Dirty makeup brushes can be so annoying to apply makeup with sometimes, and not to mention that they can cause breakouts! If you think about it, you put them onto your face most days, they're bound to pick up germs when they are left for too long, and you wouldn't wash your face with a dirty flannel so you shouldn't put greasy makeup brushes onto your precious faces either!P It is recommended that they are washed every two weeks, so I am going to show how I clean my brushes affordably using things you probably already have lying around in your home!
Personally I love cleaning my brushes, and for some reason find it really therapeutic. When they are clean and fresh, your makeup goes on better and stays on longer (particularly foundation) because there isn't a waxy layer of day old makeup already on your brush. When you think about it, it's actually really gross to use makeup brushes that already have makeup on them which has been there for days, ew.
Anyway, you will need:
Anyway, you will need:
- a soap dish (how cute is mine?!)
- a bar of soap
- a towel
A soap dish is not necessary, you can hold the soap in your hand if you wish, I just use one because last time I did this the soap was literally flying everywhere. With your soap in the dish, dampen the soap and whirl your brush lightly in circular motions over the top like this:
Keep rinsing your soap and your brush as you go until the water runs clear. Never hold your brush vertically to the tap or allow the water to kind of hit the brush head straight on as this will damage your brushes and also if the water gets inside the handle, the glue will begin to come away from the bristles and this is how your brushes will shed hairs. To avoid this, it's pretty simple; just hold your brush horizontally to the tap, or fill the sink or a bowl with warm water (cold will not kill germs and hot will damage hairs) and swirl the brush head in it to remove the soap. If you find your brush has lost it's shape you can use your fingers lightly to put the shape back into it yourself! You will probably find that foundation or anything that is a cream based product will take a little longer to clean in comparison to a powder or shadow brush.
After this, roll up your towel and leave your brushes under a radiator or somewhere warm, like this:
After this, roll up your towel and leave your brushes under a radiator or somewhere warm, like this:
For Christmas, my mum got me a makeup brush holder for when you have washed your brushes. You place the brushes into the holder upside down and leave them to dry like this:
It is a really handy essential to have and they are pretty easy to get your hands on from online sites like eBay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Simple-Black-Acrylic-Makeup-Cosmetic-Tool-Brushes-Dryer-Holder-Stand-Storage-/301579762972?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item46378dfd1c
***TOP TIP***
When choosing a soap, you would be surprised in the difference between two kinds of soaps can make! The first time I cleaned my brushes with soap I used an antibacterial soap (which you might know as a 'hard soap'), which broke down the makeup on my brushes 100 times better, and cleaned them 100 times quicker than the soap I used this time which was a moisturising soap by Dove. Not only did it take longer to clean using this soap, but it didn't clean them as thoroughly, so my advice to you all is to use an antibacterial soap rather than a moisturising one, such as Palmolive or Cidal.
Hope this helped and inspired you to clean your brushes and find it as exciting as I do, haha!
Twitter - @thatspeach
Instagram - thatspeach
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Simple-Black-Acrylic-Makeup-Cosmetic-Tool-Brushes-Dryer-Holder-Stand-Storage-/301579762972?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item46378dfd1c
***TOP TIP***
When choosing a soap, you would be surprised in the difference between two kinds of soaps can make! The first time I cleaned my brushes with soap I used an antibacterial soap (which you might know as a 'hard soap'), which broke down the makeup on my brushes 100 times better, and cleaned them 100 times quicker than the soap I used this time which was a moisturising soap by Dove. Not only did it take longer to clean using this soap, but it didn't clean them as thoroughly, so my advice to you all is to use an antibacterial soap rather than a moisturising one, such as Palmolive or Cidal.
Hope this helped and inspired you to clean your brushes and find it as exciting as I do, haha!
Twitter - @thatspeach
Instagram - thatspeach