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What do you use to clean your brushes?

What do you use to clean your brushes? Brush cleaner? Baby shampoo?

I alternate between MAC’s Brush Cleanser and Baby Shampoo.

Thanks to Casti for today’s question! Got a question idea? Submit yours here.

78 Comments

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kurisu Avatar

Baby shampoo. However, I’m one of those girls who don’t wear makeup that often anymore. As in, I wear makeup maybe 1-3 days a week. Since I generally stick to eye makeup, I only wash my eye brushes. And since I’m a lazy bum, I only wash them maybe once every few weeks, lol! I probably only wear powder or blush/bronzer a few days a month!

When I do wash my brushes, it’s usually with baby shampoo to deep clean them.

Gloria Avatar

Hand soap. Sometimes I’ll condition it with conditioner. Purity by Philosophy also works really great as a brush cleanser! That’s what I used today while washing brushes at the store!

astrid Avatar

For every after use: MAC’s Brush Cleanser.
For deep cleaning: I used a special cleanser for super sensitive skin. It has no fragrance, no SLS, no strange chemicals, just plain liquid soap. It’s gentler than baby shampoo. The brushes are super clean and somehow moisturized as well. It’s a German brand called Alterra.

Musing on Beauty Avatar

Marseille soap, the old unscented traditional bar, several Mac artists recommended this to me and I’ve been using that for years, it works great.
In between my weekly deep cleansing, I do use MUFE brush cleanser because it dries immediately and works great.

monika-luiza Avatar

baby shampoo! don’t see why I should “invest! in brushcleanser. some on my brushes are now about 5years old and still look and perform very well

Haya Avatar

mac brush cleanser all the way, but i have a tiny bit of advice……..
get a tissue, fold it twice, then hold the bottle upside down, without pressing on the bottle….. cause product comes bursting out of the bottle without any pressure.
Anyways, put a little bit of cleanser on the tissue and stoke ur brush back and forth until u find that it is sparkly clean!!!
This way, u save sooooo much product while getting ur brushes clean at the same time!!!!!

Tahnee Avatar

I live in Australia, and Makeup & Glow (which is based in Queensland) has THE BEST brush cleanser! It’s their own recipe, mainly for a quick-dry on-the-job sanitise, however smells lovely and really cleans my brushes well from thick foundation, mascara and the most pigmented red shades! it’s amazing!

if you are FROM AUSTRALIA, please check Makeup & Glow out! I highly recommend them! (They’re going to be at the Sydney IMATS this Saturday.

Michelle Avatar

Thanks for the heads up Tahnee, I’ll definitely look into that!! 😉 And ohhhh IMATS Sydney, I soooo wanted to go to that….I wish they would have held it in Melbourne instead!! :'(

Sarah Avatar

MAC’s brush cleanser for the daily cleaning and baby shampoo for the big cleaning once a month.
I have to say though, that I wash my foundation brush with baby shampoo after ever use. Brush cleanser just doesn’t cut it for the foundation “left-overs”. 😉

Lea Avatar

I use MAC Brush Cleanser on my eyebrushes and I clean my face brushes with soap. I used to use a deep cleansing hair shampoo, but I don’t see a difference.

Tiffany C. Avatar

i use Antibacterial dish soap and EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). The anitbacterial soap gets rid of the germs and bacteria and the olive oil conditions the brushes. I also notice that when i use these two my brushes keep their shape and look as if they were just bought, whereas when i use to use baby shampoo or Philosophy purity made simple they would fray.

Michelle Avatar

Do you know what, Christine? I sooooo wanted to ask this question to you and your readers so I’m glad Casti asked it!! 🙂 I use shampoo and conditioner but I want to know what’s good as an instant spray and wipe type cleaner? MAC seems to be the go so far, but is that super expensive? Also, baby shampoo seems quiet popular with alot of your readers too, can somebody answer me why that is? Is there a new tip/secret that I’ve not heard of that I’m missing out on? Is normal shampoo/conditioner not good enough? ;p

Tiffany C. Avatar

when i used to use baby shampoo it was because i figured that if it was gentle enough for a baby then it would be great for my brushes; when i used baby shampoo i didn’t need a conditioner. I don’t use that anymore though, now i use EVOO and Antibacterial soap.

