I don’t think there’s one person in the world who enjoys the task of cleaning their makeup brushes. If you do I applaud you, for me it’s a menial task. However, the aftermath is so rewarding, seeing all of the white fluffy head peaking out of their flower pot homes 🙂
How I clean my makeup brushes is not a new way or a fancy way (have you seen the machines you can buy now to do it?) but it gets the job done and it gets my makeup brushes and sponges squeaky clean.
Over the years of being a makeup fanatic I have accumulated alot of makeup brushes, so it does take me a while to get through them and then that means when I run out of clean ones, I have a pretty mammoth job on my hands. I change up my foundation brush probably every three uses, of course you can just wash as you go, I just have a few to procrastinate with 🙂
Brush cleaning mats have become the norm in the makeup world. Sigma and Real Techniques have their own versions of them. They’re basically just a gripped rubber surface and so people have found cheaper alternatives be it in the household department (rubber gloves work great too), in Penneys, Dealz, or for me I found mine in the body care aisle of Boots.
This is the Massage Glove from Soap & Glory. I first saw Anna from ViviannaDoesMakeup using this. It’s rubber, it has grips and you can slip your hand into it for added pressure on your brushes. Even better news a lovely reader told me she saw these being sold off in her local Boots for nearly half the RRP, score!
In the past, I’ve used the Massage Glove in conjunction with baby shampoo and this works well, but for more stubborn makeup brushes like tightly packed kabuki ones, it can be a labour of love trying to get the bristles really clean.
There are specifically formulated brush cleansers too which are great but can be hard to come by. I saw alot of people using naturally derived soaps, and the Moogoo Fresh Milk Cleansing Bar has been spoken about very highly to get the job done well, so I had to give it a go. It contains Olive Oil (which is another great deep brush cleanser in it’s own right) and Cocoa Butter.
Both of these, with some added hot water of course do the job really well!
I take the massage glove on my hand. Another reason why I like the glove is that it protects your hand from the soap and water. I am not a fan of crinkly fingers 🙂
Wet my makeup brush with warm/hot water.
Swirl it in the bar of soap a few times.
I am firm enough to get into the base of the bristles, but I am conscious of the ferrule and the handle as if they can get damaged from water getting in, the bristles or even the actual brush head can become loose.
I massage the soaped up brush with the glove to lather it up and really get it clean.
And then rinse.
For brushes you use with liquid products, you might have to repeat the steps a couple times until the water runs clear.
It works really well on makeup sponges too. Here’s my well loved Beauty Blender.
And my Real techniques Sponge before and after.
It even works on the flat tightly packed brushes too.
When it comes to eyeshadow brushes, if I have only used them for powder products, I usually grab a few that are of similar length and clean them together.
When I am finished soaping up 🙂 I lay a towel on the floor under a radiator and place all of my makeup brushes down along it.
The towel helps absorb excess moisture and then if the radiator is on the residual heat helps the drying process too. If I need some of the brushes in a hurry I’ll put a few of them alot the top of the rad too, not ideal, but needs must 🙂
Of course if you lived in a hotter drier climate you could just use your window sill, or you can just air dry them or even put them in the hot press, whatever works for you!
And there you have it, my makeup brushes are now hygienically clean but also any product staining is also gone too, which is not always achieved with other methods.
Be sure to let me know if you found this helpful and if you have any brush cleaning tips or tricks 🙂
xxx
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