Daiso Sponge Cleaner For Squeaky Clean Makeup Brushes and Sponges

I’ll admit I’m not diligent at cleaning my makeup brushes. When I first started using makeup many years ago, I, erm, washed my brushes once every 6 months. That is, if I even remember to wash them in the first place.

Of course, back then, I didn’t know about makeup brushes and microbiology. To me, dirty just meant dusty (my house in Malaysia does attract a fair bit of dust on a daily basis), and the way to clean a “dusty” brush was just to flick it a few times and then it goes back on my skin.

Have I freaked you out enough yet? πŸ˜›

The problem is, it’s pure laziness on my part in not washing my brushes. Too lazy to take all of my brushes to individually clean with shampoo and conditioner, too lazy to rinse the detergent out of the brushes, too lazy to wait. There must be a way to clean the brushes quickly and easily.

Thankfully, I found two ways of cleaning my brushes.
1) Spot-clean each brush with a bottle of brush cleaner spray at the end of the day.
2) Clean all brushes with the Daiso Sponge Cleaner.

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

This pink bottle of detergent is perfect for me to clean all of my makeup brushes quickly and easily. All I have to do is dispense a pea-sized amount in a bowl, fill it with water, swirl a dirty brush in the soapy solution for 10 seconds, and rinse. The rinse-off is very quick; I don’t have to keep rinsing suds out, like I do with shampoo and conditioner.

Now if you’ve been using the Daiso Sponge Cleaner as well, you’ll find it rather caustic on makeup brushes. I do too. But why do I still prefer to use it regardless?

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

Two words. Clean and quick. It removes every bit of dirt and gunk from my makeup brushes. I’m careful not too use too much detergent when cleaning each brush, and to make sure the gel is always diluted with water before swirling my brushes in the soapy water.

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

But if it’s so strong, wouldn’t this kill my brushes, I hear you ask. My answer is yes and no. The sponge cleaner is a detergent, thus is caustic and will dry the bristles out over time. As for me, I’ve been using it for almost a year now on my more expensive brushes and the bristles are still soft. There’s barely any hair fallout (except for the usual wear and tear with use). Once every two weeks, I treat my brushes to a good conditioner. They’re still in excellent condition.

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

If you’re worried about using this on your expensive ones, then I’d suggest using this on your cheaper brushes. I use the Daiso cleaner on my Real Techniques brushes and boy, they’re so easy to clean, especially the foundation brush.

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

With the Daiso cleaner, I wash my brushes at least once a week. With shampoo and conditioner, I’m a lot more reluctant because it takes a lot more time to clean the brushes with these. If I were to choose between regularly-cleaned brushes vs. seldom-cleaned brushes, I’ll take the former any time.

This is not to say that the Daiso cleaner is the best there is out there for brush cleaning. Again, it’s a caustic detergent, which may not be the right solution for your brushes especially if they are expensive ones. If you have a method that works for you, one that you’re diligent in following, do stick with it. But if you’re lazy like me and still want dirty brushes cleaned the quick and easy way, the Daiso cleaner is actually pretty darn good.

Daiso Sponge Cleaner

As for the price, it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee at $2.80 a bottle (available at all Daiso stores). I have at least 2 bottles in my bathroom cabinet on standby ;).

Have you used Daiso’s Sponge Cleaner before? What did you think about it? Did the quality of your makeup brushes deteriorate when used with the cleaner?

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18 comments… add one
  1. LeGeeque

    each time I go to Daiso I want to get this but I ALWAYS forget. Speaking of which – Real Techniques brushes are on sale in Priceline now πŸ˜€
    LeGeeque recently posted..It’s My Cake Day!My Profile

    1. Tine

      LeGeeque: Haha thanks for the heads up! Do check out iHerb.com though; the Real Techniques brushes are a whole lot cheaper than Priceline, even with the shipping fees. Oh and Google for the 5% new customer discount as well. I’ll korek my emails and see if I still have the code for that πŸ™‚

  2. Beauty Box

    I use this too and I agree that I would rather have something to clean my brushes quickly than to spend copious amounts of time with a gentler shampoo/conditioner method. I do it the same way – a tbs of daiso in a huge basin. I swish larger brushes individually but dump my small brushes in altogether for a quick wash and rinse them altogether. I prob condition my brushes once in two months – lol! Let’s just say I would rather protect my skin than my brushes???
    Beauty Box recently posted..I’m On HolidayMy Profile

    1. Tine

      Beauty Box: I’m with you on this one. The problem with me is that because it does take a lot more time washing the brushes with shampoo and conditioner, I get very lazy in doing so and always procrastinate to the next day/week/month. “Gah, I have to wash them, but lazy. So much to shampoo. Do it next week”.
      I think that post written by a fellow blogger on the brushes and microbiology really freaked me out as too how much bacteria there is in an unwashed foundation brush. That’s why it got me thinking. Would I rather have clean brushes (using the Daiso cleaner frequently) or soft brushes? I’d take the former any time. Having said that, I do use synthetic brushes a lot more frequently than natural-haired ones, so it didn’t make a difference to the quality of the bristles.

