It’s no secret that I love the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil Shampoo. It’s an incredibly elegant product, with a dense lather and a thick, smooth gel texture. But I’ve been appreciating it for a fresh, new reason during quarantine: it makes the best makeup brush cleaner ever.

What to love about the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil Shampoo’s texture

I mean… what isn’t there to love? Shu’s Airy Touch Cleansing Oil hair collection is formulated around the common hair ethos that “like removes like.” If you’re dyeing a client’s hair and you stain their hairline with colour, scrubbing it under the water with shampoo does very little. But if you add a little bit of dye to your shampoo and massage it in, the colour slides off the skin almost instantly.

Similarly, oil removes oil — both from your face and from your scalp. (Shu Uemura developed Unmask, his classic cleansing oil, while working on celebrities in 1967.) Shu’s shampoo formula uses light, fluid oils to distribute the shampoo throughout your whole scalp, right into your ends and your congested scalp. Then, it whisks away those oils with emulsifiers and surfactants, cleaning your scalp as it nourishes each strand of hair. No parabens; no silicones; just clean, silky hair.

But the draw of this shampoo, I think, isn’t its efficacy. It’s its experience. From the bottle’s sleek, sans serif print to its slow-pressing pump, it makes you enjoy the methodical pleasure of shampooing your hair. (Or someone else’s). The shampoo itself is thick and smooth, almost oily; it feels like something that should be sold as an ointment to the gods for hundreds of dollars an ounce. It’s unique, and well-loved by many: I can’t tell you how many house guests have sneakily alluded that I should just let them take my bottle home with them.

(NO! And you all need to stop asking!)

What makes the Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil Shampoo the best makeup brush cleaner ever

It’s simple: the texture is great, but the scent really sells it.

For most of the year (or like, most of the decade), I wouldn’t splash out this much money for a brush cleaner. But under quarantine, I’ve been finding a lot of solace in enjoying things. I usually take my little breaks from reality by going out for dinner—I recently realized that I’m totally going to miss this year’s Canada Day tasting menu at The Butternut Tree, and I’m enormously bummed because I left a crazy tip when we made the reservation and now I’ll never get to enjoy a great table because of it—and, well, that’s not an option right now.

So, instead, I’ve been shopping my stash a lot (a lot) for new sensory experiences. I finished my first bottle of Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil Shampoo years ago, but have been saving this smaller bottle. And it’s… perfect.

Shu hair products smell expensive — and they are. Their cleansing oil hair products are based around the idea of the onsen, or Japanese hot spring, and they’re delicately scented with notes of yuzu, cedar, and sage. It smells like nothing else I own, honestly; it’s not watery, or citrusy, or fresh. It just smells good, in a really natural way, and it makes me enjoy everyday chores again.

And hey, if my shampoo can leave me sniffing my hands for an hour after I wash my makeup brushes, I’ll take it. Because we could all sure as heck use as much comfort as we can get our hands on right now.

Availability: $46 CAD for this bottle (4.7 oz) or $57 CAD for the regular size (a massive 13.4 oz, and a much better deal). Find it at Sephora, shu uemuera, or The Bay.

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Disclaimer: This shampoo was gifted to me a couple of years ago, kept in cold storage, and unearthed at week six of quarantine (you know, when I really started losing my grip on reality). It’s photographed here on a print from Photowall.