How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes

I think cleaning your brushes is extremely important, especially face brushes as bacteria can grow inside them, leaving you with spots and blemishes. For this reason i try to clean my brushes every time I've used them. 

There are many different ways of cleaning your brushes and i just wanted to touch on the few main tips and tricks of cleaning them. 

Using soap is obviously how to clean them as hot water alone wont do the trick. There are a huge range of brush cleaning soaps both drugstore and high end. One i would recommend is the 'No7 Brush Cleaner' for £8.00. Regular hand soap works just as well though, i like using the 'Burts Bees Milk And Shea Butter Handsoap' for £8.49 (from boots).

The main tip i would say is to never, ever let the water get past the ferrule (the metal bit) as the water will make contact the glue holding the bristles in and weaken it causing your brush to shed.

I personally wash my brushes under the tap but i know some people fill a bowl and wash their brushes in that (almost like a brush bath) but if you do that i would suggest changing out your water with every other brush to ensure your actually cleaning them. I think the temperature of the water should be warm but not so hot that its burning your hand.

After turning on your tap (or filling up you bowl) you want to submerge your brush in the water making sure it doesn't run past the ferrule, also making sure that you keep the brush facing downwards so that the water doesn't then drip into the glue. A tip i like to do the make sure every bristle is wet is to find an old lid to a body butter or similar and dip the brush head in there. If i'm cleaning a smaller brush i tend to do two at a time just to speed up the process.

Then you want to put a drop of soap or cleanser onto your brushes (or hand). I would recommend putting a larger amount of soap on blush, foundation, powder or kabuki brushes and only a small amount for concealer and eye brushes. After that i like to rub it in over my fingers for a bumpier surface and watch it foam up (its really satisfying to watch all the color come out and for it to run clear). 

After that i rinse it off and repeat depending on how dirty the brush was. Then i submerge the brush head in the lid again to ensure there is no remaining soap on my brushes! I will then squeeze out the water with my finger and my thumb and dry it on a towel.

Once the brush is clean and i have squeezed out most of the water i then lay it down on a towel or the edge of a surface with the head poking of the edge so there is air flow all around the brush head. A tip i occasionally do is fold the back of the towel a few times so that the brush is laying at a diagonal angel meaning the water doesn't then roll back onto the glue. (although none of my brushes have ever malted just from laying them down). If you want to ensure that no water is going to make contact with the glue then you can stand them up right leaning against a wall with the head on the towel.

Some brushes once dried will completely lose their shape because they aren't synthetic. This is where brush guards come in handy! Brush guards just help a brush to keep its shape, your can find them most places (i get mine from ebay for about a pound) and you slide them over your brush heads, starting from the handle working it up the brush and leave it just covering it. 

(not my own photo)

Once the brush guards are on you can place them on a window cill with the window slightly open and leave them there over night just to ensure the brush goes back to its original shape and maintains its purpose!

I know washing your brushes can be quite annoying (if you have a lot) but when spending a lot of money on brushes you may as well take the best care of them you can.

Depending on how often you use them you can spot clean your brushes after uses. Ones i would recommend are the 'Mac Brush Cleanser' and the 'Cosmetica By Manicare Brush Cleanser'. 

Thank you for reading!

:)