Cleaning Brushes 101

The dreaded brush clean, we all have to do it but its one of those things we just keep pushing to the side.We make excuses of it takes to long, we do not know how to clean them and they do not dry for when you need them the next day.Not cleaning our brushes can have major effects on our skin, you may have a religious skin care regime and a healthy diet but yet you get them dreaded spots, did you ever consider its you brushes??Not only does color build up but dead skin cells, oil and bacteria build up on them too.

If your a daily brush user I would definatly suggest cleaning them once a week, depending on how many you use depends on how long it takes. Here I have just a small portion of my brushes(18) and it took me max about 15 to clean so really its not time consuming. Drying time depends on the brush and where the brush is left to dry. Smaller brushes take only about an hour where big brushes take about up to 12 hours. So your brushes can be drying while you sleep and be ready for you in the morning. The best place to dry them is in the warmest place of your house i.e the kitchen or sitting room, I would not suggest the bathroom as it never gets really warm and can be damp. So how do you clean them, well its simple you just need two inexpensive items:

Most people would only need the to use the baby shampoo, but if you use gel eyeliner or really pigmented lipsticks you would know their a nightmare to clean with just shampoo! So lets begin:

1. Squirt a pea size amount of shampoo in your hand, run the the brush under the hot water and rub into the the shampoo until it becomes lathered, now rinse your hand NOT THE BRUSH under the water. This will save you from wasting the shampoo. rub the brush in the palm of your hand again until it lathers up and rinse your hand again repeat this another two times and then rinse the brush. Depending on how dirty the brush is depends on how often you need to reapeat this step.



2. For hard to remove makeup i.e gel liner( especially bomb proof inglot gel liner), pigmented lipstick and really dirty brushes, baby oil is the only way to bypass spending ages on trying to get them clean. After completing step one, pour some baby oil in a bowl and dip the brush in the oil the makeup should just dispearse from the brush. Reapeat step one again.





3.Once all the brushes are cleaned make sure to squeeze them of excess water and place them on some kitchen towel and leave them to dry, as I said above dry them in a warm place and also out of reach of children!! Also if you use short handled kabuki brushes place them upside down or else they wont dry the water will just remain in the handle.(Yes their my lovely pjs in the pictured this was just before bed!)




So thats it its not to hard or time consuming and could even be done through the breaks of X Factor on a sunday night.

As a MUA I can not do this in between clients so I disinfect my brushes with surgical spirits I buy a big bottle in boots and put it in a small spray bottle that I carry around in my kit. Before I move on to another client I would spray some tissue with the surgical spirits and rub my brush into the tissue until no more color comes off the brush.This gives you disinfected brushes and your not putting your client at harm. This is also a good tip if  you are prone to spots or cold sores, you should disinfect you foundation brush, concealer and lip brush after every use if you do not have time to wash them this will help with healing and prevent further spreading.






I hope this post will encourage you to clean your brushes as not only does it help your skin but helps with the longevity of your brush.
Brushes shown in this post are a mixture of LA Makeup, Inglot, No.7 and Crown