Beauty: Shiny & New.. How To Clean Your MakeUp Brushes

I thought i would put up a "How To Clean Your MakeUp Brushes" post today!

Makeup brushes can harbor lots of icky dirt and bacteria so it’s super important to clean your brushes every few weeks. Keeping your brushes clean will also reduce the likelihood of breakouts and even infections (especially with your eyes). Luckily, cleaning your brushes is really quick and easy. It only takes about 5 to 10 minutes depending on how many brushes you need to wash.

There are two ways to clean your brushes—you can either spot clean them or for a more thorough cleansing, you can deep clean your brushes. I like to spot clean my brushes daily, especially when I am using different colors for eye makeup. And I typically deep clean my brushes about every couple of days.

Here are a some simple steps on how to spot clean and deep clean your makeup brushes…Pre-Clean Tips

• Never get the entire brush wet, try to focus on the actual bristles while avoiding the portion of the brush where the head and handle meet.
• When cleaning flat or angled brushes, sweep the brush in back and forth motions. As for round and domed brushes, move them in circular motions to maintain the brush’s shape. 
• If you are planning to deep clean you brushes, be sure to do your makeup before you cleanse. Your brushes will need a few hours to dry after a deep cleaning. I recommend doing it in the morning after you have applied your makeup for the day. By the end of the day, you brushes will be clean, dry and good as new!

Spot Cleaning 

What You Will Need:

• Brush cleanser, such as MAC Brush Cleanser or Sephroa Daily Brush Cleaner
• Paper towels or washcloth

How to Spot Clean:

1. While holding the brush over a paper towel, drizzle or spritz brush cleanser onto the bristles of the brush.
2. Then begin sweeping the brush into the extra cleanser that fell onto the paper towel. Work the brush in the appropriate motion (flat and angled brushes go back and forth, round or domed brushed should be moved in small circular motions).
3. Continue working the brush into the paper towel until the brush no longer leeches color. You might have to reapply cleanser before the brush leaves behind a clean trail. 
4. Next, reshape brush with your fingers into its original shape.
5. Lay bush onto a fresh paper towel to dry for a few minutes.

Deep Cleaning 

What You Will Need:

• Olive Oil (only if you need to clean eyeliner brushes that you previously used with a gel-based liner or need to clean your lip brushes)
• Johnson’s Baby Shampoo (or any gentle baby shampoo)
• Sink
• A fresh clean sponge
• Paper towels or wash cloth

How to Deep Clean:

1. If you use a gel-based liner with your eyeliner brush or you have to clean a lip brush, you will need to use something to breakdown the waxiness before the next few steps. To clean these brushes, put some olive oil onto a paper towel and work your brushes into the oil until the brush no longer leaves color behind on the towel. Now you are ready for the next step!
2. Run the sponge under lukewarm running water and ring out excess liquid.
3. Next, get the bristles of your brush wet.
4. Pour a quarter-size amount of the baby shampoo into the sponge and lightly rub it in so the soap is slightly absorbed and a little sudsy. 
5. Take your wet bristle brush and work it into the soapy area of the sponge. You will see a lot of color start to run out of the brush (Warning: Sometimes this can be a little disturbing!). 
6. Rinse the brush in the running water. You may have to re-wet your brush and repeat step #5 until the water runs clear from the brush.
7. Reshape the brush and lay it on its side on a paper towel or washcloth to dry. 
8. Note: If you are cleaning a kabuki brush, follow the above steps but only get the tips of the bristles wet and keep the brush horizontal throughout the entire cleaning process. You do not want to allow water to run down into the head of the brush (it will never dry!). When you are done cleaning the brush, squeeze out access water, reshape the brush and lay it on its side to dry so water doesn’t seep down into the head.

Do you have any other tips for cleaning your makeup brushes?

HAVE FUN cleaning!

PS: I found the extra cute fan brush picture here :)

FTC Disclaimer:

All opinions are my own.

xoxo

Simi