My Current Obsession: Cleaning My Makeup Brushes (MAC Brush Cleanser vs. Estee Lauder Brush Cleanser)

Hello lovelies!

Haven't blogged for over a week, but finally I have some chance to sit down and talk about one of my current obsessions at the moment.... cleaning my makeup brushes! XD

Yes! It sounds kind of silly, but I find that there's nothing wrong with being obsessive about cleaning brushes! It's good for our brushes and for our skin as well! I have to be honest though that I'm talking about spot cleaning rather than deep cleaning brushes. I deep clean my brushes maybe once a week or once every two weeks. I find it isn't that necessary to deep clean them often since I spot clean my brushes all the time.

When I first was looking for cheaper alternatives for brush cleansers, I decided to try out the Essence of Beauty Brush cleaners from CVS.  I'm a fan of their brushes so I had high expectations for the two cleansers I got.

One of the cleansers was meant for spot cleaning and looked like:

Image from: kizzy-online.com

I was very disappointed with this brush cleanser because it did absolutely nothing for my brushes.  None of the colors came out of the brushes and literally I felt like I was spraying water on my brushes.  I ended up throwing it out so I'm not 100% sure what are the ingredients.  I do recall it had a small scent of alcohol, but let me repeat that it did nothing for my brushes.  To add to that, it took so long for my brushes to dry! The price was nice though at under $5.

I also purchased the Essence of Beauty Extra Gentle Brush Cleaner (4.2 FL. OZ)

I ended up keeping this brush cleanser since it's meant for more deep cleaning uses.  I found that it did deep clean my brushes, but I would have to say that it didn't do much for removing colors from brushes, especially from my foundation brushes and my natural hair brushes.  There's an interesting smell to it, but overall, it's "okay" for the cost of $5.

I got tired of not getting the results I wanted when I spot cleaned my brushes so I opted for a more pricier brush cleanser from Estee Lauder.  The exact name is the Estee Lauder Hygienic Spray.  I have an older version of this spray brush cleanser... or I think I do? I can't seem to find it elsewhere online, but the current brush cleansers from Estee Lauder look awfully similar to the MAC brush cleanser.

Here's mine!

Here's the current brush cleanser from Estee Lauder.

This brush cleanser definitely did more for my brushes than the Essence of Beauty cleanser, but it still was hard to take off colors when spot cleaning. The price is $15 for this cleanser.  It did seem to spot clean my brushes but after a few sprays, the result wasn't what I was highly anticipated.  The cleanser is high in alcohol scent and brushes dry fairly quickly after each use.  What I do like about this spray is that it contains witch hazel and could also be used to sanitize hands, cosmetic pencils, and brushes.  I never attempted to deep clean my brushes with this brush cleanser.

I decided to give the MAC brush cleanser a try since it was cheaper than the Estee Lauder one at $12.  The MAC one is very popular and highly recommended for those who want good spot cleaning for their brushes.

I found the color of this brush cleanser to be a very pretty light pink! :)

I was so eager to test it out once I purchased it and the results were amazing! I remember that I tweeted about how much I loved this brush cleanser after my first use of it! I think I tweeted that I never felt so happy spot cleaning my brushes! xD The amazing factor was that the colors really disappeared from my brushes and my brushes looked good as new! Even the toughest colors somehow seemed to come off!

One thing I didn't like was the packaging since it didn't have a spray. In order to avoid losing product, I put some of the cleanser in a spray bottle.

If you don't believe me... haha... I gave it a test for you to see!!

Here's a showdown of the Estee Lauder Hygienic Spray Brush Cleanser and the MAC Brush Cleanser!

You guys can be the judge!

DUN DUN DUN!!! ^o^

For this experiment/battle, I chose to use a really highly pigmented eyeshadow to use with my MAC 217 brush.  The lucky eyeshadow was chosen from my Urban Decay Naked Palette.

The shade I used was Creep, which is a dark blue shadow with silver flex.

Here's the clean MAC 217 brush:

Okay.. now let's put some of the dark shadow on it!

First up is going to be the MAC cleanser.  I like to clean my brushes on a clean paper towel, but lots of people like to use facial tissue or towels.  Just make sure it's clean! :)

Here's the first tinkle... I mean spray! haha.

Okay, now let's get cleaning!

Spray 1:

ehh... not bad but didn't clean everything. As you can see on the towel, a lot of the pigment from the shadow came off. Let's give it another try!

Spray 2:

oooh! Getting there! Most of the pigment is off the brush! 

How about we give it one more little spray and I think it will do the trick!

Spray 3:

Ah yes! The result is lovely! It looks pretty clean now! :)

Okay! Shall we move onto the opponent... the Estee Lauder Hygienic Spray Brush Cleanser?

We have the brush with more eyeshadow again:

Let's get cleaning again! Woohoo!

Spray 1:

The first spot cleaning looks actually pretty good! I would have to say it looks cleaner than how it looked with the first spray of the MAC Brush Cleanser.

Spray 2:

The second spray hardly did anything! As you can see on the towel, hardly any pigments came off the brush.

I think this is the problem with this brush cleanser.  It doesn't thoroughly remove the pigments from the brush. If I only had the Estee Lauder brush cleanser, I would have to stop on the second spray because there's no point in trying to clean it any further.

I still wanted to clean my brush so I ended up using one more spray of the MAC Brush Cleanser and it did the trick!! :)

Good as new!

So what do you guys think?

I would have to say the MAC Brush Cleanser is the winner!

For deep cleaning my brushes, I like to use the technique with using Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Dawn Dishwashing Soap.  I feel that this method really takes off the pigments and kills all the germs and bacteria on my brushes!

Make sure to give those brushes a good cleaning!

Love,

Mindy