Review (5/5): TLDR: Great Gift!
I recieved the green one of these as a belated "birthday gift." Although to be clear, I picked it out and asked for it by link, because parents can be clueless sometimes.
Despite that I was concerned about this item for a few reasons, first being that I've been taught brushes should dry with the bristles pointed down in order to prolong the brush life. The second, which is somewhat tied in to the first, is that I have a variety of brushes ranging from 20+ y/o Arbonne brushes from mom's old WFH days, to the dollar store mermaid tale brushes my own little girls gave me last mothers day after they had destroyed a few of the Arbonne ones. I also have some random singles from Ulta and a couple double ended ones Walmart. All in all there were 13 ends I had to clean, including a spoolie.
I used my Simple brand moisturizing face wash as soap this time (I usually switch between this and coconut or olive oil every other week), and just put a dab of it on each section of the scrub side. Then I got the brush wet, and took it to the scrub side using a swirling motion. I did each brush one at a time and adding soap or water as necessary.
As you can kind of see in the pictures a few hairs from one of my Arbonne brushes got tangled in the scrub side. But other than that it seems like there was far less hair lost over all.
IMO the bottom half of the scrub side worked better for smaller brushes, eyeshadow, concealer, spoolie, etc. Where as the bigger brushes did best on the top half of the scrub side.
When I was done with all the brushes I rinsed the scrub side, shook it off, flipped it over and it was ready to go. To finish up the brushes I gently squeezed out the excess water. Then I pressed them with a paper towel a bit more firmly. Finally I arranged them in the stand in front of a fan. They dried pretty quickly and I haven't had any hairs fall out yet, so I don't think the glue inside was effected. If this changes in the future I'll come back and adjust this review.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this thing. At first the scrub side didn't seem to be large enough over all or section wise, and the brush stand circles all looked to be too large for my brushes. But after having put it to the test, my brushes are cleaner than ever. I even washed one brush that I swore was clean. I was, as the kids say, shook. This thing helps you get deep in the bristles. And while I wouldn't recommend using the scrub side on your sponges/beauty blenders, the stand does well for holding them to dry too and they seem to dry quicker this way which I think has something to do with the fact that air can circulate underneath them.
Finally the brush color change sponge, is fantastic. I tested it out with my most pigmented dark glittery purple eyeshadow, followed immediately by my most matte nude shade. Worked perfectly. It's a great addition to a great product.
My only complaint is that this thing is called bear shaped. Now it may be because mine is green, but I swear it's a frog. But either way, I love it. I think this set, with some brush cleaner and a nice set of makeup brushes would make a great present, especially for a young lady who might not even be aware brushes need washing!