      1. Beauty Box

        That’s a good point on synthetic versus natural hair brushes….Right now the majority of my brushes are synthetic so I feel heaps better about using Daiso…not changing my brush cleaning habits!! :p
        Beauty Box recently posted..I’m On HolidayMy Profile

  3. Madam M

    i absolutely love this brush cleaner. I use it on both my brushes at home & work brushes. Its super effective & super quick. I haven’t been using it for as long as you but i too have not noticed any damage to my at home or work brushes since using it.
    At work its just so quick to use as i need to clean them every single day for health & safety reasons & find as i do it just before i leave i really need something fast & effective rather than stand there trying to get suds out!
    Madam M recently posted..LIME CRIME – GLAMOUR 101 LIPSTICKMy Profile

    1. Tine

      That’s what I thought, Mel. It’s quick and easy, which means it makes me want to clean my brushes more often because it takes so little time to clean them. I remember Rae Morris mentioning about using baby shampoo on makeup brushes, and how pointless it was. It didn’t even occur to me before then, but after thinking about it, baby shampoo is certainly not strong enough to remove all the gunk from makeup brushes (it’s meant for babies, hence it has a weaker cleansing formula). She uses dishwashing liquid on her brushes! πŸ˜›

  4. Paris B

    To your last 3 questions:

    1) Yes
    2) It is very good for dense and synthetic brushes. Gets the dirt out quickly with minimal effort but I no longer use it for natural hair brushes, no matter what anyone says. Regular use can and will destroy your natural hair brushes, no matter the price. Stick to shampoo for those.
    3) Yes, the natural hair ones.
    Paris B recently posted..The new Estee Lauder Perfectionist CP+R serum strives for perfectionMy Profile

    1. Tine

      Paris B: I find it very good for synthetic brushes as well. Cleans the gunk right out so quickly and easily. Looking at my frequently used brushes, I realised I only have 2 natural-haired ones, whereas the rest are synthetic. It’s no wonder I had no problems using this at all!

  5. plue

    i use the daiso cleaner for my sponges, i still prefer j&j shampoo for my brushes, cheap or expensive, they are my babies!
    plue recently posted..Off To The Land of Smiles!My Profile

    1. Tine

      Plue: Hahah fair enough, you gotta keep good care of your babies! πŸ˜€

  6. Sabine

    I don’t know why, but I loathe cleaning my brushes – it’s so tedious! And I literally have less than 10 of them, so I don’t quite know what I have to complain about πŸ˜‰ I haven’t used the Daiso cleaner – I clean my brushes with castile soap but it takes a few goes before they’re clean… I’m definitely up for something that works quickly and thoroughly!
    Sabine recently posted..New in store: Burt’s Bees shampoos and conditioners – updated!My Profile

    1. Tine

      Sabine: Me too me too! I find it tedious to have to keep rinsing the suds out. Waste water! πŸ˜› This one’s quick and easy. Although I have to say, I do have more synthetic brushes than natural-haired ones, which is why this hasn’t deteriorated the quality of the brushes. My natural-haired ones are still all right, but I cannot vouch it’s going to be like that in the next few years. Synthetic ones, however, work a treat with the Daiso cleanser.

  7. niles

    hi i am using daiso brush cleaner too and i can totally vouch for that! and you only need very little amount so it is very worth it

    May i ask where can i get cheap but effective brush spray? TIA!

    1. Tine

      Niles: I’m using MAC’s brush cleaner, which works very well. I decant it to a spray bottle (the MAC bottle dispenses too much product, which is a waste), and use it on my brushes. Another brand would be BeautySoClean, that is popular for spot-cleaning makeup brushes (http://www.beautysoclean.com/). I haven’t personally tried the latter out yet though, so I don’t know if it works well.

  8. Summer Ramirez

    Here’s my take on the other variant of this product. I have yet to try this one out. http://dblackbitch.blogspot.com/2015/10/product-review-daiso-brush-cleaner.html

    1. Tine

      Thanks for sharing, Summer! I’ve seen these around at my local Daiso too. I’m not sure if they’re the same thing, just different packaging? I haven’t seen the old ones around anymore.

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