Updated on December 26th, 2025
Today I have a guest post from Kelly at Until Another Day who will be sharing why you should clean your makeup brushes and how to clean them.
It is somewhat of a rarity to find a person who enjoys cleaning their makeup brushes. Leaving our makeup brushes for months at a time, without so much as glancing at a sink, is a common occurrence, but often does more harm than good. Makeup brush hygiene is an important part of keeping our skin in good condition. Dirty brushes will be spreading bacteria into our pores, raising the likelihood of breakouts and blackheads.
A lot of brands offer makeup brush cleansers, soaps, and devices that are designed to not only clean your brushes but also make them last longer. From personal experience, these marketed products don’t actually do a whole lot, they are essentially overpriced soaps. Simply using standard liquid hand soap, bar soap, or face wash will work just as well.
To make your life easier, you may want to purchase a brush cleansing palette. Real Techniques have a great palette, which is equipped with a strap to attach to the back of your hand. The palette contains various sized ridges to help remove makeup lodged onto the bristles of your brushes. Another item you can use to clean your makeup brushes is something you are likely to own already…a sieve…yes you did read that correctly. The trusty old metal sieve is a great way to clean makeup brushes.
The Method
Now that you are armed and equipped, heat your running water so it is lukewarm, we don’t want anything too hot or too cold.
Grab your makeup brush and wet it under the running tap, adding a small amount of your soap or brush cleanser.
Take your sieve or brush cleansing palette and begin to swirl the brush, make sure to add pressure to clean deep into the brush.
You may need to repeat this step a few times on the same brush, particularly for foundation, concealer. or any other cream products. Eyeshadow, bronzer, and blush brushes tend to clean pretty quickly.
Finally, take a clean tea towel or flannel, and lay your freshly cleaned brushes out on a flat surface. Brushes can take a day or so to dry completely, so make sure you leave a few spares to use whilst they air out.
About the Author
Hello, I’m Kelly from Until Another Day and I’m so happy to write this guest post for Karalee. I started blogging back in 2018 to share my love of makeup with the world. Since then, my blog has developed into something much greater, where I regularly showcase a variety of content, including lifestyle, books, and travel. A huge thank you to Karalee for allowing me to guest post and a big thank you to you for reading!
Thank you Kelly for writing this helpful post! I have been there where I have not washed my makeup brushes in an embarrassingly long time, but I follow a similar method where I use fragrance-free liquid soap, bar soap, or baby shampoo and a brush cleanser egg to deep clean my makeup brushes then I let them air dry. I definitely recommend getting a brush cleansing palette as it does clean the brushes more effectively. Thank you again for writing this post and be sure to check out Kelly’s blog and follow her on Instagram @untilanotherday.
Great tips, I have some brushes to clean 😙 thanks for sharing 🥰
https://uncuaderno4cero.wordpress.com/
You’re welcome!
Since I have some new brushes I will use these tips on how to effectively wash my brushes. In the past, it has just been run water over them. Not good at all.
Yes using just water will not effectively clean makeup brushes, but I do hope this post was helpful!
A timely reminder to clean my brushes! I must say – I had never thought of using a sieve though. Thanks for the tip x
Yes I didn’t know about using a sieve either so it is a great tip!
I love the cat container for your brushes! I will make sure I take brush hygiene more seriously from now on. I don’t wear makeup very often but when I do I will make sure the brushes get washed.
Yes even though you do not wear makeup often, it is good to keep your brushes clean for when you do!
Great post lovely! I hate the thought of having to clean my brushes but I love actually doing it! Very much like the gym for me hahaa
I feel the same haha. Cleaning my makeup brushes seems like such a daunting task, but it’s nice to do haha
This is so useful, I always forget to spend time cleaning them.
That’s great to hear you found this post useful! Yes it can be easy to forget & put off cleaning them, but it’s important to do!
To be fair, this is pretty much how I do it! But it’s good to have that reminder that we all need to wash our brushes! haha
Katie | katieemmabeauty.com
That’s great you use a similar method to clean your brushes & I agree it’s good to have a reminder!
This is something we need to do more. Thanks for the tips!
You’re welcome!
I definitely don’t clean mine properly, I’ll just creep off to do that now lol
https://emmareed.net
Haha 😂
Thank you for this! I leave it a disgustingly long time before cleaning my brushes etc so I think I’m going to make a point to do that this weekend and try this method!
You’re welcome! I hope this method was easy enough to follow!
OMG… I have the most embarrassing story from last year haha I cleaned my brushes on NYE and I was so impatient for one of them to dry, I used my hair dryer on it! Worst mistake as the bristles got hard and I had to toss it out. It was a good thing it was a cheap old one, if it was one of my new better ones I would’ve been mortified Lol Thanks for sharing x
http://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Oh my! I always let my brushes air dry so I didn’t know what would happen if I were to use a hairdryer. Now I know to never do that! Like you said, at least it was a cheap old one!
Great tips! I’ve been meaning to do mine for a while now and this has just reminded me x
You’re welcome! I’m glad this post could remind you!
I have to give mines a good clean before I start using them again and this was a great learning post! Thank you ladies!
You’re welcome! I’m glad you found it helpful!
I need to clean my make up brushes and sponge. Thank you for sharing a suggestion how you can clean them.
You’re welcome! I hope you find it helpful!
I’m embarrassed to say I don’t do this enough. thanks for sharing this reminder and all these great tips!
You’re welcome & I hope the tips are helpful!
I have no clue about make up and hardly ever wear it, so this is really useful thanks!
I glad you found this post useful!
I’m hugely embarrassed to admit I don’t remember the last time I cleaned my make up brushes but that is a genius tip about the sieve! Now I have no excuse, I’ll dig out our sieve this weekend, thank you for the reminder and the helpful tips 🙂
You’re welcome & I’m glad this post can be a reminder to wash your brushes & I hope it goes well with the sieve!
No spots here thank you! It really is so important to keep them clean. I also like how it explains the right temperature as who has money to waste on brushes?
I agree it is important to keep brushes clean! & yes warm water is the best to clean brushes because if the water is too cold, it won’t clean the brushes well, but if the water is too hot, the water will loosen the glue on the brush handle
I must confess, I very rarely wash my make up brushes and I know it’s terrible. I’m taking this post as my reminder to do it after work!
Rosie
I’m glad you can use this post as a reminder!
Thank you for the reminder to finally clean my makeup brushes. I never really had a technique and with that didn’t know if I was doing a good job. I’ll definitely try to do it this way.
Antonia || Sweet Passions
You’re welcome! I use this technique too so it does a good job of cleaning brushes!
ugh, this reminds me i have to clean mine! thanks for the reminder
B
You’re welcome! It can be a chore cleaning brushes
Cleaning my makeup brushes is something that I don’t do enough! It is always a last minute job so this post is super helpful!
Amber | The Unpredicted Page | https://theunpredictedpage.com
I’m glad you found this post helpful! I don’t clean my makeup brushes enough too, but I’m trying to get better!
I have a brush egg I use and it works nicely along with this brush spinner I bought from Amazon last year which works sooo great for cleaning in the water bowl and drying too. Also I use this soap I found from Shop Miss A which is literally only a $1 and works fabulous! Love this great post!!
I like my brush egg too! Ooo that’s great to hear the brush spinner does a good job of cleaning & drying the brushes
That’s so cheap for soap! I’ll have to check out Shop Miss A!
Omg I use that brush spinner constantly and yes definitely checkout Shop Miss A for brush soap you can’t beat the price!