How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

One of a makeup artists most hated chores is having to clean her makeup brushes. It is so important however to clean your brushes once a week if you are using them personally or after every use if you are using them on a client to ensure you are not spreading bacteria around your face and causing blemishes and other imperfections. I'll admit I am so lazy when it comes to this, so I am always in search of something that will make it that little bit easier. 

Sigma had a silicone brush cleaning glove out at one point that you could swirl your washed makeup brushes against to remove excess makeup and grime by the texture on the glove. It cost nearly twenty euro if I remember rightly so I decided to hunt for something similar. This sounds very random but Penneys had a silicone oven glove on sale in their home wear section a while back that looked like a dupe for the brush cleaning glove but I couldn't find that so picked this up instead: 

                     

It's a facial cleansing pad from Penneys, it cost a euro. It has a similar texture on the pad that I believe will help really clean your brushes. I wouldn't use this on your more delicate brushes but on your tightly packed duo fibre ones I think this would do the job! 

Now to wash your makeup brushes you are going to need baby shampoo or regular shampoo will do to cleanse your brushes, warm water is also essential. 

                    

I line up all my brushes, and start running hot water. I wet the brushes, I do these two at a time then massage some shampoo into the bristles. I then rub the brushes either in circles on the palm of my hand under the running water or else rub them against the textured pad as you can see in the picture below. 

                    

It's supposed to be gentle enough to use on your face so it shouldn't damage your brushes and really helps get all that build up of makeup out as you can see in the pic. You might have to rinse, and repeat the shampoo and rinse and massage again under the warm water until it runs clear if your brushes have gone a while without a wash. 

Don't let the water run down into the metal part of the brush as this will soften the glue and make your brushes fall apart. 

When all your brushes are washed and rinsed I would ensure they aren't sopping wet, squeeze  excess water out gently and make sure the brushes are retaining their shape. To make sure my brushes are really clean I run them against dry tissue paper if any makeup marks appear on the tissue it's back under the tap with them! 

The best way for makeup brushes to dry is hanging over the side of a shelf or bath so they can drip dry so the air can get to them like I did below.

                       

Your brushes will take up to twenty four hours to dry. When they have dried you can sanitise them thoroughly if you are using them on a clients face apart a brush cleaner on them and rub them into tissue paper again. Now you are good to go! 

Happy face painting xoxo