Review: Sonia Kashuk's Brush and Sponge Cleanser

I'm almost out of my regular brush cleanser and was looking up reviews online for my next purchase when I saw lots of excellent reviews for the Sonia Kashuk cleanser. I was already heading out to Target and decided to grab one since the price wasn't bad at all.
By the way...There will be photos of my sink later on. I apologize for my dirty sink! It's crazy old, stained and rusted beyond possible cleaning. Fair warning!

Product Info:

Sonia Kashuk’s Brush and Sponge Cleanser

5.1Oz, 150ml

Where to get it:

Target: 6.99

Sonia Kashuk: 6.99

Description:

This convenient cleanser makes caring for your brushes and sponges easy. Gentle enough to keep natural and synthetic hairs in optimal condition while whisking away makeup, oil and residue so brushes will last longer and always feel clean and fresh on the skin

Claims:

-Gentle to use on all types of brushes

-Keeps brushes like new

-Cleans makeup, oil and residue

Ingredients:

Water, sodium laureth sulfate, nonoxynol 9, cocoamidopropyl betaine, glycerin, polyquaternium-7, PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate, sodium chloride, diazolidinyl urea, disodium EDTA.

Scent:

It has a very strong, distinct lavender scent that made me actually quite nauseated and gave me a headache after a few brushes. If you like lavender though, you’d really like this cleanser! For those who are sensitive to scents you may want to try this out and keep your receipt, or pass on it all together.

Packaging:

This cleanser comes in a fairly large spray bottle, which is sealed and wrapped when you buy it. Irritatingly enough, it does not have the score marks down the plastic to make it easy to peel off and it required some delicate scoring of my own to get it off. Perhaps I just got a evil plastic wrap?

Swatch:

It is a light purple color to match its lavender scent I guess? The consistency is the same as water but foams a bit when moved around a bit.

Results:

I read the basic directions of “wet brush, spray cleanser on, rub bristles between thumb and index and middle finger to create foam, wash off with water,” and prepped my brushes and a towel for them to sit and dry off on. I took several of my dirtiest brushes blending and liner brushes, two face brushes and went to town on cleaning these bad boys.

I would like to say that the bottle doesn't really spray out a consistent amount at all and kind of sprays everywhere, so a fair warning on that! The bottle says to spray cleanser directly to the brush, so I did. It created a slight foam and after a few moments of working the “foam” into the brush, I finally rinsed a brush I had previously used black shadow with. It barely took anything off, and I mean…barely. I tried a few more times and it felt like the foam wasn't getting thick enough to penetrate into the bristles. So, I grabbed a small IKEA container and sprayed a bunch of cleanser in it and dipped the brushes in. This created a much better lather and was finally able to start getting some of that makeup off. After several cleanings, the brush still did not come quite clean, but I put it aside as I didn't want to see if it’s possible to OVER clean your brushes. I was kind of worried though as it felt like there was a residue still on them, but after several minutes of washing, nothing came off. I cleaned the rest and left them over night to dry on my towel that I put over some items so the brushes are always facing down so water doesn't drip into my ferrules and cause havoc.

I woke up in the morning and went into the bathroom to grab my brushes so I could start getting ready. Nope. These babies were soaking wet like I JUST washed them instead of over 10 hours ago. Plus, to my horror, it had caused the dye to bleed off one of my favorite blush brushes into the towel. I ran it under water for a few moments and it bled out a bunch of dye, which it had NEVER done before except the first initial wash, even after almost two years of having this damn thing. I put it back on the towel, took off all the brush guards, turned on the bathroom heater and vent and then went about my day. I checked on my babes before I went to bed and they were still slightly damp. It took almost a full two days for them to dry which was really weird. I looked at my brushes afterwards and they really didn't look that clean, but they felt soft. I took a flat brush and swirled it into a paint pot to when I noticed it was leaving a residue in my paint pot. I swirled it on the back of my hand and it came off a bit brownish as if I’d never cleaned the damn thing. I glanced at a few of them and noticed that they really didn't look that clean under the bright lights of my vanity (my bathroom has crap lighting). My 107 looked fairly good on the outside, but glancing into the middle of the bristles you could still see foundation. My 217 was laughable actually when I compared it to another sparkly clean one; the difference was obvious.  I spritzed a few of them with Fix + and did the same thing, they all came back with residue except my 109 which left plain black dye on my hand. 

I’m not entirely sure how exactly I found out, scratched my nose? Anyways, I realized my hand smelled absolutely disgusting which made me instantly grab one of my brushes and smell it. It smelled horrible as did the rest of them after a few sniff tests. There was a slight lavender scent, but it was mostly…an old scent I guess? It wasn't a moldy scent as if they had molded or anything as I live in a state where we need to bleach our walls monthly for black mold, so I know that scent by heart. It was just…and old dusty scent. I mean, this made my brushes bleed dye, take forever to dry, it didn't even clean them and then made them smell horrible. It didn't help that it took me 1/4th of the bottle to clean those few brushes either.

I'm really focusing on these three in the photos

Getting them wet first.

This is with the "foam" on

"Clean"

I got excited as it looked like it was cleaning!

STILL black

Nothing coming off anymore, yet still black

This one was still yellow regardless of cleanings

Trying again...

Clean...ish

This is as foamy as it got regardless of sprays

WUT. IS. THAT.

ITS CAUSING MY BRUSH TO BLEED!?

After drying...

It...LOOKS okay I guess...

Ohh JK. That's foundation in the middle.

Dried brushes.

It looks clean? Lemme spray it with Fix +

Seriously!?

Uhhh there's still black shadow in there.

"Clean" compared to CLEAN.

Pros:

-Cheap

-Smell faded after a while to something pleasant

Cons:

-Very strong scent

-Sprays product everywhere

-Felt like there was still a film on brushes

-Caused bleeding

-Took two days to dry

-Did not deep clean bristles

-Brushes smelled horrible afterwards

-Used ¼ of the product on 6 brushes.

Rating: 1/10

I mean, I guess for the price what did I expect? The scent was at least nice after it faded from being very overpowering so I guess it gets a point for the scent and being cheap. Still, I expected a bit more as even the $3 ELF brush cleanser worked fairly well. Never again ladies and gents, never again. I took this back and bought another 24 HR Color Tattoo base and went back to the Etude House Brush Shower Cleanser as I know how wonderfully that cleans my brushes. I just thought I’d get something to help as there’s a bit of a wait for shipping for the Etude cleanser and I'm SO bad at pre-ordering! 

I’d rather clean my brushes with Dawn soap and Olive oil next time -.-;