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How do you prevent staining your brushes?


How do you prevent staining your brushes? Share!

I find Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap to be really good at getting all of the product out of the brush even if I forgot to wash it for a bit. My best advice is to wash any brushes that have a deeper/intense pigmented products on them right after using them. If you use any cream/liquid products, it’s even more important, from my experience.

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bella Avatar

I use dr bronner soap but find the brushes smell incredibly nasty afterwards no matter how much you rinse them 🙁 right now I’ve started using lush shampoo bars but not sure how good that is when you’re using the brushes on the face later, might be irritating on the skin if any residue is left

Nicole Avatar

All my brushes that see creams/foundations get a good spray wipe daily. I have been using Parian Spirit spray. I am not too crazy about it tho espescially on natural hair brushes a I feel it leaves a film a little. I will be picking up something else asap…Probably the Mac spray.Any other suggestions are appreciated?:) I also wipe off with a fragrance free baby wipe every so often , my more delicate brushes. I try to designate a brush for a particular product . So, I don’t even do that too much. But, for instance if I use a bronzer, I prefer to get it off, so I use a baby wipe. I deep wash brushes that I know have seen cream,liquid, or color(eye brushes) once weekly with baby shampoo. I did just order the dr. Bronner’s baby shampoo this past weekend though. So, i will be trying that out as well!

Norma Avatar

I feel like there is no way getting around washing brushes within a 3-4 days for liquid, cream or dark pigmented products. And I wash my beauty blender every day. I have to use it wet anyway and it cleans very fast with my Daiso cleanser.

Casey Avatar

Unfortunately, Houston has very hard water– hard enough to render Dr. Bronner’s soap almost ineffective. It just builds up a very nasty, greyish soap scum. I use a gentle non-sulfate shampoo on my brushes instead. It works well.

xamyx Avatar

Although I try to clean my brushes every day or two, I sometimes allow them to accumulate in my “dirty brush cup”, and end up with several brushes that need to be cleaned in bulk. A while back, I decided to look online for DIY cleaning methods, and I stumbled on one that was basically one cup warm water, and one tablespoon each of distilled vinegar & dish soap. This particular concoction really appealed to me due to the anti-bacterial nature of the vinegar, so I decided to try it. Not only did this work quickly, and really deep clean into the bristles (I just placed the bristles into the cup & rinsed under the faucet with tepid water), but even my stained brushes came out clean! Even brushes I *thought* had been thoroughly cleaned using more “traditional” methods apparently still had product burrowed into the bristles, and when I placed them into “fresh” solution, I was able to see product escaping from the bristles…

I use this method every week or so, mainly for my most-used brushes (which are primarily face brushes), and the only downside is the very faint vinegar scent, which can be alleviated by using a more scented detergent. Still, knowing how clean my brushes actually are, it’s well worth it!

Donna Avatar

Thanks for the suggestion! I have some really stinky Sephora brushes that were a good price and I thought I could get the smell out of them but have not been able to fix that issue. I’ll try the vinegar, the smell of vinegar would be preferable to the smell of the larger brushes. I asked the sales associate (I think she’s a manager) about it and she said “it might be the type of hair the brush is made from”. Hmm..I’ve not smelled an animal that smell this bad!

denniel Avatar

I wash my powder brushes once a week. Any brushed that are used in a cream/liquid, I use a daily spray and it removes most of the stain. It’s pretty much inevitable to get them stained. I love the sephora daily spray. It’s a simple spray and wipe, that’s it. I swirl it on a tissue until no more color comes off and it’s done. It’s only $8 for a small bottle that lasts forever!

Logan Avatar

I absolutely ADORE Purity by Philosophy to clean my brushes/sponges. I discovered how well it worked a few months ago, when I switched cleansers and needed to use up the rest of my bottle. It even got the months-old stains out of my beauty blender! Its also great because I used to notice little bumps on the areas of my face where I needed more concentrated brush work (like a cheek contour), and it must have been from the liquid soap residue on my sensitive skin; since I switched to Purity, they haven’t come back!

Janet Avatar

I clean my beauty blender and foundation and concealer brushes daily with clear antibacterial soap (it’s has no dye or fragrance, is antibacterial and I know it doesn’t break me out!) daily by swishing my brushes in a small plate filled with the soap and then rinsing and it works amazing at removing any residue and stains and my powder brushes weekly. The only product I have had issue with staining is my white beauty blender 🙁

Rachel R. Avatar

I wash right away with e.l.f. brush shampoo, which is amazing at getting out even old, red stains. If that doesn’t quite do it, I massage bhcosmetics makeup remover (also amazing for getting off staining makeup) through the bristles. I let it sit a couple minutes, then wash again with the shampoo.

dylan Avatar

I use my Clinique foaming cleanser on all of my brushes. For some reason it just perfectly makes all of the makeup melt off my brushes. they look brand new after using this cleanser. I use it for my face too, 2 birds one stone haha. Even my Mac stipling foundation brushes come out white. Any other cleanser or brush cleaner I’ve used still leaves a brownish tint. It’s my holy grail.

Brooke Avatar

As for my personal brushes..If they stain, they stain. I don’t like using stained brushes on my clients, so I’ll let the bristles soak over night in diluted brush soap and olive oil. If the stain isn’t coming out I just replace the brush.

Fran Avatar

I have the most trouble with stubborn staining with eye brushes — some of the dark blue and green eye shadows really stain. I’ve switched to mostly synthetic-bristle brushes for eye shadows so that I can clean them with alcohol. After using, I wipe them off on a cloth, then swish them around on a sponge at the bottom of an artist’s jar with rubbing alcohol in it (70% disinfects the best, but 90% leaves the bristles feeling nicer), wipe on a paper towel and lay flat or facing slightly downhill to dry. For really stubborn stains I’ll use a bit of Parian Spirit. For natural bristle brushes, I wipe them off thoroughly on a microfiber cloth immediately after using and wash when needed in something I’m comfortable washing my face with. Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple seems to do a really nice job cleaning brushes. To get OCC Lip Tars out of (synthetic fiber) lip brushes, I use oil or a cleansing oil, followed by alcohol.

Jip Avatar

I use Temptu Silicon based liquid BEFORE I do the regular cleaning or immediately after using a product I know that will stain . Works most of the time for me.

Donna Avatar

I use Bobbi Brown Brush Cleanser for my powder brushes and whatever facial cleanser I’m trying to use up on the stubborn pigment brushes. It was recommended to me by a senior MAC Makeup Artist to use Dawn Dish Washing Liquid Soap on the brushes with stubborn pigment stains. This does work but I only use it as the last option.

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