How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Spot Cleaning

Every 2-3 days, you should spot clean your brushes using a cleanser made expressly for that purpose. MAC makes an excellent one. The exception might be the angle brush. It will need a good cleaning after each and every use, especially if you were applying liquids. 

Brush Washing

About every 7-14 days you're going have to push up your sleeves and really wash those brushes. For thorough brush washing, water and dish soap, baby shampoo, or any sort of gentle soap will suffice. You won't need very much. Dab a little in your hand with a touch of water and swirl your brush to get it good and clean. After rinsing, dry it gently. Again, make sure to keep the brush's natural shape. Allow the brush to dry thoroughly on its side. Do not let the brush dry in an upright position, which will allow water run-off to slowly loosen the head of your brush from its handle over time. 

Pay Special Attention to your Angle Brush

To do a spot cleaning of your angle brush, apply some cleanser to a tissue and hold the tissue in the palm of your hand. Take the angle brush and wipe it back and forth into the tissue. While cleaning any makeup brush, take care to never change its shape. That is bad news for your brush. For example, with the angle brush, don't smash it into the tissue like it's just a cigarette butt. Lay it on its side, always keeping its natural shape. Ignoring the natural shape of the brush will wind you up with a frayed brush.

References

Learn something new with our FREE educational apps!

Private lessons in the comfort of your own home. Get back in shape or finally pick up a guitar with our great experts guiding you the whole way!
Learn Guitar
Learn Hip Hop
Learn Pilates

Upload a picture from your computer

You can upload a JPG, GIF or PNG file. Do not upload pictures containing celebrities, nudity, artwork, or copyrighted images).

Specify an image URL

Image URL

Search

Type the image URL in the text field above and click 'Search'. Large images may take awhile to process.

Please remember that using others' images on the web without their permission is not very nice.

Crop this picture

Just click and drag on the image below to start cropping! Use the handles on the crop box to resize it.

Preview

Upload a picture from your computer

You can upload a JPG, GIF or PNG file. Do not upload pictures containing celebrities, nudity, artwork, or copyrighted images).

Specify an image URL

Image URL

Search

Type the image URL in the text field above and click 'Search'. Large images may take awhile to process.

Please remember that using others' images on the web without their permission is not very nice.

Crop this picture

Just click and drag on the image below to start cropping! Use the handles on the crop box to resize it.

Small Medium Large Full

Preview

Hotkeys