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How often do you wash your makeup brushes?


How often do you wash your makeup brushes? Share!

If it’s a richer color, after each use. For anything liquid or cream, after each use. I usually use my angled brow brush several times before washing, and same with the brush I use to apply brow bone highlight.

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Joanna Avatar

Oh, gosh. I’m going to like the responses on this one. I have no idea how much I should be washing them. My liquid foundation brush once a week. Others, for powders, once every other week. I’m guessing this is not right and probably gross!

Cassidy Avatar

I personally don’t know how often i should do it but I spot clean after each use with Mac brush cleanser, and I do a deep clean of all my brushes once a week. it takes forever on my more dense face brushes, so i do them and most of my other face brushes twice a week a lot of the time.

Maria Avatar

I wash all of my brushes which I use on a daily basis, every single day. Apart from my blush brush that is, which I will clean two to three times a week. I use one blush brush for the one blush which I’m loving right now, and it’s the most tedious of jobs to clean that particular brush out of the rest, because of how much extra effort I need to put in, and clean out as much of the product from it!

CatherineM Avatar

My foundation and concealer brushes after each use, if I’m really in a hurry, I’ll leave it for the next day, but never longer. Eyeshadow and other face brushes at least once a week, except when I use cream shadow with some red in it (e.g. Chanel Fatal and Ebloui, Bobbi Brown Berry Noir), since they tend to stain white brushes terribly if not washed immediately after use.

Kirsty Avatar

Wow you wash your brushes quite often! I wish I would do that; I wash them at least once a week, but usually not more than twice a week. I should try to wash them more often!

KaseyCannuck Avatar

My small eyeshadow brushes get washed after each use. My large face and blush brushes get washed when the colour looks like its building up on the bristles. Most of the large ones are so dense that they take over a day to dry and I don’t have multiples of these to use while I wait.

Erica Avatar

Not as often as I’d like. My eye brushes get a water rinse after every use, but I usually put my brushes in the laundry pile after about a week of use or whenever they just start feeling gross. I wear mineral makeup so I have a little more leeway.

Danielle Avatar

I usually shampoo my brushes every other week, although I am trying to get better and wash them every week (but sometimes I do genuinely forget). But I spot clean everyday after I apply my makeup.

Veronica Avatar

I try to do a deep washing with baby shampoo once a week. I usually do it on Sunday afternoons. I also do quick cleanings on my foundation brush and my most used ones between washings with a little MAC brush cleaner.

zFashionizta Avatar

I cleaned them once a week with a brush cleansing spray and monthly with a baby shampoo. I clean my liquid Foundation and concealer brush before I use them.

Zsuzsi Avatar

Hi Christine! ^^

I always clean my brushes if I use a darker, richer color, or after the massive cream eyeshadows.
My problem is, that the end of my Real Technique brushes (Deluxe crease brush, and the Shading Brush) remained blue even after washing them out with shampoo several times… 🙁
I have tried to stick there ends for a few minutes to waterproof makeup remover, but the massive blue is still there 🙁
MAC – Submarine was the blue 😛

Have you got any idea, how do I get rid of this blue? Or could you recommend me a brush cleaner?

Thank you! ^^

Jennifer Avatar

The brush I wash most often is my concealer brush – I use it to spot conceal on blemishes so it gets washed every week, which is about every other use. Next is my eyeliner brushes because of a combination of creamy product and high pigmentation. They get washed before each use, but I have a bunch so each one only gets washed maybe once a month. All my other brushes I wash if I notice they’re dirty or a bright color is clinging. Every other month I do a giant wash-everything and sanitize the whole vanity thing.

Karla Avatar

I have no idea how often should i wash them, i use makeup 3 to 4 times a week but only use my brushes on powder products as i apply liquid foundation and concealer with my fingers, i wash them every 2 to 3 weeks, dont know if its enough…

Gabriela Avatar

Concealer and foundation brushes: I have oily skin so I wash them after each use.
Powder brushes (powder foundation and setting powder): once a week.
Powder brushes (eye makeup): once a week.

Nicole Avatar

I usually clean my brushes every Sunday with a two-step cleansing routine. First, I use the MAC Brush Cleanser, second the Beauty Blender Liquid for a deep clean. This works pretty good, especially for my foundation and cream eye shadow brushes.

LU Avatar

I would say once a month for most brushes with Hakuhodo brush cleanser. My foundation and concealer brush, once a week. Christine, am I supposed to be using a seperate hair conditioner on my Hakuhodo brushes? I’ve been so afraid to ruin them I’ve only used Hakuhodo brush cleanser on them since I got them in January.

