I bought a couple of these in the spray bottle and holy crap! This stuff works AMAZINGLY. However, the smell, although some people say it's vanilla, is not vanilla. It's pretty nasty. Use it in a well ventilated area. But I don't care because I love how it cleans my brushes. Make sure you get it in the spray bottle packaging because I think using it to soak brushes in is a waste if a bunch of product.

I bought some today. It left a blue hue on the white of my skunk brushes. Not sure if its because they are Sigma and not MAC. Has anyone else had this problem? Will it fade in time or should I wash out with shampoo?

Bought this stuff from Camera Ready Cosmetics, well it's every bit as fantastic as the other reviewers say it is! This stuff cuts through foundation, gel eyeliner and cream-based products like no other! Love the turpentine scent infused with vanilla. So what I do is pour a little of the cleaner into a bowl, and then dip and swirl each of my brushes in, then dry off with a paper towel. I tend to start with my eye brushes first. It works so effectively on both synthetic and natural hair brushes, and dries ultra-fast. I have the 8oz bottle but I wish I bought the 32 oz bottle because I can see myself going through it quite quickly. Other than that, definitely believe the hype!

It's fantastic. That's all you need to know.

Love the light vanilla scent of this brush cleaner. PLUS it doesn't contain alcohol!! Great for natural and bristle brushes, but not recommended for synthetic or nylon brushes. Non-sudsy.

I have purchased MAC's brush cleanser for the past year. HOWEVER, this stuff is WAY BETTER!! I haven't used it but for about a month, so I am not sure if it will dry out my brushes over time. But it cleans like a gem. Short and sweet.

This stuff is amazing and will get your brushes super clean...because it's basically turpentine mixed with conditioner and some vanilla perfume.

Yes, THAT turpentine. Super flammable, clean your house painting brushes and art supplies turpentine.

Your brushes? Super clean, germ free, and conditioned. A drop or two will even de-gunk false lashes. Yes, it's amazing that way and it will prolong the life of your brushes, but it's a hazardous chemical.

As long as you don't smoke while you're cleaning your brushes and make sure to dispose of the chemicals properly, this is a must have.

Wow....
The scent of this brush cleaner brings me back to the wonderful memories of my childhood growing up in the 70's and early 80's.
You see... when I was growing up, my parents owned a multi-family apartment house. As a kid, my parents were always fixing things up, painting, etc. and keeping up with the property while my siblings and I ran around trying to "help" but definitely causing more trouble than anything else. My gosh - we had the best times! :)

Some other reviewers mentioned this brush cleaner smells like vanilla, but that's not the scent that I detect.

The overwhelming scent I smell is turpentine.

The same turpentine my parents used to clean non-latex based paint from paintbrushes used to fix up the apartments when a tenant was about to move in.


Yes sirree... that kind of turpentine.


Will this brush cleaner clean your makeup brushes? Oh... I bet your MAC Studio Fix Fluid it will! There is no doubt in my mind that no matter how gunked up with product your goat hair brushes are, they WILL be white again! Your duo-fibre skunk brushes will glisten! (If duo-fibre brushes can "glisten", they will.)

However... make no mistake about it. This cleaner is a chemical solvent.

I don't know the exact ingredients (ironically, I can't seem to find them... even with a google search.) However, my nose can detect turpentine (or something awfully close to it).

Now, in all fairness, this makeup brush cleaner is made by Cinema Secrets. The same company that makes special effects products to create horns coming out of your head, open sores, missing limbs, etc. This brush cleaner is designed to remove all of that rubberized plasticized oil-based or latex-based gunk off of makeup brushes, so it truly does make sense that it is solvent based to remove that type of product.

However, as an average makeup user that just wants to get that stubborn concealer or foundation off of her brushes, I have to admit, this product seems to be a bit extreme.

It is VERY GOOD at what it does, but there is a reason why they claim that your brushes will dry after 30 minutes of cleaning them. It's because there is no water present. All of the solvent evaporates; therefore your brushes dry quickly.

If I could offer an alternative, I have had good success using an oil-based face cleaner (e.g. MAC Cleanse Off Oil, DHC Deep Cleansing Oil) or something similar to clean my brushes. It is able to dissolve the heavy concealer gunk, and after rinsing with water, you can follow up with a regular brush cleaner and a spritz of isopropyl alcohol to remove any oil residue and disinfect your brushes afterwards as well. It isn't as convenient as a one-step brush cleaner, but it is something to keep in mind...

Please don't get me wrong. I think this is a superb brush cleaner. However, be forewarned of its chemical/solvent nature. If that doesn't bother you, than I think you'll be happy with this product. If that does bother you, you may want to try something less extreme.

UPDATE:
I was able to find the ingredients to Cinema Secrets Brush Cleaner (http://www.woochie.com/index.php/Ingredients/Ingredients/Ingredients.html):

Hydrotreated Heavy Naphtha, Dichloroflourooethane, 1-Methoxy-2-Propanol, Isopropylparaben, Isobutylparabenn, N-Butylparaben, Fragrance, D&C Green #6


Here are the ingredients in Turpentine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_turpentine):

Low Aromatic White Spirit - 60%
Solvent naphtha (petroleum), light arom. - 20 – 40%
Contains < 0.1% w/w benzene


I don’t know how similar "solvent naphtha" is to "hydrotreated heavy naphtha", but I suspect that is the reason why this brush cleaner smells like turpentine.

Its fumes are probably bad for you, its scent is disgusting, but the bottom line is that it works. My brushes have never been so clean in my life. My powder brushes even dry in under 5 minutes with this product. I say use cautiously.. as someone else stated below i do believe the ingredient did have an intentional misspelling.

I was on a Mac kick for a while and bought the Studio Fix foundation, blot powder, brush cleaner, blushes, and mineralize skin finishes, but I should have known something was wrong from the burning when I wore that crap something was wrong. So fast forward like a month I had HORRIBLE ACNE all over my cheeks and forehead and I never break out there. It was so bad I've been seeing a dermatologist for 2 years now and its better minus the scars it left. :( But anyways I'm sure it could've been either an ingredient in mac powder products or their pathetic excuse of a brush cleaner but ever since I found out about Cinema Secrets I haven't had anything like that since and thank god! I love this stuff it is a godsend the only thing that sucks is their bottle, DO NOT TRAVEL with it because it will leak and you will waste a lot of it and this stuff isn't cheap. Your best bet is to find a travel safe bottle and pour some in.