How do you keep your makeup brushes clean? Share your tips!
I use MAC’s Brush Cleanser and baby shampoo – I prefer baby shampoo for day to day cleaning and then the brush cleanser for more thorough cleansing.
Thanks to Jessica for today’s question!
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I was faithful to the MAC’s brush cleaner until I learned that it doesn’t play nice with other brushes. So its baby shampoo for non-MAC brushes and MAC brush cleaner for my MAC brushes until I an find an alternative.
Really? MAC Brush Cleaner works fine of my Rock and Republic brushes. Weird
Have you tried Dr. Bronner’s Castille Soap? Love it and it’s gentle on all brushes. (You can get it at Target, some health food stores, and a few other places. I use Almond.) It’s very popular on a make-up site I frequent.
I use this too, but I keep a 25/75 soap/water diluted bottle on hand for face/body/makeup brush washing. I love it!
I use the MAC Brush Cleanser every night before I go to sleep, I clean them up very quickly and then at the end of the week I do sort of a deep clean with baby shampoo 🙂 Sorry for bad english btw lol
I don’t know where you heard this, but… I don’t own a single MAC brush (yet!) and most of my brushes are sintetic too… but it works so well with them, I love it!
I thoroughly wash my brushes with baby shampoo once a week. I suppose I should wash them everyday.
Antibacterial soap and olive oil. Sometimes conditioner instead of olive oil.
olive oil?? how do you use that? Im curious.
I use MAC brush cleaner to spot clean my brushes, and then baby shampoo at least once every two weeks
First I soak my brushes in luke warm water. I clean my brushes with baby shampoo and a couple pumps of antibacterial moisturizing hand soap. Then I put suave humectress conditoner on them and let them sit for 20 minutes. I rinse, then I air dry. I do this every saturday morning.
I clean them right after I use then by using brush off makeup brush cleanser, but I will give then a deep clean once every week by using dawn lol I have Mac brush cleanse but I don’t like it.,,
For synthetic brushes I used Pink liquid brush soap from Michael’s. For all other brushes I use Becca Brush soap that conditions as it cleans.
I also use the mac brush cleanser. I put it in a spray bottle for easy use and travel.
Sephora Antibacterial Brush Spray for everyday and their Brush Shampoo once a week usually on Sundays.
Funny that this question comes up now, since I’ve just started looking for a thorough brush cleanser and would love to hear what other Temptalia readers have to say on that matter!
I like to use MAC’s Brush Cleanser for spot cleaning and then I use baby shampoo for deep cleansing, but I feel like it’s too “gentle” on them, because the more dense brushes need to be cleaned for half an hour before every last trace of foundation and whatnot comes out. And there’s always still some pigment showing on my goat hair brushes. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, and yesterday I found a Danish website that carries it, so I think I’ll give it a shot!
HIGHLY recommend Cinema Secrets Professional Brush Cleaner. Check out the reviews on makeupalley. This is the best of the best & price-wise with shipping for the 32 oz. it’s even slightly less expensive than other HE cosmetic brands. Has a very slight, wonderful vanilla fragrance when you put your nose to the brush. Yes, I’m a sniffer. lol!
I wash my regular hair brushes about once a week with a sulfate free shampoo and I use a brush cleanser for my foundation and concealer brushes after ever use because it seems to work better than the shampoo for foundations and such.
I clean the small brushes with mac brush cleanser. brushes like powder brushes, foundation i always clean with baby shampoo.
I clean them once a week with baby shampoo. During the week I use MAC cleanser for spot cleaning, especially the eye brushes. However I clean with shampoo the foundation brush after using it once or twice.
I use Bobbi Brown Brush Cleaner, I own MAC Brush Cleanser too but I hardly ever use it because I prefer the gel consistency of Bobbi Brown’s. I clean all brushes that I use for liquid products like foundation, cocealer, face cream etc. immedeately after use and all brushes for powder products once a week.
I actually spot my clean brushes every other day with Cinema Secrets Professional Brush Clear (the best brush cleaner I have ever tried). I deep clean my brushes once a week with homemade brush cleaner of baby shampoo/olive oil/tea tree oil – this combination deep cleanses, moisturizers, conditions, and disinfects my makeup brushes and woks better than any store bought deep cleaner (including MAC’s brush cleaner) that I have tried to date.
i use mac brush cleaner on my mac brushes. however, i find my 109 really shreds! after application i’m left with tons of tiny hairs on my face. any tips on how to avoid this? i’m ready to buy a new one 🙁
Unfortunately, this is the nature of the MAC 109. Ask to see a MAC SA’s 109 & rub your fingers over this brush & the ends of their’s, too, will break off readily.
if it’s just a quick swipe for e/s brushes b/c i need to use them for another color, i just use make up remover on a cotton pad. for thorough cleansing i use a mixture of dish liquid, olive oil and hand sanitizer. cleanses, disinfects and conditions brushes!
I use MAC brush cleaner on a daily basis and once a week use baby shampoo to give them a thorough clean.
I only use brushes for dry powder products so they don’t get real gunky. What I do before and after every use is wipe them on a damp old towel – this does a pretty good job of getting any leftover powder off the bristles.
I wash them every few weeks with baby shampoo and rinse them well.
There’s no way I would have the time to wash them every day.
I use MAC’s brush cleaner faithfully. Pour it into a spray bottle and it works really well. It also cleans my Sophia Kashuk and EcoTools brushes as well without any issues.
