Review: Japonesque Brush Cleanser

One of the most important things in makeup is to clean your brushes regularly.  If you don't, bacteria will grow all over them and when you go to apply makeup again, said bacteria- along with the oil from your face (sebum...what a horrible word!) and leftover makeup- will transfer to your face, promoting breakouts.  I always make a point to clean my brushes- Spot-treating after each use, deep cleansing every week.  For the deep cleaning of the brushes, I use a method I learned from Michelle Phan who claimed that she learned it in her art class.  I use antibacterial dish soap and olive oil to clean and condition the bristles.  While this method works for me, it's a long and tedious process that I hate doing.  I started looking for a brush cleanser last week.  I heard some great reviews about Japonesqe brush cleanser on Youtube, so I went to Ulta to check it out.  I got the only bottle the store had stocked, which was the 16 oz. bulk bottle.  I didn't mind that so much, Ulta has a great return policy, so even if the product was crap, I'd get my money back.  (I won't be taking it back ,though!)

When I got home, I decided to try out this new product on brushes of which I had doubles.  Can't be too Cautious.  I pulled out an eye shadow brush, a stippling brush, and a foundation brush for testing.  (All synthetic because they don't dry out as badly as natural bristles.)  The results? A perfectly clean eye shadow brush and two sticky face brushes.  I tried again with some fluffier face brushes and less cleanser, thinking that the dense bristles  may have played a part in the stickiness for some reason as well as the brushes soaking up too much cleanser, but the powder brushes got sticky as well.  I then tried natural hair brushes and the results were the same- eye brushes came out perfect, the face brushes absorbed all the cleanser and got sticky.  One big plus for the natural hair eye brushes, the cleanser didn't dry them out!

I re-cleaned the face brushes and they are fine now.  At least I can say the cleanser didn't ruin, or even damage, the brushes.  I have tried spraying the face brushes with the cleanser for spot cleaning and that method works just fine.  

Overall opinion of Japonesque Brush Cleanser:  Use only on eye brushes for deep cleaning, use on any brushes for spot treatment.  I will stick to my first cleansing method for my larger brushes.  It is a great cleanser, though- it dissolves all the pigment and makeup off my brushes, it's just that one side effect on the larger brushes...

There are other similar cleansers on the market.  If any of you have tried them and have had good results with them, especially on face brushes, let me know!  Leave a comment.  If you have tried them and they were awful, leave a comment about what it did to your brushes.

<3  M