Best makeup brush cleaner 2020: How to clean makeup brushes
A dermatologist and makeup artists weigh in on how to effectively sanitize your beauty tools. Shop their expert recommendations — and a few editor picks, too.
Markoe-Bryne uses a three-step system. After utilizing Cinema Secrets Cleaner, she uses antibacterial soap and recommended using a soap bar for synthetic bristle brushes and liquid soap for fluffy brushes to help remove concealer and lipstick. "You can really rub all the product out to the center of the brush," she said. After letting her brushes dry overnight, she disinfects them in her UV sanitizer of choice, the 59S sterilizer box, as a preventative step. She added that after removing the products, she'll wipe the inside and outside of the box down with rubbing alcohol and uses the gadget to sanitize her phone, too. King recommended placing a few drops of antibacterial soap on your finger or toothbrush to scrub brush bristles and crevices. You can rinse your beauty tools with warm water and then allow the brush head to air dry overnight. Look for a gentle option such as this clean-smelling antibacterial soap from Dial. I've been buying it for as long as I can remember, and it's gentle enough not to strip moisture from my hands after washing. The soap is also highly-rated on Amazon with a 4.7-star average rating from more than 1,340 reviews.
"UV light devices are worth purchasing because they are known to be effective and have already been in use pre-Covid for sanitation purposes," Ehsan Ali, MD, of Beverly Hills Concierge Doctor Inc, previously told NBC News Shopping. During our chat, he noted that UV sanitizers could disinfect various items, ranging from makeup brushes and retainers to face masks and sunglasses. After speaking with Ali, I discovered this top-rated UV sanitizer on Amazon that was designed to fit up to six baby bottles. Although I can't fit my iPad Pro in there, it can store my reusable water bottles, facemasks, keys, smartphone and Beats by Dre headphones, just not at the same time. The gadget enables me to clean my belongings in as little as 10 minutes or sanitize and dry my items in 40 minutes. There's also a button to sanitize for a full 24 hour period, too — it sanitizes and dries for 50 minutes, then every two hours (up to 24 hours), it sanitizes in your belongings for two minutes.
My go-to liquid makeup brush cleanser is from Sigma Beauty because the brand claims it is an antimicrobial formula and I find that it removes residual makeup from my synthetic and natural bristle brushes and Beautyblenders with ease. It's also a fragrance- and sulfate-free formula made with natural ingredients like virgin coconut oil and certified sustainable palm oil, which is always a win in my book. While cleansing, I like to rub the brush bristles into the Sigma brush cleaning mat to get into all of the nooks and crannies of my tools and hang them bristle side-down in the Sigma Dry'n Shape, which looks like a tiered wedding cake.
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