Does Sephora’s Dry Shampoo for Your Makeup Brushes Really Work? We Tested It!

Confession: I have a dirty little secret. I rarely wash my makeup brushes. I know it’s gross. And I know it’s one of the biggest beauty mistakes you can make—a faux pas high up there alongside not washing your face at night and forgetting to wear sunscreen. Forgetting to do so can result in transferring bacteria and pore-clogging makeup particles all over your face, leading to breakouts and blackheads. But it’s just something that’s so easy to brush off, amirite?

Thankfully, the beauty gods at Sephora know we’re lazy busy, and have introduced a new solution to help make cleaning your brushes as easy as putting on dry shampoo—really. The brand is launching Dry Clean—a $14 spray-on brush cleaner that acts like dry shampoo for your makeup brush bristles. It cleanses, conditions, and removes product buildup from both liquid makeup and powders.

At this point you might be thinking, Haven’t brush cleaners been around forever? Yes, it’s true they’re nothing new. But unlike many others on the market, this one promises to leave your bristles dry within seconds, meaning you don’t need any downtime between using the cleaner and swirling your brush on your skin. Intrigued for obvious reasons, I had to hear more. So I reached out to Beth Hayes, VP of merchandising for Sephora Collection products.

First off, let this be clear: This product isn’t a replacement for a deep clean. Experts still say you should wash brushes once a week, but this is a good maintenance method if that’s just not happening in any way, shape, or form—or, say, if you’re traveling and only want to bring one or two brushes instead of your whole kit. “Dry Clean effectively cleans buildup and pigments from your brushes in between deep cleans,” Hayes says. “It refreshes and replumps the brush without drying or aging brushes since it’s alcohol-free. However, alcohol-free doesn’t kill all bacteria.” Also, because there’s no water involved, you don’t have to worry about laying your brushes flat off a counter or upside-down (a must when you wash with water because it can damage the glue in the base and cause your bristles to fall out!).

Armed with this knowledge, I set off to put the claims to the test. In short: This works. Here’s exactly what I did.

I spared no expense and brought the dirtiest makeup brush I own into the office as a tester: my blush brush. It hasn’t been cleaned in over a month—eek, OK, fine, four months!!!—and I use it just about every single day to apply my usual go-to Nars Orgasm Blush, a super-shimmery pink, in case you’re somehow not familiar with it. Then, for good measure, I swirled my brush into another one of my current blush faves, Urban Decay Afterglow 8-Hour Powder Blush in Quickie ($26, sephora.com), a bright, bright pink.

Time to spray! Per the directions on the can, I spritzed the head of my brush three times, being careful not to put the can too close to the bristles. About six inches away is good. Note that this spray has a very distinguished scent. Other Glamour editors compared it to cherry disinfectant and a fresh-cut bouquet of flowers—not a bad thing; it’s actually pretty pleasant. But it’s strong.

Next, the directions say to sweep your brush onto a tissue or towel (I went with a napkin) to lift the surface residue. As you can see, there was plenty to remove.

So considering how icky my brush was to begin with, there was still a lot of pigment left over after the initial spritz. Perhaps this is why they say it isn’t a replacement to a deep clean? Instead, I saturated the brush in cleaner (sorry, deskmates) and very gently rubbed the bristles so as to get more into the center of them.

The results: My brush wasn’t 100 percent rid of blush (I’m pretty sure it’s stained at this point), but it was significantly less disgusting than it was that morning. The only thing that transferred onto my hands was the slightest hint of shimmer. And a bonus I wasn’t expecting: The bristles felt so soft! Is this what having clean new brushes feel like? The brush was fluffier and smelled so much more pleasant.

You can bet that once Dry Clean hits shelves in April, I’ll be getting a handful of cans.

Still have any questions? I’ll be doing a Facebook Live video demonstrating the cleaner this afternoon. Chime in with your questions or leave them in the comments section below. I’ll also add the video once we’re wrapped with the demo. Happy cleaning!

Update: Here’s the video from my Facebook Live chat. Enjoy!