Save your beyond-stained makeup brushes with this simple trick.

I have a love/hate relationship with white-bristled makeup brushes. They are so pretty sitting in a cup on the vanity, calling out to be picked up and loved... or, even better, a quick stroke on the skin because they are so pleasantly fluffy.

However, they can be a little annoying to own, especially when the brushes in question are so well-loved. Duo-fibre, white-tipped, or all-white hairs on makeup brushes get stained so easily, even if you wash them hundreds of times. Isn't there a way to make them look all pretty, clean, and new again?

Yes. Yes, there is.

While washing my makeup brushes this morning, I was totally dismayed by this fluffy eye brush in particular. Regardless of how many times I washed it, the bristles still looked kind of grimy. Why couldn't I get all that eyeshadow out of this stubborn makeup brush?

Then it hit me.

It's the same way we wash our faces: you don't just remove a full face of makeup with any old cleanser. You really have to get in there with a special makeup remover, dissolving every last bit of it before washing it away. Why don't we do the same for those stubborn makeup brushes that just won't look clean, regardless of how hard we try?

As soon as I realized this, I stumbled my way to the kitchen and hit up our stash of olive oil. I poured a little dab of it in the palm of my hand, saturated the bristles with oil, and massaged the tough stains out. To my pleasant surprise, it worked!

This is one of the simplest things you could do to breathe life back into even your dirtiest makeup brushes. It doesn't matter what kind of oil you use or what kind of makeup brush you're trying to clean: basic science tells us that like dissolves like, so breaking down those tough traces of makeup with oil gets the job done. You can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, or any other oil of your choosing to deep clean makeup brushes and get those makeup stains out. (But I would skip on the deliciously expensive, herb-infused olive oil sitting in your pantry... because that would be way more fun to eat, am I right?)

Of course, you'll definitely want to follow up your deep brush cleansing with your favorite regular brush cleansing solution to get the residue out. If you're a crafty gal like I am, you'll love making your own foaming brush cleanser just as much as I do.

Let me know if you try this! I'd love to hear your results and what kind of oil you used.

Do you have any makeup life hacks? Share your wisdom below.