Dirty Dirty Dirty

So here's one of my posts I did over on my old blog. I shall move it here because it's really important. I personally used to never wash my brushes, or wash them once a month or every like, Friday the 13th or something random like that. And I did actually know people who never would wash their brushes and they kept their dirty brushes in a bag under the sink with the rest of their makeup. Like, hello warm moist dirty place for bacteria! Haha. So Here it is:




Washing brushes.
Washing your brushes is uber important because, well, face it (lol), they touch your face, go near your eyes, around your mouth and nose, etc etc, practically every day. So first off, wouldn't you want something that comes near your eyeballs to be clean? I personally do not like to rub dirt in or around my eyes, so....
And also you should wash your brushes because they pick up all that makeup, oil from your skin, dirt, dust from sitting on your shelf or wherever, yuck and blech. And so they're dirty and oily and gross and bacteria generally like that...especially if its like skin cells and stuff. So wash them to make them clean.

Okay, so what I recommend for washing brushes is that you get some gentle shampoo. I use some cheapo stuff that smells like citrus. I have also used clarifying shampoo which worked okay, and I think I will invest (lol...like 3 bucks) in some baby shampoo so its nice and gentle on the brushes. Brushes, good quality ones anyways, are made of real hair of various animals. Would you wash your own hair with plain ol' soap? No. So don't wash your nice genuine goat's hair or whatever brush with soap.

First what you want to do is make sure the sink area is clean. So, like wipe it down with some cleaner or just give it a wipe if it's not that dirty. Then you want to set up. What I do is I put some shampoo on the edge of the sink and lay out a hand towel folded lengthwise on the side of the sink opposite from the brushes. I then start up the water running to a nice warm, medium flow and dip whichever brush I start with (usually my big kabukis) into the shampoo and then gently swirl it around in my hand while holding it under the running water. Try not to get too much of the handle under. You don't need to wash the handle really. I suppose you can wipe the handles down every once in a while, but they don't need to be washed with shampoo.

So after swirling the brush around and getting it nice and sudsy, I rinse it off and squeeze it out gently. Generally you can totally see all the color from the brush coming out. I repeat the washing process again and keep rinsing until water is clear when squeezing. Then I reshape the hairs and lay it on its side on the towel I set to the side. Then I move on to the next brush.

In general, I try to keep my brushes laying with the brush end not actually on the towel, but some of my brushes don't work that well that way. And some places tell you to keep them upright, or upside down, or something else. I have heard different things and different reasonings. I generally don't like to keep them upright when drying because then the water goes to the part where they are glued in or bound together and can weaken the glue, or cause some rotting of the wood in the handle (if it's wood). I suppose upside down would be the best, but who has the time to tie all your brushes upside down and then string them somewhere where they can dry undisturbed?

So they usually dry overnight at the quickest, with some of the bigger ones taking maybe 16 hrs max. So I like to wash them the night before and then they will usually be dry in the morning when I do my makeup.

Also, there are brush cleaners on the market, I have never used one before. Shampoo works fine for me, plus I believe the brush cleaners are more for like makeup artists who have to clean their brushes after every client so they just have something quick to swirl the brush in and wipe off the color and then let it dry while they use their other set of brushes to do the next person. In which case, the cleaner would contain alcohol so that it a) sterilizes somewhat and b) dries quickly. This would then also dry out your brushes as well. So I don't think its meant for like personal use.

I try to wash my brushes at least once a week, but sometimes I forget. It's not a ginormous deal if you miss a week, but you do start to notice that your face brushes aren't as soft, and you run out of eyeshadow brushes because they have like bright blue on them and you want to do a nice neutral colour...

I know some people who have like....never cleaned their brushes....I was appauled.

So Please....Clean your brushes!


For the record, I still use whatever shampoo is on hand, usually my mother's. And I still aim for once a week cleanings.

- Love, Becka.