Laura_Lou Avatar

I quickly spot clean after each use (or I’m in a rush I’ll do it next time I use it). The brushes I use all the time ie. my everyday makeup brushes, will get washed once every 1-2 weeks depending on how I’ve used them. The others that don’t get used as much probably get washed once every 4-8 weeks. I absolutely hate washing my brushes so I try to leave it for as long as possible.

patsyann Avatar

I don’t wash my brushes very often unless I have used a cream or liquid product. For those brushes, I will wash them after two or three uses. I do wash my concealer brush almost every day. I have back ups so I always have a clean one on hand. I rarely use my powder or bronzer brushes so they don’t get washed maybe not more than a few times a year. My eye shadow brushes get wiped off well after use as do my blush brushes. If they have been heavily used, I will wash them every week. Since I don’t wear makeup everyday, I don’t feel the need to wash out my brushes on a regular basis. I stick to neutral eyeshadows so a good wipe and I am good to go for the next color. I never condition them.

Emily Avatar

I usually wash all of my makeup brushes after every use with brush shampoo and brushegg, doesn’t matter what products I use. I honestly don’t know how anyone can go a week without cleaning their brushes at least once.

Tangie Wimberly Avatar

I hate to even look at a dirty brush it drive me crazy..!so they get cleaned everyday I try to not be so anal and clean them once a week but I can’t LOL… Sad part is I have enough brushes to last a while but then who wants to have to clean hundreds of brushes at once. ? Not me.!

Bonnie Avatar

I feel so gross saying this but once every two weeks or so or even up to a month later :/ but I have many many many brushes and I rotate through them for the same purpose (eg. I have several blush brushes and I don’t use just one all the time, but I rotate through all of them)

Bella Avatar

Sheesh, how do you people have time to wash your brushes everyday!? I do it at least once a month honestly, where I deep wash them and let them dry out. I spot clean after a few uses.

Jennie Avatar

I wash my foundation brushes after every use. My powder brushes once a week and I spot clean in between when needed. My natural hair brushes I wash once a week if need be or once every 2 weeks. I don’t want to dry out the bristles on my natural hair ones so I wash them less but they are easy to spot clean between washes. My eye brushes once to twice a week depending on the eyeshadow 🙂 Plus I keep a lot of backup brushes so I don’t have to wait for a brush to dry.

Brenda Avatar

I like the answer “when they’re dirty”! It’s kind of true for me – I only wear makeup once or twice a week so if my skunk brush isn’t white, I wash it. if I’ve used really dark or super sparkly shadows/pigments, those get washed right away or next day. I don’t like the thought of mixing colours with whatever was left on the brush from last time. I like a clean brush for each colour.

I try to wash foundation brushes once a week or after 3-4 uses. I have 3 that I rotate through and often use fingers or a sponge as well, depending on my skin condition, what formula I’m using, etc. I hate to think about the gunk that builds up on them and how my skin is probably taking some abuse if my foundation applicators are dirty. I am trying to be better with skincare so I need less makeup!

Funny enough though, my concealer brush gets neglected as that is the one that sees the most use, as does my brow brush. Powder brush and the 217 I keep strictly for highlighting/skin colour, Need to do those more frequently..but they get used for the same products every time so… I know. Ick.

joanna Avatar

skinny eyeliner brushes after every use….the rest once every 2 months i have so many brushes that i dont have to worry about doing brush laundry that often

Erica Avatar

I’m lucky that I have enough brushes that I can rotate. I wash most of my brushes after each use, but I wait until the end of the week to wash them. I use the same brow, foundation and powder brush 2-3 times before washing or rotating them.

Kat Avatar

Well, like you said, if it’s an especially rich color, I’ll wash it out immediately. I wash my foundation brush after each use.

Otherwise, I wash them roughly every fifth time I use them, but it also depends on when I’m going to use them again. If I know I’ll want X brush later today, I won’t wash it. I wash my natural hair brushes more than my synthetics too.

Candice Avatar

I need to change my set up and habits for brushes… Either have more than one for each use so I can do 1 major clean per week or else a set up where I clean just a couple brushes but daily or every 2 days…

I believe I need more eye shadow brushes though, I have trouble getting through one full look without muddying the colours from lack of washed brushes.

Terri Avatar

I spot clean them every day and wash them weekly or so. Lately I have been lazy though. I DID get the Suqqu face brush for Mother’s Day and I treat it like my other brushes but it does have it’s own brush holder on my vanity. Yeah, I need a life. I get that.

ana2cats Avatar

After every use I clean my brushes with MAC Brush Cleanser. Love it! It takes of all makeup and brush is ready to go again! 🙂 Every 3-4 weeks I wash tham with baby shampoo and I even put hair conditioner to natural fibre ones 🙂

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