DIY Makeup Brush Cleaner

DIY Makeup Brush Cleaner

If you are like me, you hate cleaning your makeup brushes. Often times it involves continuous scrubbing and rinsing and repeating until you get your bush clean enough. I decided over the weekend to look up some different options for cleaning makeup brushes and came across one that involved simple DIY ingredients that I knew I had on-hand at my house: Olive Oil and Baby Shampoo.

These ingredients probably cost a total of $5 at Walmart or any other retailer so this was a no-brainer for me. Although I was a little apprehensive to use oil on a brush that I use daily on my face, I decided it was worth giving it a shot and I will say, I am very impressed with the results!

I tried it with my very favorite brush I own, the Marc Jacobs The Face III Buffing Foundation Brush. If you've read some of our previous posts, you know that I use the Marc Jacobs Remarcable Full Coverage Foundation which I am absolutely in love with! I tried the foundation first and then had to try the brush with it. Needless to say, it's worth every single penny and I'm so glad I bought it. This brush has looked like the top picture for a long time now because while I have cleaned it, I probably wasn't cleaning it properly. As you can see, after trying this new DIY cleanser, my brush looks brand new and the bristles don't have a hint of foundation tint on them!

I totally eyeballed the amount of olive oil and baby shampoo that I used. If i had to guess, I used half and half but maybe slightly more baby shampoo than oil. I mixed the two together with a spoon then dipped my brush in and swirled it around for about 60 seconds or so, working the bristles on the bottom of the bowl to make sure the cleaner got inside my brush as well. As you can see in the photo above, A LOT of foundation came off in this process!

Not pictured, but I also had a bowl of warm water that I lightly rinsed the brush off in before taking it to the sink. I then rinsed the brush thoroughly under luke warm water, making sure to rinse the inside of the brush well. I did a little cleaning on the handle of the brush as well. While I was rinsing, I couldn't believe how easily it rinsed off, especially considering I used an oil in the cleanser. I probably rinsed for about 60 seconds before lightly drying off the brush with a paper towel.

I feel like I have a brand new makeup brush! I am so glad I tried this and will definitely be using this mixture on my other makeup brushes. I currently have it drying on a towel with the bristles slightly below the top of the brush handle. The bristles are still extremely soft and my brush smells like baby shampoo which is one of my favorite scents! 

So in conclusion, I highly recommend trying this. Especially if you don't want to spend $20-$30 on an actual brush cleaner. There are other DIY cleansers that I found on Pinterest, but I just happened to have these two ingredients on-hand at my house. You can also use dish soap if you don't have baby shampoo but I do know that dish soap is more harsh, so if you have both, I would recommend the baby shampoo first!

XOXO,

Kait