If you are like me, having to clean your makeup brushes after each use feels like such a hassle. Soaking them to remove caked on makeup feels like it takes ages, and then they take hours to dry. Or worse you can use them dirty, and risk a big breakout.
Fortunately a new product has come around to take the hassle out of cleaning and drying your makeup brushes: The Makeup Brush Cleaner Machine!
What Is A Makeup Brush Cleaner Machine?
A makeup brush cleaner machine is like a miniature dishwasher for your makeup brushes! There are a few different features depending on the brand, however they all work in a similar way.
A makeup brush cleaner machine will gently pulse the bristles of your brushes in a cleaning solution, leaving you with sparking clean brushes!
Each of these machines is a little different, so check out our review to find out which one is best for you and your brushes!
Lilumia 2 Makeup Brush Cleaner Device
The Liluma 2 is an updated version of the first makeup brush cleaner device. The device itself has a futuristic egg shape, and clear dome so that you can easily view your brushes. The Lilumia 2 comes in pink, chrome, gold, and black finishes.
It is on the large size, but can hold and wash 12 brushes at a time. The Lilumia 2 doesn’t include cleaning solution, but you can purchase it as a bundle with cleanser+ extra cleaning disc, purchase the cleanser separately, or use a different kind of brush cleaner.
The directions were pretty simple, but I watched a youtube video first just to check it out. First pour a mixture of cleanser and water into the bottom of the device, overtop of the pink cleaning disc.
Next swipe your brushes across a paper towel, like rinsing a dish before the dishwasher. It only takes a second, and helps remove any large bits of makeup you don’t want floating in your machine.
Finally load your brushes into the brush holder and you are ready! Next you cover the device with the plastic dome and press start. The device runs your brushes through a wash cycle, and then 3 rise cycles before finishing up. The whole process took about 17 minutes including the load time- not bad!
Next I took a clean paper towel to them to see if they were clean. I was happy that my brushes were spotless, with no lost bristles in the bottom of the cleaning disc. I did have one eyeliner brush that was not pushed down enough, so there was residue still in the middle of the bristle. Not a big deal, but thats something I can watch out for next time.
It did a great job on my foundation brushes which are the dirtiest, and handled my eyeshadow brushes delicately. After, you can even pop up the cleaning stand which allows them to hang there and dry safely.
Overall this machine isn’t cheap, but if you use your brushes often, the Lilumia is a solid investment. It is really nice to be able to load them in, and relax while the Lilumia does the heavy scrubbing!
This device is a great choice for people who wear makeup a lot, and have to wash their brushes several times a week.
BrushPearl Makeup and Cosmetic Brush Cleaner
The Brush Pearl is another popular option of automatic makeup brush cleaner. It looks like a mini washing machine, and has a little pearl button on top. The device can clean, and rinse the brushes and it uses a front display to let you know what mode it is on.
The Brush Pearl holds 10-16 brushes depending on their size, and you insert them into slits at the top of the device.
Overall the Brush Pearl was more difficult to use than I thought it would be. It came with some brush cleaner, which I added to the tank along with water. Next I put in my brushes which was the toughest part.
The directions tell you to make sure the brush is down far enough to be cleaner, but no to touch the bottom of the tank. It was nearly impossible to tell when you load them in, because the top isn’t clear.
I ran the brushes for two rinse cycles, and noticed they still looked soapy. After I ran them again a third rinse, before removing them.
I noticed all my large brushes had a small amount of makeup residue on them. My bristles were soft, clean and sanitary but for the price I expected the brushes to be all clean!
If you are using smaller eye shadow brushes and cleaning them less often, this may be a good option for you, but for the price you could spend a bit more for the Lilumia which works much better.
Luxe Makeup Brush Cleaner
The Luxe Makeup Brush Cleaner appears to be a dupe of the StylPro which is very popular. This version however is much less expensive than the StylPro, and includes a small bottle of the cleaning solution. It’s also different from the Lilumia and Brush Pearl because it only cleans one brush at a time, and has a spin dry feature!
Getting started was simple- add some cleaning solution to the bowl, and then insert your brush into the spinning device. Next, stick your brush into the bowl for a few seconds to soak up some solution.
Then, turn on the spinner and allow your brush to spin around touching the bottom of the bowl. After a few seconds lift the brush from the bottom of the bowl, and let it spin dry for a few seconds.
It was amazing how clean my foundation brush were after one session in the Luxe machine. It was almost dry, but just damp enough to shape it back into place- exactly what they recommend in the directions.
Overall, this device cleans and dries makeup brushes very quickly and effectively. The drawbacks are that you have to do brushes one at a time, and change the solution every few brushes.
Despite that, the device is very easy to clean, and I can still tell it would save me a ton of time compared with washing and drying them by hand.
To top it all off, this device is much less expensive than both the Lilumia, and the Brush Pearl. If you have only a few choice makeup brushes that you use very often and need them dry fast- the Luxe makeup brush cleaner machine is certainly a great choice for you!
The Winner:
Luxe Makeup Brush Cleaner
Overall I think the best makeup brush cleaner machine was the Luxe! It is inexpensive, takes up hardly any counter space, and is easy to clean. Because I use the same 5 brushes all the time, it is really nice to be able to clean them and have them fully dry within 1/2 hour.
For those with extensive makeup brush collections who want to set it and forget it- the Lilumia may be the better pick.
For now, I look forward to using my Luxe makeup brush cleaning device every time I dirty my bristles! Happy cleaning!