With all the colourful makeup looks I have been creating and rocking over the past weeks, I figured it was time to wash my makeup brushes.  When you have a collection over 20 brushes, sometimes it can get a bit time-consuming to wash every single one of them.  Instead, I’ll just pick and choose my most-used brushes and really deep clean those ones.

I don’t do anything different from what others do already (there’s so many videos on YouTube describing the process to clean makeup brushes). I do want to say that although there are special cleansers for brushes, most times I will just use whatever shampoo I have on hand.  I will occasionally use the Beauty Blender Cleanser, but at $19 a pop, I try not to use it that often for just my brushes.

Since I was washing a ton of brushes, to save time, I will grab two or three brushes of the same size and wash them at once.  These three in particular were very dirty and needed a good scrubbing.

Next, run the tips of the brushes under lukewarm water, being careful not to get the water near the part of the brush where the silver part meets the wood.  After time, the water can break down the glue and your brushes could fall apart.  This has happened to me with some cheap ELF brushes, but for my expensive ones, I would not want that to happen.

Next, put a small amount of shampoo on the back of your hands and then swirl your brushes in the shampoo, sudsing them up.  I used a Herbal Essences shampoo but you could use any one or even dish cleanser works too.

If you have really dirty brushes, work the shampoo into the bristles to really get all the makeup built up in there.

Finally, wash all the shampoo out of the brushes and then lay flat on a towel, with the ends of the brushes hanging off the surface.

And that’s it!  If you have a lot of brushes, this can take a long time, but if you grab two or three of your smaller brushes (like eyeshadow, eyeliner, creases brushes) and do them at once, it does cut time.

Usually I will wash them at night and then let them air dry over night so in the morning I just run my hand over them to fluff them up.

Also, I want to note that there are special makeup-washing brushes out there (like the Sigma “Oven Mitt”), but honestly, I don’t think you need a glove to wash all the makeup off your brushes.

Let me know how you clean your brushes and if you have any tips and tricks!

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