The Brush Bar & Board: Review

I love my Japanese brushes. I also love to keep them clean. Well, not really. No one really likes washing all their brushes because it feels like a chore. However, I do love having clean brushes. I love anything that makes this chore easier. Typically I wash my brushes using friction in my palm with mild soapy water, then hang them upside down to dry. I used to hang them on a towel bar with hair ties. See my post HERE for this brush system. It's an effective and very cheap system. If you have enough towel bars for all your brushes. I then discovered the Benjabelle Tree which I discuss HERE. Still fairly cheap and I can store the drying brushes in my closet overnight to dry.

The ultimate purpose of drying your brushes upside down is so the water doesn't loosen the glue in the ferrule of the brush and ruin it. I was approached by The Brush Bar to try their brush washing system. As I am always up for a new way to clean and dry brushes I couldn't say no. I received The Brush Bar & Brush Board to play with. Details per The Brush Bar:

The Brush Bar A game-changing tool that solves one of the biggest frustrations in makeup: brush care. All smart beauty lovers know that drying brushes with the bristles pointing up is a no-no – water seeps into the ferrule and loosen the glue that holds the bristles together. Laying brushes flat prevents this, but often leads to misshapen bristles and long drying times. Enter the Brush Bar! The patent-pending design secures brushes pointing downward, preventing damage and misshape and cutting drying time in half – all while taking up just a couple inches of space on counters, sinks, and vanities! Plus, it folds into itself for easy storage and travel.

 

The sleek black case opens, flip out the prongs with a flick of the wrist, and close the case again. You can then set the case on any flat surface with the prongs facing out to hold your brushes that need drying. This is a matte black plastic case with metal prongs. It retails for $38.

The case is weighty on the end across the prongs so it sits on any flat surface without toppling off. I set this one my little picture shelf and left my brushes to dry all day. It was extremely versatile and portable, you could set it anywhere there's a flat surface. It was nice as I could keep my drying brushes high and away from my two year old's brush grabbing hands.

The large prongs worked well for blush brushes and most larger face brushes. It's not large enough to fit my Tom Ford Bronzer Brush and it struggled holding this SUQQU Face Brush. I had to really shove the SUQQU brush in there. The medium prongs held my eyeshadow brushes well. The small prongs held the small brushes well. My really small concealer brushes were too small and slid right out. The prongs were just too big for them. While I loved the innovative design, portability and ease of use, I found this worked best for small to large brushes. Extra large and extra small brushes just don't fit in the prongs.

The Brush Board A game changing makeup brush cleaning tool. Made of a hard material with 6 different surfaces that deep cleans, but does not damage brushes. Simply deposit your brush soap onto a selected surface, add water, and swirl your brush to deep clean between the bristles. The first ever makeup brush exfoliator.

Features

• Made of firm material for maximum cleaning power
• Water-pooling sections that cup water for a lasting lather
• 6 different textures to scrub between and around the bristles
• For the most effective clean, apply a brush cleanser and a splash of water before gently swirling brushes back and forth along the board’s surface.
• Can easily be cleaned by running it under warm water and laying out to dry
• Keeps hands clean and dry as you wash your brushes
• Comes with its own velour carrying case

Surfaces

1. Cylinders – gentle clean
2. Pyramids – 4 edges and a point for the deepest clean
3. Cones – deep cleaning cones double as a bristle comb to separate bristles for quick drying
4. Triangular Cylinder – medium scrub
5. Straight Grooves – dual purpose scrubber and scraper
6. Wave Grooves – a waved version of the straight grooves

I found I liked to use this best by laying it flat in my bathroom sink as it left my hands free. I filled the board with mild soap (I use baby shampoo) & lukewarm to room temperature water (never use really hot water to clean brushes as it loosens the glue in the ferrule which is what you're trying to avoid). The best system I found with this was to put soap in the cylinder side (shown on the left here) so you can scrub the brush in the soapy water with the rougher cleaning side first. Then I moved the brush to the middle more gentle side for a rinse and extra scrub. Lastly I did a final rinse in the most gentle side (shown on the right). This technique seemed to really clean my brush quickly and effectively without getting my hands dirty. When your done just dump the water, refill and repeat.

You can see the makeup come right off while cleaning. I found the first side with the cylinders, cones and pyramids was very good at cleaning but a little rough for more gentle haired brushes. I would only use this side on the tougher brushes like synthetics and maybe goat hair or the larger brushes with longer hairs to get in there better.

The side with the cylinder, waves and grooves was my favorite side. As the cylinders on this side are still rough and harder on gentle brushes, I only used that side on the goat hair brushes. I used the grooves/waves for squirrel hair eye brushes and more gentle hairs. The grooves and waves cleaned the gentle brushes well enough. Don't press and swirl too hard while cleaning. You want to prevent splaying the brushes out and ruining their shape. Be gentle. This board retails for $28.

Overall, I liked the cleaning system and it worked well. The Brush Bar is portable and easy to use. The Brush Board is effective for hands free cleaning. Once I figured out my system it was easy to clean quickly. The Brush Bar is offering you my readers 15% off your first purchase with code MICHELLE15 here at getbrushbar.com