Can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this earlier; because if you’re a true makup junkie, you’d know how nasty your makeup brushes can get – washing them is absolutely vital!
In fact, here’s a little experiment to do on a rainy afternoon… grab your makeup brushes, fill up a plastic cup of water, and mix your brushes in them. Can you see all the gunk that comes out? I tried this recently and the water was dirt BROWN. Yucks! (Reminder to self: Wash brushes at least once a week.)
If you use makeup everyday and your brushes are overused, I’d recommend this as well! Cleaning your brushes means less bacteria, less gunk on your face each time… and less mess. So here’s how I clean mine, hopefully it will work for you as well. First and foremost, what you need: a plastic cup, baby shampoo, water and your dirty makeup brushes.
What to do:
- First, fill up the cup with 4 parts water and 1 part baby shampoo.
- Gently swirl the cup so the shampoo mixes in with the water.
- Grab a handful of your brushes (if you have many, you may need a few more cups to fill them all in) and put them in the cup, swishing them around in the water; where you can see all the awful dirt!
- Once the water is as dirty as possible, pour it away and repeat the whole step again. Keep doing this process… when you can swish your brushes in the cup and the water still stays clean, then you’re done! Once you think the brushes are clean, rinse them gently with water.
- Mold the brush in its correct shape (this is important – I forgot this once and my precious MAC brush dried up in a weird position, with half the brush hairs sticking out 90 degrees!). Not fun. So remember to shape them correctly into their original shape.
- Last but not least, let the brushes lie on a paper towel or cloth overnight.
Voila! Clean makeup brushes. If you use makeup and brushes daily, I’d recommend to wash your brushes once a week. If you’re not too regular with makeup, then 2 weeks is fine. And that’s the maximum!
I hope my tips have been helpful. 
If you’ve been doing something different, let us all know! Also, how often do you wash your makeup brushes?
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually tried this method before and really liked it. Much better for my hands, since all the smooshing of water and soap and then rinsing made my hands dry
I usually wash my eye brushes every week (or if I’m feeling really lazy, I can push it to every 2 weeks before noticing any creasing in my makeup) and will wash face brushes every few days.
Any specific baby shampoo recommendation? Something that would keep the brushes very soft and work well on synthetic bristles?
Hey Ashley! I use Johnson’s baby shampoo – cheap and good.
I think the softness also depends on the brushes, though? For example I bought a set from MAC a long time ago and they are really good quality; extremely soft and look brand new after a good wash. I think with brushes you def get what you pay for, it’s worth the investment since they can be used for over 10 years! 
I once figured it might be good idea to add Detol to the mix…. OMG the brushes got really stinky, but at least I was sure they were clean xD
Hey Angmoh
Haha.
Detol is a good idea, I can understand why you thought of it. Hopefully you washed it really well after, I can imagine it might irritate sensitive skin if there’s even a trace of it left on the brushes!
I’ve been using shampoo to wash my brushes for a while. Which was okay when I didn’t have a foundation brush.
Foundation is MUCH trickier to get out properly – especially if you use Revlon Colorstay like me. That shit does NOT budge!
Out of desperation one day I tried out some CLEANSER.
Neutrogena Deep Clean cream cleanser to be precise. I figured if it works to get the makeup off my face it should work for the brush.
And it WORKED. Brilliantly too!
I just massaged some of the cleanser into the brush gently. Splay the bristles a bit but not too much as to damage them.
Then rinse and repeat until the foundation is gone. It works a million times better than anything else I’ve tried.
Hey Esz! Oh cleanser sounds like a great idea, I never thought of that one. I suppose for liquid foundations it would be harder, so you’d need to wash really regularly so no permanent staining occurs. (I’m saying this ’cause of thinking of art class and paint brushes, haha..)
I put some baby oil on my kichen tissue (the one we use to absorb oil) and swirl the brush in circular motion. Next , dip the brush into a basin with warm water and liquid soap (for bathing). Slowly swirl the brush in the water. rinse with clean water and dry the brush flat.
Hey Lavender, thanks for your tip.
Baby oil sounds great, but if it hard to wash off in the end? Oil is always a hassle, no?
I usually dry my brushes upside down to stop water from getting into the metal crimp and loosening to bristles, but it’s really annoying because the only way i can think of to do it is to use hair clasps which is really tricky when it comes to washing really really short ‘n thin brushes. When i asked i discovered than NONE of my friends wash their makeup brushes – i was very shocked, lol
^-^
Hi,
I remember a post from another blog (I think it was Shades of U) where the writer dried her brushes upside down on the those green foam blocks that are used to arrange flowers (like these http://www.amazon.com/Floracraft-Floral-Foam-Block-Green/dp/B000XZU5S4). I don’t remember how she suspended them in the air, but she just stuck the brush handles into the foam let the brushes hang upside down. I haven’t tried this trick, but it sounds more secure than using hair clips.
Hi Renee!
is there a way to wash duo-ended brushes?
I’m really afraid that after i wash one side of the brush and proceed to the other side, the water will flow down and loosen grip of the brush overtime.
One way is to wash them one side a day though.
You can just lay them on their side to dry :p
I do this, and none of my brushes are loosened.
I agree with Ashley, Gwen!
You could wash them one side at a time but if that’s too time consuming for you, like Ashley said, lay them at their side. Remember to ‘mold’ them at their proper shape and then lay them on a towel until they dry. If you’re scared about the water loosening the grip, wash one side completely. Wrap a towel around it and then do the other side, and then lay them on the side once you’re done with both sides. That should work, do try it out and let me know what you think
I have washed mine with Johnson´s baby shampoo and it´s great, and cheap!!! I wash my powder brush like 3 times a month i guess!! My blush brush i try to wash once a week. The one i wash more is my foundation brush.
I want to buy some MAC brushes, because I bought a lot of brushes from a famous brand here (O boticário) but are so fake and synthetic!!! I bought a foundation brush from them that wasnt synthetic, and it was the besttt, then I tought the others would be good too. But they came ou with a new line of brushes, all synthetics, i didnt realize they were so bad till i start using. The blush brush doesnt pick up product u know?! the color doesnt show up! I hate that, i have to work to pick up some color.
Do u have any Mac brushes recomendations Renee?
xoxo
Hey Deb!
I too use Johnson’s baby shampoo…. cheap and good!
I know what you mean about synthetic brushes, Deb! I bought a MAC brush set some time ago from their Color Form collection so I have only been using those brushes, haven’t tried any of their other ones. I do like their contour brush called 168SE? but it’s more for contouring than blush. You should ask MAC for their blush brushes at the store and make sure to test them out properly, and don’t let them guilt you into buying it if you don’t like it! Try it as long as you want to decide. Although, I know from countless people that MAC brushes are really good so it is worht the money… I paid over $100 for my brush set and have never regretted it or needed anything else, so I think MAC is great
Once/twice a week, I’ll use anti-bacteria dishwashing detergent to wash my brushes for the first round. And then follow up with hair shampoo to moisturise the hair of the brushes
a low cost method that i read from somewhere.
I have serious acne + sensitive skin. Now I break out so much lesser, thanks to the anti-bacteria dish washing detergent.
baby shampoo is good, but doesnt kill the bacteria in your brushes.
the best way to clean your brushes is with, sards wonder soap which you can get from the laundry section of the supermarkets or milton sterilising fluid which is used to clean baby bottles.