Beauty Refresher: How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Source: Beauty Refresher: How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

A lot more harm than good can come from not cleaning your makeup brushes regularly. Not only can you wind up with nasty breakouts, residue can breed bacteria, which wind up breaking down your brushes. To learn the steps to keeping your brushes (and complexion) squeaky clean, just keep reading.

Planning and Prevention
Since you should do a deep cleaning about once a month on brushes you use daily, the easiest way to make sure you're not spending hours cleaning them is to spot clean after every use. Wipe off your brushes after every use with antibacterial wipes (like the ones you'd use to clean your hands). This way it'll be easier to remove residue before it has a chance to settle into the bristles. This may take an extra couple of minutes now, but will save you loads of time later.


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What You Need to Deep Clean
Deep cleaning your brushes takes only two ingredients: antibacterial dish soap (think Dawn) and extra virgin olive oil. The dish soap will clean and disinfect your brushes, while the olive oil will condition them.

Pull Off the Procedure:

  • Mix two parts antibacterial dish soap to one part of the extra virgin olive oil on a clean plate (don't use paper plate, the oil will seep through).

  • Grab your first brush and wet it slightly with lukewarm water. Make sure the brush stays bristle-side down throughout the entire process. If water gets into the ferrule (the middle tube part that holds everything together) of the brush, it can loosen the glue, causing the bristles to fall out.

  • Dip the damp brush into the soap mixture and coat it thoroughly. Next, work the mixture into the bristles using the palm of your hand and fingers. Continue until the soapy residue is makeup-free.

  • Rinse the brushes under lukewarm water until no soap runs from the bristles.

  • Roll a dish towel like you would a yoga mat, and drape a paper towel over it so that most of the paper towel hangs off. (The paper towel should look like a slide coming down from the dish towel). Next, arrange the brush so the top of the handle sits on top of the towel, pitching the rest of the brush down onto the paper towel. This will allow your brushes to dry on a slant, while keeping moisture away from the ferrule.

  • Repeat with remaining brushes. Some make take two washings to get completely clean, depending on the amount of residue left behind. Allow them to dry overnight and repeat about once a month.


Tip:
If you're not a fan of DIY, try a nondrying, alcohol-free brush cleaner product instead. The steps above work for whatever type of cleaner you decide to use.


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