Review: Silicone Kitchenware for Makeup Brush Cleaning (Part 2)

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PLEASE NOTE: For information about how to use silicone kitchenware for cleaning your makeup brushes, please see Part 1 HERE for a how-to and pictures of the brush cleaning in action. This post is only going to cover how these particular products worked for me--I won't be showing them in action. My holy grail brush cleaner is Dr. Bronner's Liquid Soap in Peppermint (one small bottle lasts forever since you only need a drop or two per brush). You can check out my full Dr. Bronner's review here.

If you caught my first post where I tested out some silicone pot holders from Daiso (Japanese dollar store where most everything is $1.50), then you know that those types of products worked quite well for me. But you know that I'm always on a quest to try other products, so today I'd like to show you some other silicone kitchenware products that I purchased a few weeks ago at Daiso.

TO PURCHASE: Before I get into this review, I want to mention that if you don't live near a Daiso (click here for a store locator), there are many other retailers that sell similar products. Dollar Tree has silicone kitchenware, and so do Target and Walmart. I've even seen these types of products at my local grocery stores for under $5. ONLINE, there are dozens of listings on Amazon for silicone oven mitts HERE, and I found some that are as low as $6.49 for a pair (2) gloves HERE (I paid $3 for one glove at Daiso). And don't forget about the Darth Vader Glove! You can get the pot holder/mitts (which I'm also reviewing here today) on Amazon HERE for $7.82 (for two).

Regardless of what type of silicone kitchenware you buy, the important thing to remember when purchasing this type of product for cleaning your brushes is that there must be some raised bumps or ridges present, so that your brushes have something to rub against. This is what loosens the makeup and gunk from your brushes, and that's the whole point of using this type of product.

Silicone Kitchen Glove

(retail: $3 at Daiso)

This is a thick glove made of silicone--it's not thin like those yellow gloves you buy for dishwashing. This glove fits both the right and left hand.

As you can see, there are raised ridges on all four fingers:

And there are wider ridges on the thumb:

There are also three longer ridges on the top of the "hand" of the glove:

What I like about this glove:

The various ridges give you lots of options for your brushes. You can use the smaller ridges for eyeshadow brushes, and the larger ridges for face brushes. I like that even though the silicone material is thick, it's still pliable. Looking at my pic above, you can see that I can easily squeeze my thumb and finger together to create a tight grip on brushes. This makes it easy to clean all sides of my brushes in a twirling motion.

What I don't like about this glove:

It's big and bulky. The flat pot holders I reviewed in Part 1 are thin and small, making them a dream to clean, dry, and store. This glove takes up some real estate on my bathroom counter when I'm drying it, and it's also bulky to store. I also don't like how water gets inside the glove itself (if you're really careful you can probably avoid this, but I couldn't because I'm generally pretty messy when I clean my brushes and I get soap and water all over the place). Getting water inside the glove isn't a big deal, but sometimes I feel like the fingers in particular take a while to dry and it's hard to position this glove in a way where air can easily get deep into the finger holes.

Silicone Mitten (Pot Holder)

(retail: $1.50 at Daiso)

This little "hippo" is much smaller than the glove, and it's the type of product you slip between your four fingers and thumb like this:

The top arrow is where you insert your four fingers, and the bottom arrow is where you insert your thumb. Basically, you operate it in the same way that you would a sock puppet.

Inside the "mouth of the hippo" you can see that there are longer ridges on either side, and deeper, shorter ridges in the middle.

Since this is made of silicone it's quite pliable, just like the glove. It's very easy to open and close, and you can easily get a nice tight grip on your brushes with this pot holder.

What I like about this pot holder: 

Just about everything, really. I love that it's small and compact, and you can actually use every square inch of this device with no extra fluff. The ridges are perfect for both small and large brushes, and I particularly like the deeper ridges in the middle, which are great for getting deep down into the bristles of my denser brushes. The size and shape of this product are excellent for brush cleaning, and I love that I can squeeze my brush between both sides to not only clean the bristles of my brush, but also the ferrule and handle (which always get gunked up due to foundation, powder, blush, etc.). I also love that the ridges themselves are rounded and hot sharp or jagged, which I think is kinder to bristles in the long run. Lastly, this little pot holder is so easy to clean and it dries quickly as well since the pockets where you stick your fingers are not deep.

What I don't like about this pot holder:

Nothing. I seriously can't think of a thing that I dislike about this product for cleaning brushes.

I hope this review helps those of you who might be thinking about trying silicone kitchenware to clean your brushes. Once I switched to these types of products, I never looked back. I much prefer these types of products to just using my hands, because I feel like rubbing my brushes against ridges/bumps enables makeup and gunk to loosen up quickly and easily and, for me, it's much quicker and more effective than just using my hands.

PS: I know that a lot of people use this silicone dome-shaped product for cleaning makeup brushes. Select Daiso locations sell this product in the laundry department for $1.50, but I can never find it at my stores. I actually don't like that you can't squeeze the product around the brush to clean the ferrule and handle, so I'm not sure I will purchase one to review in the future. Unless of course one of you tell me that it's a must-have!

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.