What Can it Clean? Ultrasonic Cleaner Diaries: Makeup Brushes

Makeup brushes are the chief of any beauty kit, but how often do people regularly clean them? If your answer isn’t minimum once per week, you are committing one of the easiest crimes against your skin!

Cleaning makeup brushes and blending sponges can be a daunting chore for makeup lovers. The amount of washing, gentle scrubbing, and tedious cleaning is unpleasant when you are tackling hundreds of bristles…on multiple brushes for that matter. But would you keep the same makeup on your face for a week? If you said no, which hopefully you did, then why leave old makeup on your brushes?

Sit tight, we are about to show you a more efficient way to eliminate the hassle and clean your brushes fast and easy!

Why Clean Your Makeup Brushes?

Is your skin breaking out in places it wasn’t before? Does it look irritated and red under your makeup? Does your makeup look streaky or patchy? It’s probably time to clean those brushes! Every time you reuse your makeup brush, the oil and dead skin from your previous use is spreading across your face, which can begin the clog your pores. Forgetting to clean dirty brushes are one of the easiest neglected initiators for problematic skin and acne-causing bacteria.

So, how often should you clean your brushes then? Most dermatologists will recommend routinely soaking your makeup tools once a week minimum to prevent build-up, especially foundation and concealer brushes. Sound like a lot of work? Below we have shared our step-by-step makeup brush cleaning routine using the Magnasonic Ultrasonic Cleaner – and the results were immaculate!

Makeup Brush Cleaning Routine Experiment

For today’s log, one of our team members tested two makeup brush cleaning routines; silicon cleaning pad vs ultrasonic cleaner.

Week 1: The Silicon Pad Cleaning Routine

For week 1, the makeup brushes and sponges were cleaned the same way they had been for years; using a silicon makeup cleaning pad and Johnson’s baby wash.

There are many downfalls to the current manual cleaning process; to name a few:

• very time consuming as each brush is washed one-by-one (roughly 30 minutes total)
• risk of damaging the brush due to abrasive scrubbing against a hard surface
• hard to eliminate goop build up between the bristles at the base of the makeup brush
• wastes more soap than desired, as multiple drops are required per brush and sponge
• wastes a lot of running water

There is a satisfying pleasure in watching the dirty makeup water leave your brush and circle down the drain, but what a waste of soap and water! To ensure all the gunk is taken out of the brush, you can use a hair comb with well-spaced teeth through the bristles at the end while rinsing. They appear clean, but if you spread the bristles, you can see gunk still trapped in the hard-to-reach spaces of the brush.

It’s time…out with the old, in with the new!

Week 2: Ultrasonic Cleaner Routine

Seven days later, it’s time to test what we are all here for. The same makeup tools were used throughout the week and made just as dirty, if not dirtier!

Here are the upsides to ultrasonic cleaning:

• saves time, brushes washed all at once hands-free (roughly 5-10 minutes total)
• long-lasting brush due to non-abrasive washing
• no more goop build-up or leftover makeup between the bristles
• way less soap used; only used a small drop per round
• saves a lot of water

Just like my previous cleaning routine, I used the hair comb through the bristles at the end while rinsing to brush any leftover loose gunk out. As you can see, the built-up gunk near the base was completely gone.

This method takes no time at all, roughly 5-10 minutes depending on if you choose to do it every few days or weekly. If you’re the type of person to do makeup first before your hair, we recommend cleaning your brushes in the ultrasonic cleaner while you finish your hair. It’s simple, hands-free, and a favorable hygienic routine, especially for those with acne-prone skin.

Are you ready to try it out for yourself? The Magnasonic Ultrasonic Cleaner was used for this experiment.