It's took a few days to get a bit of a smell out of my last brush I bought from kelly but after a few soaks it was smell free, they have a good backbone but not so much that it doesn't bloom nicely when you want to really dig at your face. If you like scritchy brushes it probably isn't for you though, it's got super soft tips which I really like. I don't have big hands and the whaler brush( my first brush, there's pics of it in another post of mine) fits nice in my hand so I'm super excited for this one. Hope that helps. PS in the months I've had my other brush as my daily user it's only she'd like maybe 6-10 hairs.