How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes Perfectly

How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes Perfectly

Sure, you cleanse your face every morning and night. But when was the last time you cleaned your makeup brushes?

While it might seem like the kind of chore you can skip for weeks (or ahem, months) on end, failing to clean your makeup brushes will quickly undo all of the hard work you’re putting into your skin care routine.

Why you need to clean your makeup brushes

With regular use, leftover product, sweat, dirt, bacteria, and other gross stuff are known to build up in your makeup brushes. And then you rub them all over your face. It’s basically a recipe for congestion, making regular brush cleansing completely essential for skin health.

Skin benefits aside, you also want to give your brushes a regular clean so your makeup applies perfectly. Using brushes that are loaded with product buildup is going to make seamless blending difficult, and can impact the colour of your

How often you be cleaning your makeup brushes

More often than you’d think! Experts typically recommend you give the makeup brushes used on your base (foundation, concealer, blush, bronzer, etc.) a good, thorough clean once a week at least to prevent any bacteria or build-up hanging causing breakouts. If you’re acne-prone you might even want to up that and wash them more regularly. Luckily, there are also some very clever brush cleansers that are designed to give your brushes a quick spot clean in between those deeper cleans which will save you some time.

You can afford to leave your eye brushes a little longer than your face brushes, that doesn’t mean you can forget about them completely. Aim to give them your liner and shadow brushes a solid wash once a month.

What’s the best way to clean your makeup brushes?

So glad you asked! A simple, easy-to-follow routine to keep your brushes fresh is below. (As always, make sure to check the brand’s recommendations.)

- Run your brushes under a warm tap. Pay careful attention not to get your water on the ferrule (where the brush connects to the handle).
- Squeeze some gentle brush cleanser in your palm (or onto a brush cleansing glove, if you have one) and gently run the brush hairs over it. Again, keeping the ferrule away from the water and cleanser.
- Give your brushes a really good rinse and remove as much moisture as possible with a towel. (You may need to rinse a few times to ensure all of the cleanser is out.)
- Carefully reshape the brush and lay your brushes out to dry on the edge of a counter to dry.

Some brush cleansing products to get you on your cleanse-y way:
Cinema Secrets Professional Brush Cleanser
Beauty Blender Solid Cleansing Bar
elf Daily Brush Cleanser
Sigma Spa Brush Cleansing Glove