How To | Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes

Hi Guys,

I was doing my usual brush-wash session yesterday and I thought why not share the how-to on here. I realised that not as many people as I thought wash their makeup brushes properly or even frequently enough. I almost fainted when I entered my sister's bathroom one day and saw her powder brush fully immersed in a bowl of soapy water, brush suicide if there ever was such! :-O

You should deep clean your makeup brushes every two weeks with either a brush cleaning fluid or a gentle cleanser. Because a lot of the makeup products we use are liquid, it leaves the brushes damp which is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. If you don't wash your brushes properly and often, you are constantly transferring bacteria to your face which can cause terrible break outs.

I use Johnson's baby shampoo because it is gentle yet really gets all the gunk out of my brushes. It is also really cheap compared to buying a brush cleaner like say Mac's one. You may also choose to first condition your brush hairs with olive oil before washing with a cleanser. However, I haven't seen the need to yet because all my brushes are still very soft.

In between my deep clean sessions, if I need to do a quick clean of my brushes I use ELF's daily brush cleaner. It makes it really easy to use the same brush for different colours of eyeshadow or if I have used a lot of product and the brush just looks disgusting *cringe*!

HOW-TO

Deep Clean

At your bathroom sink, squirt a little bit of baby shampoo in your palm and rub the brush in it. If it is a flat topped or roundish brush do circular motions on your palm. If it is flat like a concealer brush for example, rub the two sides in a back and forth motion on your palm. Open your tap and position your brush upside down then rinse out any soapy water. Make sure the brush is upside down when rinsing so that water doesn't travel down to the handle of the brush. This will eventually weaken it causing it to break off, no bueno.
You can repeat the wash process a second time and rinse. Once the water dripping from the brushes is clear, they are spick and span! Place your brushes on a clean paper napkin and leave out to dry in the sun.

Quick Clean

With the daily brush cleaner, just spray the brushes with the product and wipe on a clean paper napkin. As with deep cleaning, wipe round brushes in a circular motion and flat brushes in a back and forth motion. The reason for this is so that your brushes retain their shape, I learnt the hard way, lol.

I bought the ELF brush cleaner from their UK website but I've heard that Brownies World on Opebi Road in Ikeja stocks a whole lot of ELF products. I hope to make it down there soon to get my sticky paws on some ELF goodies.

Setting them out to dry

That's how I keep my brushes squeaky clean and free from bacteria. Regular washing will also help to preserve the life span of your brushes even though they aren't so expensive. My cheapie ELF brushes have been alive and well for over a year now.

I hope you were able to pick up a tip or two from this post. Please never submerge your entire brush in water like my sister :-)

Peace and Love,

Y.