Melissa Avatar

Not sure if this will help you but, when I need a brush cleaned immediately, I use Huggies Sensitive Skin Baby Wipes. It leaves no film on the brushes.

Tia Patrice Avatar

I used to use Baby Shampoo but realized that some of my goat hair bruses were not coming back as white as they previously were. Also baby shampoo dosent disinfect or condition the bristles. So I did some research and found that olive oil and antibacterial dish liquid works wonders on brushes especislly white hair brushes. The oil breaks the makeup in the brush down and conditions the bristles while the soap disinfects and cleanses.

Rosamaria Avatar

I use MAC brush cleaner for all my brushes except those that I use for foundation. I find I never get all the foundation out of them unless I use baby shampoo.

Natalie Avatar

I swear by Sephora’s brush cleanser. It’s so easy to use! I just put a bit in the palm of my hand and use that with warm water. It smells great and works quickly. I have MAC’s but didn’t like it as much.

fauxfur Avatar

baby shampoo is formulated for a baby’s skin, not hair, so it will dry out your brushes.
use normal, conditioning shampoo for your natural hair brushes. brush cleanser to disinfect.

mindy Avatar

I just use either my Quo brush shampoo or my Clinique brush cleaning spray. It feels like the shampoo gets them super clean and lasts longer so I prefer it but If I wanna be quick and lazy I use the spray.

Michele Avatar

MAC Brush Clean Cleaner or Beauty So Clean Conditioning Brush Spray daily and either a very general shampoo or gentle all-natural liquid soap weekly. Sometimes I use a little Lancome’s Bi-Facial on my foundation brush to get worst of it off depending on what foundation I’ve been using.

Melissa Avatar

I alternate between Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo and Herbal Essences Body Envy Shampoo (I used Herbal Essences before switching to Redken’s volumizing shampoo – rather than dumping the remaining amount, I use it to clean my brushes).

Dana Avatar

I wash all used brushes once a week with baby shampoo. However, I wash my foundation & concealer brushes daily and just give them a quick wash with my facial cleanser (Cetaphil)

Fudgedrops Avatar

Like many comments here, I use Mac brush cleaners for spot cleaning and baby shampoo for deep cleaning. However, a bottle of Mac brush cleaner costs almost as much as a Mac eyeshadow in my country. I finish a bottle of cleaner in a month and I don’t even put on makeup every other day. It is almost like finishing a Mac eyeshadow in a month. It is simply expensive. I welcome any suggestion that can improve the situation.

mylinda Avatar

My standby cleansers (for weekly cleaning and immediate cleansing) are baby shampoo and Woolite. I’ve found that baby shampoo doesn’t completely get all the pigment out of certain brushes so for those (esp the white-haired brushes), Woolite really gets everything off. Think of it like you’re tossing it in the washer (which is what I do with powder puffs and reusable sponges). For brushes that are used on cream or waterproof products, I sometimes use Woolite too or a facial cleansing oil (washes off better than EVOO). For the ones it can’t get off, I bust out the Joy (dish liquid) and then shampoo it to get the hairs soft again.

I have multiples of every type of brush so I can afford to clean my brushes more often. So far, with all of these items that I use, they have not damaged any of my brushes, expensive or otherwise. I’ve used Clinique and Laura Mercier brush cleaner in the past. But I now prefer the above methods.

nunuiviet Avatar

2 days ago , i tried to clean my brushes with LANEIGE mutli cleanser foam (famous korean brand) and it works so well, my brushes are so clean and well condition , very good!

Catherine Avatar

I use my bf’s cycle cleaner called MUC OFF. This stuff cleans tar off wheels so it can strip make up no problem. It’s environmentally friendly, pink & does an amazing job plus it’s only £7 a litre. I mix a little with IPA, water & liquid conditioner – works like a charm.

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