Today, I’m sharing what I do to clean my makeup brushes! I use a few different products: I have brush cleaner for a quick clean and then I also use a solid brush cleaner and a mat to get a deeper clean.
For aquick clean, I’ve been using a brush cleaner. I have the Sephora one and the Cinema Secrets one. The Sephora one used to smell really nice, but it’s been a few years since I bought it and it just smells like cleaner now. The Cinema Secrets one has a vanilla scent which I like a lot more.
For a deeper clean, I’ve been using the Sephora mini solid brush cleaner. Since I have the mini one, it doesn’t come in a tin, so I keep it in a little soy sauce bowl. I wet the brush and lightly swirl the brushes on the ‘soap’ until there’s no longer any colour coming off of brush. In the past, I’ve used baby shampoo and a mat from Amazon to make sure the inside is nice and clean. The mat has ridges so it gets inside the bristles without ruining your brushes. Either I lightly swirl the brush or wipe it back and forth against the ridges.
To dry my brushes, I use a brush drying rack. I also like drying my brushes with my makeup drying tool (read my review) I got from Winners that spins the brushes to dry them faster and then I hang them on my drying rack until they’re fully dry. The drying tool sounds a bit gimmicky, but it does dry brushes really fast! The only problem with the drying tool – it doesn’t fit brush handles that aren’t tapered (like my Sephora or Sigma eye brushes). I have to stuff them into a smaller size or I just let those air dry.
I was at Winners the other day and I picked up a few things. I kept seeing this Zoe Ayla Makeup Brush Cleaner & Dryer, but the boxes were always destroyed. I know it didn’t really matter as long as everything was inside, but they just always looked so dirty. I finally spotted a few boxes that were in perfect condition and picked one up for $29.99. I don’t think there’s any specific brand name one that’s better than the others, but here’s a link to one I found on Amazon- Makeup Brush Cleaner & Dryer.
This revolutionary electronic tool magically cleanses you brushes in seconds and allows you to dry them in seconds without creating any mess or hassle. Professionals strongly recommend cleaning your makeup brushes every few weeks, but traditional cleaning methods are messy, time-costly and often leave brushes wet and unusable for up to 24 hours.
You just attach any makeup brush using one of eight collars, before dunking it for 10 seconds, spinning for another 10 seconds and then drying for 5-10 seconds.
It comes with a bowl, 8 silicone collars to fit different brush sizes, a plastic stand to hold the collars, 2 spindles to connect the collars to the device and the device to spin the brushes. The device takes 2 AA bateries and you press a button to spin it.
A lot of my Sephora brushes don’t really fit properly in the collars. The best eye brushes that work with the collars are ones that have a tapered end. I found that half of my brushes don’t fit comfortably in the collars and obviously double-ended brushes aren’t going to work. I either have to shove the brush into a smaller collar or I will need to wrap something around the brush for it to fit into a bigger collar.
Obviously when you clean an eye brush, it spins really fast because it’s so small and when you clean a powder brush, it spins a little slower because it’s heavier. Because a powder brush is heavier, the spindle has fallen out once or twice while I’m spinning the brush. I don’t know if I’m just not pushing the spindle in all the way or if it’s as far as it goes. I think I’m supposed to put more pressure, but I’m worried I’ll break it if I push too hard.
This product works best for brushes you use for powder products. For liquid products, it doesn’t get in between the bristles and therefore doesn’t clean it properly.
For liquid products, I use a cleaning mat that I got from Saks Off Fifth. I lightly swirl my brushes to make sure the inner bristles are cleaned.
After my brush is clean, I like to run the brush under the tap to rinse off the soap and then I spin it to dry it. I wouldn’t say that this completely dries the brushes, but it does cut down on the drying time. Usually, I lightly swirl it on a clean towel to get rid of the excess water.
The device fans out the brushes a lot, so I put it back into it’s normal shape before I hang it on my drying rack. I wouldn’t use this on more expensive brushes just in case it ruins the shape of it or something.
RATING: 3.5/5
I think $20-30 is still a bit expensive, I definitely wouldn’t pay more than that. This product is a bit gimmicky, but it does dry brushes really fast. Although I rated it fairly high, I don’t think I would recommend it. One thing for drying makeup brushes that I would recommend is a makeup brush drying rack. This isn’t the specific one I bought, but it looks exactly the same.