Drugstore branded baby shampoo.
I spray them with Sephora’s brush cleaner pretty regularly – every 1-3 times I use them. I rarely wash them in the sink though, oops.
Every night, before I go to bed, I use MAC Brush Cleanser to spot-clean any brushes that I used for powder products and I wash the cream or liquid product brushes with shampoo. Sunday night, I take all the brushes I used that week and use shampoo and a little bit of conditioner to wash them, and this keeps them all nice and soft and they last forever.
I didn’t used to do this (just shampooed them once in awhile and that was it) and when my good brushes started to splay out and get shorter and shorter, I had to re-buy everything and now I take really good care of them.
MAC Brush Cleanser is the best 🙂
I really like MAC´s Brush cleaner, it´s fast, helpful and not that expensive
Dr. Bronner’s Castille Soap for any brush.
mac brush cleanser:)
I use mac brush cleaner for quick cleaning and for deep cleaning I use Pink Soap. Leave brushes conditioned and soft.
Olive oil and Dawn dish soap once a week gets EVERYTHING off the brush and conditions at the same time. I use the Mac cleaner intermittenly during the week and it is not the greatest at getting cream products off the brush. Mac’s cleaner is just okay, but not for deep cleaning.
I use the make up for ever brush cleanser (comes in a spray bottle) for day-to-day use, and i deep wash them like every 5 weeks with baby shampoo and a bit of dish washer do remove the stain
Brush Off!!!! As a MUA I don’t know how I could live without it – spot cleans to perfection, sanitizes and dries almost instantly. This stuff is killer.
When I have time to let them dry, I deep clean with baby shampoo.
With lukewarm water and Marseilles’ soap (real Marseilles soap is basically made of 72% oil – a combination of olive oil and other oils – and the rest is water, so it’s a very good mild soap). Every 4-5 washes, I’ll use an organic, silicone-free conditionner for my natural-bristle brushes (the same one I use on my own hair) after I’ve just cleaned them. I let the product set in for 10-15 minutes and then I thoroughly rinse the brushes out. Then they’re super soft! 🙂
I have used some my my oil cleanser on my natural brushes with good results. Thanks for reminding me. I don’t have an oil cleanser open right now in use.
I clean all but my gel liner brush with WEN or Purity. My gel liner brush because it needs cleaning after every use & I stock pile them (BE full edge – angle brush)I swipe it over the top line bar soap that is in my bathroom in a dish for those who visit me and have to have a bar soap. I think I have 40 years worth of top line bar soaps since that’s the only place I use them. A few swipes of my liner brush with water and it’s clean, set aside to dry for the next time I am ready to use my BB gel liners – I tend to go back & forth between BB gel and pencil Waterproof Tarte liners and always UD 24/7. I am habitual about brush cleaning however – dusty from non use & sitting out, or used all the time. Reminds me, I need to get to an Aveda store and pick up 2 new fav eye shadow brushes. Left one at a motel I have not replaced yet.
MAC Brush Cleanser… and my foundation brushes washed with baby shampoo.
MAC Brush Cleaner every time I use them, then a sanitising cleaner also (because the MAC once doesn’t have a sanitiser in it I don’t think).
Then every week I cleanse with Velvet soap. It’s amazing stuff!!
I think some of you gals may find this interesting. Since I’m going to make Enkore’s brush cleaner, & having birds, I know that Dawn & Palmolive were always used for cleaning feathers. Anyway, here’s a Science Fair study that was done. One of the slides show the feathers’ progression with each detergent. According to the study you must have a detergent with sulfactant properties which reduces the interfacial tension between the oil & water; so you want a sulfate detergent with the least amount of interfacial tension for easier removal of oil. And our brushes pick up oil from our face & our mu products.
http://www.slideshare.net/AndrewChen4/google-science-fair-summary
I was reading through the answers and surprised by not reading more on dishwashing soap.. i use dawn for deep cleanse and mac cleanser for spot cleaning.. i love Enkore’s video too!!
Interesting, thanks you for that information
Parian Spirit for spot cleaning, Caudalie Gentle Cleanser for monthly cleaning, and olive oil for brushes used for cream, gel, or liquid products.
baby shampoo!
Cover Fx makes the best brush cleaner I’ve ever used. It also smells of Teat Tree Oil, so you know it’s cleaning and disinfecting, but the smell goes away completely as it dries. I keep some in a spray bottle, and i quick clean between clients (they dry almost immediately) and i also use it as shampoo for deep cleaning. I think it’s just $13 for 8 oz.
I use Sephora’s daily brush cleaning spray for day-to-day cleaning, and then either their shampoo, Dr Bronner’s, or MAC shampoo for deep cleaning once every two weeks or so. I don’t use many brushes daily, so the quick daily spray is great to keep the ones I do rely on fresh and ready to go every day!
I use baby wipes to clean it daily and I use either Dawn or baby shampoo and Aussie Moist conditioner to deep clean and condition it.
I use a gentle shampoo to wash my brushes and then place the brushes on a paper towel to dry
I spot clean my brushes every time I use them with a homemade brush cleaner that Koren from EnKore Makeup posted on his YouTube channel. Then once a week I give them a deep cleaning with Dr. Bronner’s Castile liquid soap that I found at target. It seems to get out even the deepest dirt that other cleaners leave behind. I like the Lavender or the Peppermint scents.