How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes (And How Often You Actually Should)
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Let's be honest — brush cleaning is the step most of us skip more than we should. But if your foundation looks patchy, your blush is muddying your highlight, or your skin keeps breaking out despite a solid routine, your brushes might be the problem.
Why It Actually Matters
Every time you use a brush, it picks up more than just product — it collects oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. Use that same brush the next day and you are pressing all of that back onto your skin. Product buildup also changes how a brush performs over time. A foundation brush caked with old product stops blending smoothly. Cleaning is not just hygiene — it is maintenance.
How Often Should You Clean Them?
For personal use:
— Face brushes (foundation, concealer, blush, contour) — once a week
— Eye brushes — every two to three uses
— Powder and setting brushes — every one to two weeks
For professional makeup artists:
Every brush that has touched a client needs to be cleaned before it touches another. Full stop. I keep my dirty brushes separate in my ProVault bag — the adjustable dividers are genuinely useful for this — so nothing used gets mixed back in with clean tools.
If you do not have time to wash with soap and water the same night, an instant brush cleanser works as a bridge. My two recommendations are Kryolan Brush Cleaner (brilliantly priced, I keep two or three in stock at all times) and Cinema Secrets Brush Cleaner (exceptional quality, though the price adds up quickly when you are cleaning daily as an artist). That said, instant cleansers are not a replacement for a proper wash — they are a stopgap.
How to Use an Instant Cleanser
Spray some cleanser onto a tissue and gently rub the bristles across it. For powder brushes this works beautifully. For cream or liquid brushes, pour a small amount of cleanser into a shallow bowl and dip just the very tips of the bristles — never the full brush — then wipe on a tissue. Submerging the whole brush will shorten its life no matter how good the quality.
Instant cleansers dry within minutes — ideal between clients or mid-session. But they do not replace a full soap-and-water wash. Use both.
How to Wash with Soap and Water
Skip the liquid cleansers — they are hard to rinse out fully. A simple, gentle soap bar does the job perfectly and rinses clean every time. Wet the bristles under the tap, swirl lightly on the soap bar, then rinse under running water while running your fingers through the bristles. If the brush wipes clean on a towel afterwards, it is properly clean.
The most important rule: keep water away from the ferrule — the metal part where the bristles meet the handle. Water that gets in there loosens the glue and shortens the life of even the best brush.
To dry, lay brushes flat or hang them bristle-down so any remaining water drains away from the handle. A full soap wash needs a few hours — overnight is ideal.
A Final Note on Quality
Even the best cleaning routine cannot save a poorly made brush. But equally, even the best brush will not last as long as it should without proper maintenance. The two go together. Invest in good tools, and then take care of them — that is how you get years of use out of a brush rather than months.
