Boar bristles. Slightly tough but good for loading up the soap from the soap puck after a warm bathe in warm water. No piggy smell encountered that I read from other sites reviews. Does gentle exfoliation to prime the skin for the blades. Handle is plastic coated with chrome skin. Not metal. Good brush overall.

An excellent Italian made shaving brush

This brush very much reminds me of the OMEGA 10049 Professional Boar Hair Brush. It's large, relatively long, with a thick handle, a thick knot of boars' hair and of course it's made in Italy. The knot is so dense and rigid that it absolutely shreds through shaving soaps. That fact combined with the large, solid handle make this brush very easy to lather and load with shaving soap. Esthetically the reflective, silver finish of the handle make it very attractive and cool looking. And lastly, for the money, this brush is a fine value. I'm glad I bought it.

Big and Beutiful

I brought a Boar brush to whip up a good lather, and to give my Best Badger brush a break. I found this brush really does get a very very good lather ,whether its used from a stick on the face or a shave bowl. In fact l rarely use the badger any more as l prefer Boar Bristles' now. It has a quite big handle and loft which is a joy to use and feels good on the face. And so cheap for what you get. I Love IT !

Decent Brush

Decent shaving brush, nothing too special. It stands up brush facing up, so that's cool. If you don't have a shaving brush, you should get one.

Great brush

I am a recent convert to shaving with a safety razor and I made many mistakes when buying what I needed. One of which was the purchase of a poor synthetic bristle brush. It was awful. It shed bristles on every use and would not make a good lather. This is so much better. No bristle loss and the brush gives me a fantastic lather to work with. I highly recommend it.

Great brush!

Just got this brush in the mail. A little odor but nothing crazy. Soaked it a little bit and it is already coming out. Its true boar hair brushes are not as soft as badger. Its amazing how boar brushes soften up after a quick soak in some hot water. Again not badger hair soft but not bad at all. They also soften even more over use. I like the slight scrubby face massage boar gives. Also the extra stiffness makes lathering soaps much easier. Not a bad price either. Give one a try. They are great brushes out of box and get better with time and use.

Great brush, but...

... I find the bristles are too close together as a whole and it felt a bit heavy to me, making it more difficult to get a lather. This is probably because I've come from a brush made from light cheapo wood with a short handle. No denying the build quality - it's lost hardly any bristles during its first few shaves like many cheap hogs hair brushes do. I'd recommend it, but remember to soak it overnight maybe a few times before use (hogs hair absolutely stinks).

Great value for the money.

Italian made brush is very still and has long bristles to whip up shaving later and raise your beard for a close and comfortable shave. I don't know if it's made by Proraso or marketed by them because at the end of the handle it says OMEGA so I'm guessing it's actually and OMEGA brush in a Proraso box. In any event it's a nice brush for the money, delivered to your door and tax free. Can't beat that. One thing to be aware of, since it's a natural product it will smell like a wet animal when you use it initially. Wash it with a good soap and let it air dry, preferably upside down so water won't rot the base glue that holds the bristles. It should last a very long time if taken care of.

Omega

Bristles have a nice firm backbone. The handle is too fat to fit in any of my holders, you can hang at the bristle but that looks terrible next to the razor. The handle is stamped Omega and nowhere does it say Proraso. The packaging does not say Proraso, this could be called any company's brush.

Terrible product

This is a terrible product. It smells like turpentine, which must be some glue they use to hold the bristles in. The bristles are so stiff it is impossible to use as a shaving brush. It just seems like one of those products that was made without ever being tested to see if it's a good idea to make.