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How to Clean Makeup Brushes (So Fast and Easy!)

09/18/2014 By Charlene 10 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure policy.

How to clean makeup brushes



Do you clean your makeup brushes regularly?  I will totally raise my hand and say I hardly ever clean them.  I am inching toward another birthday though and these days taking really good care of my skin is a top priority for me.

So time to put on the big girl underpants and start taking more notice of the things I use on my skin- an easy task to tackle is keeping your brushes nice and clean.  Fortunately you can do this in just a minute or two and use what you already have on hand. If you aren’t cleaning your brushes you have so much gross stuff on there– really it is important.  The brushes collect bacteria, dead skin cells, layers of old makeup…  The colors you are putting on can get muddled with the old stuff and not look as fresh.  So really it is important to take the time to clean these guys.  I don’t know about you but I have enough trouble on my hands trying to fight off wrinkles and sun damage I certainly don’t need to invite in pimples and clogged pores too :P.


To clean your brushes just takes the following:

  • gentle dish soap (I used Palmolive)
  • dry towel
  • water source
  • means of drying brushes (see my method below but you might call up your inner MacGyver and come up with something better)

The trick here – especially if you have expensive brushes- is to make sure you aren’t getting the base of your brush wet.  You only want to clean the bristles so try hard to put the soap and water on the fluffy parts only.  If the wood does get wet, the little hairs from the brush can start to fall off and ruin the brush. So I just set up a dish towel and my brushes and grabbed the Palmolive and went to work.

How to clean makeup brushes

 

I like to dab a tiny bit of dish soap onto my hand and then place the brush under water to wet it.  Then I gently rub the brush on the palm of my hand in a circular motion.  You will get a tiny bit of foam and you will likely see some powder or blush or whatever coming off on your hand. I don’t wear very much makeup and when I do it is light shades so I don’t see tons of color coming off my brushes.  I like to just keep rinsing and repeating until I don’t see any more makeup coming off on my palm at all and then I just hold the brush end under a light stream of water until it is clear of soap and makeup. See easy right? For my smaller brushes you can either use the method above or you can just dab the brush into a small bowl with a drop of dish soap and water.

How to clean makeup brushes

The only other challenge with this is that you need to dry the brushes completely before using them again.  You don’t want to dry the brushes upside down or sideways because the water can get into the base of the brush and make it fall apart.

How to clean makeup brushes- so easy!

I like to just grab some washi tape and I just tape the smaller brushes to a mason jar and that keeps them upside down to dry.  Pretty simple. The washi will pull right off and won’t leave residue on your brushes or jar.

For the larger brushes I can just rest them against the jar and that seems to work well.  You can pick up Washi in the Dollar section at Target stores so not a big investment there. And now your brushes are perfectly clean and ready to use!

If you wear a lot of makeup you might consider doing this weekly.  If you wear very light makeup once a month should be sufficient. Oh and you can also use baby shampoo to clean brushes- I prefer dish soap because that is something everyone has on hand already.

Palmolive does make a super gentle baby dish soap that is like $2 and will last you forever. Also if you have a second there is a very cool resource from Palmolive that provides some different ways to use the dish soap– besides just dishes. I thought this rainbow foam looked amazing– how fun to make for the bathtub!
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Oh I have teamed up with a handful of bloggers to offer a nice giveaway of (5) $50 Walmart gift cards.  You can click the box below to enter to win.  It is really fast to enter and an extra $50 would come in handy…. 25 Ways To Use Palmolive
And here are a few other tips you might like:

Homemade deep conditioner for hair- so easy and just one ingredient!

One Ingredient Deep Conditioning treatment for hair

How to make your own makeup remover

Homemade All natural Makeup Remover

How to Clean Sunglasses - so easy! Just 10 seconds to get them sparkly clean!

Perfectly clean your sunglasses in just seconds

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Lunchbox. All opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Crafts and DIY Ideas Tagged With: How to clean makeup brushes

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Comments

  1. Nikki says

    09/18/2014 at 11:46 AM

    Wow, perfect timing with this. I need to clean my brushes for sure.

  2. Charlene says

    09/18/2014 at 12:10 PM

    Yup Nikki- one of those things you never do but when you start reading about all the nasty stuff that collects on these brushes… Puke 😛

  3. Rachel says

    09/18/2014 at 1:13 PM

    Great tip! Another tip to help with clogged pores and pimples is change your pillowcase every week. Maybe most people already do that but I wasn’t and my Aesthetician brought it up. 🙂

  4. Charlene says

    09/18/2014 at 4:16 PM

    Oh yeah Rachel! My husband thinks I am nuts for changing the sheets every week but I would prefer to change them twice a week :P. I did a clean your pillows post awhile back and it is so gross how dirty pillows can get- even inside a case.

  5. Heather says

    09/19/2014 at 9:08 PM

    How long do the brushes take to dry?

  6. Charlene says

    09/19/2014 at 10:30 PM

    Heather- mine dried really quickly. An hour or so maybe? I just leave them for a bit and come back and I can’t say I have ever watched the time 🙂

  7. vera says

    12/07/2014 at 4:44 PM

    I have washed my pillows and didn’t take long to dry .

  8. Stephanie says

    02/01/2016 at 12:49 AM

    Does it matter hot or cold water to use on the brushes??

  9. Charlene says

    02/01/2016 at 7:45 AM

    Hi Stephanie,
    I used warm water 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. 15 Tips For Cleaning Makeup Brushes | Makeup Brush Aftercare - You're So Pretty says:
    10/07/2014 at 11:25 AM

    […] you are always on the go and has no time in cleaning your brushes this cleaning technique by myfrugaladventures is your solution – a minute or two and you are […]

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I'm Charlene- thank you for stopping by MY FRUGAL ADVENTURES! I am a Mom to two little girls living in gorgeous Northern California. This is a fun place to find simple & affordable inspiration for everything from gifts to home improvement to travel to children's crafts to what's for dinner tonight! READ MORE >>>

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