How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes (And How Often To Do It)

Using dirty makeup brushes and sponges can turn into something a lot nastier than “just” breakouts!

The thing with makeup brushes is that… many of us don’t wash them often enough. Think about it: you wash your hair or have a shower a few times a week. You wash your clothes after no more than one or two uses. But can you actually remember the last time you cleaned your makeup brushes and sponges?

You may not be able to see it with the naked eye, but your brushes accumulate product buildup, skin oils, bacteria, and dirt with each use. So every time you use a brush you haven’t cleaned in a while, you risk irritating your skin, breakouts, and even an eye infection. Doesn’t sound fun, does it? And let’s be honest, brushes caked with product buildup just don’t work that well!

Luckily, cleaning your makeup brushes and sponges doesn’t require any special treatment or expensive cleaners. Plus, we’ve got a few handy tricks to help you get started!

How Often Should You Clean Your Makeup Brushes

If you were hoping to hear “once a month”, we have bad news for you. In the ideal world, you should be washing your brushes after each use, but we know it’s a little unrealistic. However, aiming for giving your brushes a deep clean once every week or two would be a great place to start — especially if you have skin issues that make it prone to breakouts.

It’s a slightly different story when it comes to cleaning makeup sponges. Because they get wet a lot, they make an excellent breeding ground for bacteria that thrive in moist environments. This is why we recommend washing your beauty blender after a single-use.

How To Clean Makeup Brushes

As we mentioned before, deep washing your brushes doesn’t require expensive products or specialized tools. Of course, investing in a good brush shampoo and cleaner mat will make washing them quicker and more effective, but you can also easily get started with a bit of soap and a plastic cup.

Here’s how you can clean your makeup brushes with 6 simple steps:

1. Squeeze a drop of the shampoo/soap into a plastic cup and add some lukewarm water.
2. Gently swirl your brush around the cup, working it against the sides and the bottom of the cup, or rub it on your cleaner mat. Try to avoid wetting the handle and ferrule so the glue holding the bristles doesn’t dissolve. Keep swirling until you see the product buildup loosen up.
3. For particularly stubborn dirt, you can squeeze a drop of shampoo/soap on your palm and try rubbing the bristles against your skin or with your fingers.
4. Rinse the brush thoroughly until no makeup comes off the bristles.
5. If you’re happy with how the brush turned out, gently squeeze the bristles with your fingers or a towel to remove excess water.
6. All done! Leave our clean brushes to air dry, and they’ll soon look as good as new!