Popular TikTok tutorials showing different ways to clean makeup brushes.TikTok / @meganmauk / @kellsiebainmakeup
- Over the last few years, several different methods of cleaning makeup brushes have gone viral on TikTok.
- Almost all of these methods involve everyday household items.
- Based on my research, there's one clear winner when it comes to getting your brushes properly cleaned.
TikTok is a particularly handy app when it comes to beauty hacks, with professional makeup artists and amateurs posting tutorials on how to do everything from slugging to layering skincare products correctly. Recently, there's been an uptick in videos on how to properly clean makeup brushes. In fact, the hashtag #cleaningmakeupbrushes has been used 61.9 million times alone.
These hacks required very little supplies on my part; most of them I could find around my house. My methodology was simple: try to clean my makeup brushes with the most amount of gunk. I tested five popular hacks I found on TikTok. Before starting, I checked in with celebrity makeup artist and beauty expert Renée Loiz on what to avoid so I don't accidentally tarnish my tools for the sake of this experiment.
"Alcohol can be extremely drying to makeup brushes," she warned. "They can become dry and frizzy and also loosen the glue that binds the bristles to the brush handle." Thankfully, none of the most popular hacks included alcohol, so I got to cleaning. Here's what I learned.
Don't waste your money on fancy devices.
Some hacks cost nothing…and do nothing.
Dish soap is a hack hero for a reason.
Don't put vinegar on your makeup brushes unless you want them to smell like vinegar.
Olive oil is not easy to get off makeup brushes.
Don't submerge your brushes, and don't use hot water.
This lesson I learned from the comments section in several of the videos where users left their brushes to soak: Hot water can cause the glue to loosen on the bristles and cause them to fall out., so any hacks offering this advice I'd reconsider.
And the winner is…
Plain dish soap and water was the best method for cleaning my makeup brushes by far. Depending on how dirty your brushes are, you might need to go several rounds gently swirling your brushes around a cleaning mitt or mat, but the effort is minimal and so is the cost. It's a gentle method and doesn't risk ruining your brushes.
After cleaning them, don't forget to properly dry them so you can keep them in tip-top shape. Loiz advises squeezing the excess water out of the bristles with a dry paper towel. "Then, I lay them flat to dry overnight on clean paper towels. After they're dry, I store them upright in cylinder containers," she said.
While I don't wear makeup that often, this served as an important reminder that washing makeup brushes don't need to be an intensive, dreaded chore. Just a few squirts of dish soap and some water will do the trick to keep them clean and looking as good as new.
