Silvertips and Rooney Silvertips. While its got some decent backbone, its not a Shavemac D01, but its not far off. The knot actually kind of reminds me of the D01 knot, but with less density and less thickness. Its not quite as scrubby.

As you can see from the close-up, the hairs are almost all hooked, and I do get the gel-tip sensation from the TGN Silvertip Grade A. Its softer than the TGN Finest XH at the tips, and its probably around the same density, though the hairs are much thinner. It feels pillowy soft on the face, and the hooked tips really feel great on the face. If this knot was available in the density of a Simpsons Chubby, this would be an amazing brush. I think it would be the ultimate face lathering cream brush.

As it is, however, it is still a fantastic brush, but I would keep it away from hard soaps. It seems to work well set at short or higher lofts, though if you’re a short lofting face latherer, you’re probably going to prefer the TGN Finest knot or even the TGN Super Silvertip more. This, is probably one of the TGN’s softest knots. If you want pillow soft, get a Grade A and set it at a higher loft. There are some new knots that just arrived at TGN including the pricey High Mountain White that I have not tried yet… so these may be softer. However, the Grade A has a great combination of softness combined with backbone.

TGN Silvertip Badger Grade A Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 8
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 7
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 6
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 7
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 4
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 5
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

Since it was my first TGN knot, I didn’t really have anything to compare it to at first, besides the various bigger brand shaving brushes I had purchased before, which were all quite different. Now that I have a lot more brushes and experience, I can share my thoughts a little bit better. This is not simply a “treated” version of the standard TGN Silvertip, which is not a very good knot. This Super Badger is a significantly different animal than the regular silvertip, and more closely resembles TGN’s Silvertip Grade A knot, with slightly less soft tips. The TGN Super Badger is a very densely packed knot, with very white tips that are quite robust. This knot is not as fragile as the Silvertip Grade A.

As you can see, all naturally terminating tips but they’re very white and treated. The knot has good backbone and “spring” to it, so it lathers soap very well. It has “okay” flow-through, but my super badger is a 26mm knot, it requires a LOT of lather so its a bit harder for me to judge compared with my others which are all in 20-24mm size. The tips aren’t hooked, so they don’t develop those gel-like tips that many really love and look for. That makes this knot slightly less soft feeling in my books, but very tough to tell the difference on the face. When hand-lathering I detect a slightly less “slick” feeling when brushing the lather on because it doesn’t gel at the tips – that’s it. Otherwise a great soft brush knot with decent backbone.

TGN Super Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 8
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 7
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 6
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 7
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 5
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 6
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

While the knot is called XH, it doesn’t feel all that dense to me. I think this is actually the floppiest, most uncomfortable badger knot that I have ever experienced. I don’t think this knot is a good value and I personally wouldn’t buy it again. Perhaps if I had mounted it at a lower loft it would have performed better, but it is so prickly, that I almost find it unusable in its current state.

Notice that the hairs are also trimmed, and not all naturally terminating. This is uncommon for a silvertip knot from any company since most silvertip knots are supposed to have natural tips. The knot actually looks a lot like the TGN Best Badger knot, but with more scritch and more flop – two things in my book that should be limited. I don’t mind a little scritch, but this one has too much.

Overall, its pretty obvious that I don’t like this knot and I don’t recommend it. Its one of TGN’s least expensive badger knots, however, so that should be taken into account. Its the cheapest TGN knot I’ve purchased, and it performs like it – so I guess I got what I paid for. However, it wasn’t that cheap at $18, and I’ve bought brushes for $18 that I felt performed better, like many of the Omega Boar Brushes. At any rate, if you’re thinking about this knot, I would recommend spending the extra few dollars and buying the TGN Best Badger, or better yet, the TGN Finest.

TGN Silvertip STD XH Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 3
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 2
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 2
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 3
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 5
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 7
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

TGN brings to the table a high quality 2-Band Badger in the mid $20 range, which is several times cheaper than the big brands. TGN has released a new Premium Finest 2-Band knot as well recently that I have not yet tried and won’t be able to compare this to those slightly more expensive knots yet – but I can’t wait to try them too!

This knot has a good amount of density, just enough for it to feel good on the face, and not too much to affect flow-through and latherability. When set at a low loft, it has incredible scrub and amazing exfoliation – when set at higher loft, it makes a great bowl latherer and still scrubs and exfoliates well because the hair has such great backbone. All tips are natural and not trimmed in the TGN Finest.

As you can see, this knot has creamy white tips that are hooked and twisty. The hooked tips occur after a few uses and the result is the gel-like tips that compare with the lengendary Rooney 2XL. One Caveat: Not all TGN Finests develop the gel-like tips, as some batches vary. I have four TGN Finests, and three of them have gel-like tips, one does not.

The TGN 2-Band is an interesting hair because it is quite a coarse grade of hair providing plenty of backbone that face latherers in particular seek out. However, the TGN finest also exhibits extremely soft and fine tips which result in the gel-like experience. I remember when I first got this knot, I worried because the tips would always dry hard and it was difficult to get the soap out because of the gelling of the tips. Now I just enjoy it!

TGN Finest Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 7
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 9
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 8
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 7
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 9
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 6
Lather Hog		Lather Giver

The TGN Best Badger is a very good knot, and actually more expensive than the Standard Silvertip knot from TGN, and in my opinion, better. The Best knot I have here is a 22mm Extra Density knot that does not appear to be offered anymore on TGN. The hairs are a mixture of trimmed hair and naturally terminating tips, with a variety of grey, brown and banded badger hairs. The end result is a slightly banded, mixed blend of hairs that provide a fair amount of backbone, and has a similar softness/scritchiness as Edwin Jagger Best. It is a bit more scritchy than Simpsons Best.

See the close up above, showing the tip variety more closely. You can see that there are quite a few tips that are naturally terminating and that helps towards softness. The hairs are of a medium thickness, which gives the knot decent backbone, but not quite as much as a TGN Finest 2-Band. The TGN Best knot is above the standard Silvertip in quality, but not as good as any of the other silvertip or finest knots from TGN in my opinion. If you prefer the feel of a little scritch, however, it is a good choice for you as none of the higher end Silvertips nor the Finests have any scritch. Flow-through is average on this knot, and it gives it up when necessary.

TGN Best Badger Knot Specs and Rating:

Softness: 5
Scratchy		Soft
Backbone: 7
Floppy		Strong
Scrub: 5
Gentle		Scrubby
Density: 6
Sparse		Dense
Hair Thickness: 6
Thin		Thick
Flow-Through: 5
Lather Hog		Lather Giver