diff --git a/src/ui/public/notify/__tests__/notifier.js b/src/ui/public/notify/__tests__/notifier.js
index 2fd0a7fbe7e6d..223536d6bb635 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/notify/__tests__/notifier.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/notify/__tests__/notifier.js
@@ -33,10 +33,13 @@ describe('Notifier', function () {
 
   beforeEach(function () {
     params = { location: 'foo' };
-    while (Notifier.prototype._notifs.pop()); // clear global notifications
     notifier = new Notifier(params);
   });
 
+  afterEach(function () {
+    Notifier.prototype._notifs.length = 0;
+  });
+
   describe('#constructor()', function () {
     it('sets #from from given location', function () {
       expect(notifier.from).to.equal(params.location);
@@ -465,13 +468,12 @@ describe('Directive Notification', function () {
       scope;
     });
 
-    while (Notifier.prototype._notifs.pop()); // clear global notifications
-
     notifier = new Notifier({ location: 'directiveFoo' });
     directiveNotification = notifier.directive(directiveParam, customParams);
   });
 
   afterEach(() => {
+    Notifier.prototype._notifs.length = 0;
     directiveNotification.clear();
     scope.$destroy();
   });
diff --git a/src/ui/public/route_based_notifier/__tests__/index.js b/src/ui/public/route_based_notifier/__tests__/index.js
index 20e26b1227a4f..24916b8018477 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/route_based_notifier/__tests__/index.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/route_based_notifier/__tests__/index.js
@@ -10,12 +10,15 @@ describe('ui/route_based_notifier', function () {
 
   beforeEach(ngMock.module('kibana'));
   beforeEach(ngMock.inject(($injector) => {
-    remove(Notifier.prototype._notifs); // hack to reset the global notification array
     const Private = $injector.get('Private');
     routeBasedNotifier = Private(routeBasedNotifierProvider);
     $rootScope = $injector.get('$rootScope');
   }));
 
+  afterEach(() => {
+    Notifier.prototype._notifs.length = 0;
+  });
+
   describe('#warning()', () => {
     it('adds a warning notification', () => {
       routeBasedNotifier.warning('wat');
diff --git a/src/ui/public/test_harness/test_harness.js b/src/ui/public/test_harness/test_harness.js
index 3c1cba2ea0327..8d0c6cef87878 100644
--- a/src/ui/public/test_harness/test_harness.js
+++ b/src/ui/public/test_harness/test_harness.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import chrome from 'ui/chrome';
 import Nonsense from 'Nonsense';
 import sinon from 'sinon';
 import _ from 'lodash';
+import Notifier from 'ui/notify/notifier';
 
 import StackTraceMapper from 'ui/stack_trace_mapper';
 import { parse } from 'url';
@@ -55,6 +56,13 @@ before(function () {
   sinon.useFakeXMLHttpRequest();
 });
 
+beforeEach(function () {
+  if (Notifier.prototype._notifs.length) {
+    Notifier.prototype._notifs.length = 0;
+    throw new Error('notifications were left in the notifier');
+  }
+});
+
 
 /*** Kick off mocha, called at the end of test entry files ***/
 exports.bootstrap = function () {