How To Clean Makeup Sponges Effectively | 5 Tips & Tricks

Your beauty blender is so used, you can barely see its signature pink shade. Let’s talk about how to clean those makeup sponges. It’s about time!

As much as I love using makeup sponges, it is a huge chore to clean it up; however, it’s an absolute necessity that we regularly clean our blenders. To ease the burden, I round up the best and easiest ways to sanitize our sponges.

By the end of this article, you’ll know how to make your makeup sponges look brand new.

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Best Beauty Blender Cleaners to Make Them Look Like New

1. How To Clean Makeup Sponges With Oil

I love this oil trick because it’s effective in removing persistent stains and breaks down the makeup in the sponge so well. I use either olive oil or baby oil, whichever I have on hand. We’ll still need to soap to sanitize the beauty sponge, but it’s so rewarding seeing my sponge stain-free!

What You’ll Need:

• Any oil (I use my normal cooking extra virgin olive oil, or you can use baby oil since it’s inexpensive and just as effective.)
• Liquid soap (You can use dishwashing soap or liquid hand soap.)
• 2  Small bowls
• Hot water

How To:

1. Pour your chosen oil into a small bowl, just enough to cover the base of the bowl.
2. Swirl your sponge around in your bowl of oil, squeezing your sponge as you go. This will help your sponge soak in oil and force out the foundation at the same time. Continue this step until your sponge is completely clean and you’re no longer squeezing out any more foundation from it.
3. Pour hot water and liquid soap into another bowl, this time we’re going to rinse out the oil and sanitize your sponge.
4. This time, swirl your beauty sponge around the soapy water to remove the oil and to clean your sponge.
5. Once all the stains and oil residue have been washed out, rinse your sponge under running water.
6. Leave your beauty blender on a towel and allow to air dry. Don’t store your beauty blender until it has dried completely and has shrunk to its normal size. Moisture is an invitation for bacteria to fester!

2. Toss Your Makeup Sponge In The Microwave

This tutorial on how to clean makeup sponges is actually borrowed from kitchen sponge cleaning techniques. Applying heat is a great way to kill bacteria, and that’s great news for our skin! I love doing this extra step to make sure I make the most out of my cleaning session, but don’t worry you don’t have to make a day of it.

Pay attention to the instructions because it’s actually quite easy to mess this up, with some beauties ending up with melted beauty blenders. Yikes!

What You’ll Need:

• Microwave
• Water
• Liquid soap (Same as above, any liquid soap will do.)
• Small bowl
• Tongs (An important tool since we’ll be dealing with heat!)

How To:

1. Fill your small bowl with water, about three quarters or half of the bowl enough to submerge your makeup sponge.
2. Add a generous amount of liquid soap into the water and stir with your tongs to create suds.
3. Place your dirty makeup sponge in the bowl of soap water and give it a few squeezes to make sure your sponge is absolutely soaked. This will prevent your blender from melting!
4. Pop the bowl in your microwave for one minute.
5. Allow the bowl to cool for a bit before you bring it out of the microwave. Using the tongs, take your makeup sponge out of the bowl and squeeze dry.

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3. How To Clean Makeup Sponges With Soap (Liquid And Bar)

This is the easiest and simplest way to clean your beauty blender. For this tip, you’ll only need the soap of your choice whether it’s liquid or bar soap and your sink!

To learn how to clean makeup sponges or beauty blenders in the simplest way possible, read down below!

What You’ll Need:

• Any bar or liquid soap
• Sink for running water

How To (Liquid Soap):

1. Soak your makeup sponge under running water.
2. Apply generous amounts of soap, focusing on areas where stains are concentrated.
3. Squeeze the sponge and bring it to a lather. Be careful not to use your fingernails or else you might tear your sponge.
4. Once your beauty blender is clean and the water runs clear meaning there are no more traces of foundation, dry your sponge with a towel and allow it to air dry.

How To (Soap Bar):

1. Soak your beauty blender under running water.
2. Rub the blender against your soap bar, gently squeezing it as you go along. By rubbing your sponge against a soap bar, it should be less susceptible to tears in contrast to rubbing and squeezing with our fingers alone.
3. Once the water runs clear, dry your sponge with a towel and allow it to air dry.

4. How To Clean Makeup Sponges With Baby Shampoo

I love using baby shampoo to clean my makeup brushes. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could apply the same technique to cleaning my beauty sponges!

Baby shampoo effectively purifies brushes and sponges, and has a very gentle formula. This trick is exactly like cleaning your sponge with liquid soap, very simple and very efficient.

5. How To Clean A Beauty Blender With A Scrubbing Mat

Scrubbing mats are typically created for makeup brushes, but they work just as well with beauty blenders. This is a great tip for beauties that are heavy handed with tendencies to go overboard when massaging their sponges, and beauties that rock long coffin nails. The ridges on the surface of scrubbing mats were designed specifically to gently scrub our makeup tools, no tears here!

There are plenty of scrubbing mats that come with cleansers, but if you don’t have a mat with a cleanser feel free to use your favorite liquid soap.

What You’ll Need:

• Liquid soap
• Scrubbing mat
• Sink for running water

How To:

1. Soak your makeup sponge under running water.
2. Once your sponge is drenched, apply a generous amount of liquid soap focusing on areas with heavy concentrations of foundation.
3. Scrub your makeup sponge gently against the mat in a circular motion.
4. Continue scrubbing your sponge until it is completely clean.
5. Squeeze dry with a towel and leave out in a dry room to air dry.

Now that you know how easy it is to clean makeup sponges, can you lightheartedly commit to cleaning your sponges two to three times a week? I know I did! It pays to sanitize tools we use on our face since a breakout isn’t the worse thing bacteria in our sponges can do.

Grab your makeup sponges and bring them back to their former glory! Let’s rediscover what color they were originally.

Did your friends believe that you didn’t just buy new makeup sponges? Share your experience in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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