The Best DIY Makeup Brush Cleaners To Make At Home

Your makeup is only as good as the tools you use to apply it with, so keeping your makeup brushes clean is essential. We often take extra care of our skin, but totally bypass one of the most important steps in skincare: cleaning our brushes. Here's the best way to make a DIY makeup brush cleaner so you can have healthy and clean skin.

Cleaning your makeup brushes is essential to maintaining clean and clear skin. In the same way you wouldn't rub dirty fingers over your face, you shouldn't settle for a dirty makeup brush. Dirty brushes can not only spread bacteria and germs, according to Stylecaster, but can also give horrible color and product payoff and generally irritate the skin. So how often should you clean them? Depends on where you store them and how often you're using them. If you store your makeup brushes on top of the counter, where hair products and sink water can bounce onto, you should be sudsing them up a couple times a week. If your bristles are staring to stick together, that's also a good sign they need cleaning.

While you can go for the expensive brush cleaners, there is a better — and cheaper — way to wash your brushes! Here are five ways to wash your brushes at home with things you already have:

1. Anti-Bacterial Dish Soap

I love using plain and inexpensive anti-bacterial soap to clean and disinfect my makeup brushes. You can really go to town and not worry about wasting product.

2. Bar Soap

If you don't have any of dish soap lying around, you can use a plain (non-scented, not special) bar of soap. Just remember — it's super important to not get the handle of your brush wet. Water can get trapped in the shaft of the brush and cause your bristles to fall out or your brush to rust. That doesn't mean you don't need to clean that part, though! I recommend wiping it down with anti-baterical whipes.

3. Olive Oil

Conditioning your brushes is an important step so the bristles don't become stripped down and rough against your skin. Oil gets rid of oil, so cleansing with olive oil is a great way to keep your brushes clean and soft.

4. Shampoo

If you can use shampoo on your hair, you can surely use shampoo on your brush's hair, right? Just be sure to use a clean and gentle formula, like a baby shampoo, since your hair is likely stronger than the bristles on your foundation and blush brushes.

5. Cleansing Conditioner

A cleansing conditioner is a great makeup brush cleaner because it's gentle and won't foam up as much as a shampoo, while still getting all the dirt and grime out.