How to Clean Makeup Brushes the Right Way

The basin is full before the first brush even touches the porcelain.

Beige clouds of foundation spread through the running water, while the bristles darken and release a faint scent of old product. You press, swirl, rinse and repeat, yet the water still refuses to run entirely clear. Between the blocked drain and your marked blush brush, a quiet realisation arrives: you have been cleaning them incorrectly for years.

You remember how you supposedly learnt to wash makeup brushes. It may have been a random YouTube tutorial, your best friend’s baby-shampoo “hack”, or the wedding makeup artist who half-joked that your brushes were a health hazard. You laughed at the time.

But as the cloudy water disappears down the drain tonight, it no longer seems amusing. Your brushes are holding far more than pigment.

The dirty secret inside clean-looking makeup brushes

At first glance, makeup brushes rarely seem especially grimy. Their handles may feel slightly tacky and the bristles may have started to spread, but nothing appears alarming. Then you angle one towards the light and notice it: a dense ring of compacted product beside the ferrule, the metal band holding the bristles in place. The brush appears to be wearing a small, dusty polo neck made of old makeup and skin.

The larger issue cannot be seen. Oils, bacteria, setting spray, pollution and everything else your face encountered that week become caught between the fibres. Each brush acts as a shuttle, moving from your cheek to bronzer to powder and transferring microscopic residue with every sweep. The finish may look fresh, but the effect can resemble a slow-motion skin meltdown.

Dermatologists understand this quietly. Off the record, many will say that unwashed brushes are the overlooked contributors to breakouts, texture and sudden irritation that “just appeared” for no apparent reason. Yet hardly anyone washes brushes as professionals do, right down to their base.

A London makeup artist once told me she could tell how somebody washed their brushes simply by looking at the way their bristles splayed. “People wash the tips,” she said, “not the roots.” She was right. Look at any Sunday-night “self-care” TikTok and the pattern is clear: a fast swirl over a cleaning mat, some foam, perhaps a rinse, and it is finished. It may look pleasing on screen, but that is not the whole process.

One brand’s customer survey found that over 60% washed their brushes less than monthly. Nearly a quarter said they could not remember when they had last cleaned them. Those same people often spend on premium skincare, then wonder why their skin texture remains unchanged.

During a fashion-week backstage job, I watched assistants methodically clean 40, then 50 brushes in succession. Every brush was soaked, squeezed, reshaped and placed flat, like a small sleeping army. No brush was left wet at the base, and none were dried upright. That was when the difference between at-home habits and professional standards became unmistakable.

The reasoning behind the proper way to clean brushes is straightforward, although it challenges what most of us do casually. A brush is not merely bristles: it is bristles + glue + ferrule + handle. Most people scrub the bristles while overlooking everything else. Repeated partial washes force product further into the base, where it combines with moisture and begins breaking down the glue. That is why a favourite brush eventually sheds like a nervous cat.

The better starting point is not, “How do I make this look clean?” but, “How do I prevent a damp, product-filled cave from forming at the root of every bristle?” Viewed that way, a quick swirl on a silicone mat is rather like half-cleaning a plate before returning it to the cupboard.

The professional makeup brush-cleaning routine nobody taught you

The technique most people overlook starts unglamorously, with patience and lukewarm running water. Keep the brush facing downwards, with the bristles pointing into the sink, and allow water to run over the tips only. Never let water flood the ferrule. That is where the glue sits, and when it fails, the brush fails too.

Then put a pea-sized amount of gentle soap or specialist brush cleanser into your palm. A lightly fragranced liquid washing-up liquid can work remarkably well on synthetic brushes, while a mild shampoo is suitable for natural hair. Swirl the brush gently in small circles, applying only enough pressure for the bristles to flex rather than spread. Next, draw your fingers from the base towards the tip, almost as though you are “milking” the brush. This is the step nearly everyone misses, and it is what draws out buildup from the roots.

Continue rinsing until the water is clear, still keeping the brush pointed downwards. Repeat the process for heavy foundation and cream makeup. For eye brushes used with eyeliner or rich pigments, the extra few seconds needed for another small drop of soap are worthwhile. Once you believe it is clean, give the area near the base one more gentle squeeze. The water that emerges will tell you the truth.

Let’s be honest: nobody genuinely does this every day. Most people put it off until their bronzer brush resembles something that has survived a desert storm. That is why changing your thinking from “I should clean everything all the time” to “I’ll rotate smaller groups often enough” makes such a difference.

Divide your brushes into groups - face, eyes and detail - then choose one group to wash each week. Face brushes used with liquid or cream products require the most frequent cleaning. Eye brushes that touch lash lines or gel liners can quietly cause irritation, so they should come next. Brushes reserved for powder are the most forgiving, though they still gather oil and dust over time.

There is an emotional element that rarely gets mentioned, too. On a hurried morning, you pick up your preferred brush and feel that hard, crusty layer at the tip. It becomes a small irritation in the day, a reminder of all the things you intended to do but did not. Giving brushes one proper clean can be unexpectedly satisfying, almost like emptying an overflowing inbox.

“Clean brushes won’t replace a good skincare routine,” says one New York dermatologist, “but they will stop your tools from fighting against it. You’d be surprised how many ‘mystery’ breakouts calm down when people finally wash to the base.”

To stop the routine feeling like a task, make it a small sensory ritual. Use warm water and soft foam, and settle into the quiet rhythm of swirling and rinsing. Place a clean towel flat, gently press out excess water and reshape each brush with your fingers. Leave them to dry horizontally, with the bristles slightly over a counter edge to allow air to circulate.

• Never stand brushes upright in a cup to dry: water can seep into the ferrule, weakening the glue.
• Do not use boiling water or harsh alcohol baths: they may offer instant “disinfection” but are damaging to longevity.
• Reserve a quick-dry spray for cleans between washes, rather than using it as a lasting substitute.
• Clean makeup sponges separately, as they need more thorough washing and additional drying time.
• Avoid twisting or pulling at bristles during drying, as this permanently changes their shape.

What happens when you finally clean makeup brushes properly

The first time you use a genuinely clean brush - properly washed rather than merely rinsed - there is a subtle difference. Foundation glides on instead of dragging. Bronzer blends without that patchy, blotchy struggle. Highlighter settles where you intended, rather than clinging to residue left behind by last week’s cream blush.

Your skin may respond as well, although not dramatically. You might simply see fewer fresh bumps around the jawline, less unexplained redness across the cheeks, or the faint roughness on your forehead easing after several weeks. You will not wake up with glass skin overnight, but you will no longer be quietly applying bacteria every morning with a tool that was never truly clean.

There is something unexpectedly grounding about the process, too. On a Sunday evening, while the television murmurs in the background, you arrange brushes on a towel like tiny soldiers drying after battle. It is ordinary and slightly meditative. Once you have seen the sludge released from the base of a supposedly “clean” brush, it becomes difficult to return to the old, half-hearted swirls.

At some stage, everyone who loves makeup has confronted that guilty drawer or dusty brush cup, filled with tools that look as though they came from a backstage sale five years ago. On a good day, you promise yourself you will “sort them out soon”. On a tired day, you select the least dirty one and decide it is fine. On a brave day, you turn on the tap, line them up beside the sink and finally learn the right method - the slow, thorough method that most people never use.