Make up brushes are one of the essentials for a flawless makeup application. A great makeup brush can take your eye look for blah to BAM because of it’s ability to blend product smoothly.
Most of the time, to get quality brushes, you have to splurge a little. I have brushes in my kit that I have spent $50 or more on. Although it breaks my cheap little heart to shell out this kind of money, I have to do it. I do makeup professionally and providing my clients with a high quality makeup application is my priority. After letting go of my precious money, it’s important to me to take good care of my brushes, so that I get my monies worth.
To protect and extend the life of my brushes, I clean my personal brushes weekly and I clean my professional brushes after each client with a solution that I created. By washing my brushes regularly and storing them properly, I greatly extend their life span.
I have had many people ask me how to take care and clean makeup brushes, so I’m spilling the beans. But just to be clear, I’m not saying this is the only way or best way to care for brushes; this is just what works best for me.
How to clean makeup brushes
Weekly makeup brush cleaning routine
Every week, usually on Sunday, I give my personal makeup brushes a deep cleaning to kill bacteria, remove build up and moisturize the natural hairs. I also do this routine with my professional brushes after I use them on a client or a bridal party.
Makeup brush cleaning mixture
You will need:
- Palmolive anti-bacterial dish soap
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Water
- Bowl
- Towel
- Baby wipe
- Sink area (kitchen or bathroom)
In a small bowl I mix the following ingredients:
- 2 parts Palmolive anti-bacterial dish soap
- 1 part Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 part water
Makeup Brush Cleaning Steps:
1. Swirl your brushes one-by-one into the mixture several times to help release the product on the brush. Make sure to not submerge the entire brush, only the hairs.
2. Gently swirl each brush in the palm of your hand until you see that the soap becomes foamy. Make sure you are gentle because if you are too rough it can damage the brush.
3. Rinse the brush thoroughly with warm water and avoid getting the entire brush wet. Make sure you rinse the brush well to remove all of the soap and olive oil, which can leave an oily residue if you don’t use enough soap or rinse it out properly.
4. Shape the hairs on your brush back to normal.
5. Using a baby wipe, clean the handle of the brush thoroughly to remove gunk and germs.
6. Lay the brush on a clean towel to dry.
Repeat as needed.
Tip: For hard to remove products, such as lipstick or liquid latex, add more olive oil to your mix to help release and remove the product.
How do you clean your makeup brushes?
Yesica says
Thanks so much for this! Def trying it out soon!
Martina says
Here it is a tip I needed. I use to wash mines every two weeks with soap only :/
Veronica Lee says
These are great tips! Thanks!
Debbie says
Thank you so much! The olive oil took all the pigment left over from the makeup out of the makeup brush
Sahily says
Glad you found this useful. It’s a great DIY makeup brush cleaner and it leaves your brushes so soft.