How To Clean Makeup Brushes!

Washing Makeup Brushes always seems like such a daunting task. Too many scenarios and options that could drive anyone mad. So the question is… What’s the best affordable way to wash make up brushes? How to clean makeup brushes? It’s as simple as…

The answer: Baby Shampoo?

The best affordable way to wash make up brushes is baby shampoo? Hear me out… Lately I’ve been noticing that my makeup brushes are in need of a deep clean. I usually just use some warm water and an Elf brush cleaner that I bought from Target. However, that doesn’t seem to be doing the trick since I still see some makeup left over when they dry! I decided to do some research on the best at-home methods to deep clean my brushes. I kept seeing recommendations to use expensive brush shampoos until I stumbled upon something that peaked my interest: baby shampoo! Online it said that baby shampoo is very gentle so it doesn’t wear away at the glue of the brushes and it also is very gentle on the bristles as well; it sounded like a win/win to me.

I headed to my local Walgreens and bought two small bottles of baby shampoo to see if I found the newest way to clean my brushes. The website didn’t specify which specific one to use so I bought a basic head-to-toe baby shampoo. On the bottle it says the shampoo doesn’t contain parabens, phthalates, sulfates, or dyes so it seemed as though it would cleanse the bristles without damaging them. This is the shampoo:

How to Wash Makeup Brushes: Tutorial

The first thing I did was separate my brushes into 2 categories; face brushes and eye brushes. I took some close-up pictures of the brushes so that you can see what the brushes look like before cleaning.

The next thing I did was place the brushes in a sink with the drain closed and then I filled it up with warm water. I didn’t want the water to be too hot because I thought it would ruin the bristles and I didn’t want it to be too cold because it wouldn’t really clean the brushes. It was right in the middle 🙂

I took the brushes one by one and ran them under the water with a drop of the baby shampoo, while swirling them on the palm of my hand. Not gonna lie, it was a little gross to swirl the foundation brushes because there was foundation everywhere. But, after a few extra drops of shampoo and swirls in my hand, all of the product was gone! Even the brushes with the most foundation or powder on them, were back to their original look.

I was honestly shocked to see how well the brushes were cleaned! The brush from the video is the brush that I use for my highlighter so it had a lot of product left in it and it was also stained. After a few swirls, it was as good as new! Here are the “after” pictures of the same brushes I posted in the beginning in the same order.

The brushes above were ~90% dry when I took the above pictures (I was too impatient!). By that point, I could feel that the bristles were all in tact, fluffy, and soft. One tip: Dry the brushes hanging off the edge of a counter/table so that the bristles can fall right back to their original shape.

Final thoughts: So what’s the Best Affordable way to wash Makeup Brushes? Johnson’s Baby Shampoo! The whole process was super easy and the amount of time it takes you depends on how much product is on the brush and how many brushes you have. With all my brushes, it took about 15 minutes to wash them. I definitely recommend this method and I’ll be stocking up on baby shampoo for my brushes 🙂

Have you tried this method on how to clean makeup brushes? Let me know down below how it went! <3

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