Many a time online I'll see someone talking about how they clean their brushes and more often than not it consists of shampooing them with baby shampoo, fairy washing up liquid or a mixture of shampoo and olive oil, and that's it.
Brushes may look clean to the eye after shampooing, but they're not actually sanitised, are they?
What difference does it make if I'm not a professional and I'm only using my brushes on myself though?
Well, if you ever get styes in your eye, cold cores or breakouts, it will make a difference, because you're not getting rid of all those germs and bacteria that build up in your brushes, particularly if you use your brushes multiple times before deep cleaning them.
So, all that said, I'm just going to how you how I like to clean my own brushes :)
Things I use:
MAC Brush Cleanser
Johnsons Baby Shampoo
Isopropyl Alcohol 70%
"Brushegg"
(not really necessary but makes the shampooing sooo much easier and it'll only set you back by about €1.30 + free p+p on eBay)
Spot Cleaning
I'd tried a couple of brush cleansers before my MAC one, but the difference is so extraordinary, that I'm not even bother going into details of other ones. This cleanser really does do a great job of cleaning even dark eyeshadow off of white brushes with little to no effort.
A common complaint about this product is the amount of product wasted due to the dispenser, so I fill up a little spray bottle with the product and work from that instead of from the original bottle. Just spray one or two spritzes onto a folded kitchen towel and then swirl the brush in it until you're pleased that it's clean enough. It really doesn't get easier than that, does it?
Method:
This is with just one spritz and about 3-5 seconds of rubbing.
If I wasn't going to deep clean after I would just repeat that process again.
For eyeshadow brushes I'll do that maybe three times between deep cleaning, and for all others (face, eyeliner and lip brushes) I'll only spot clean once between deep cleanses.
Brushes before a few spritzes of the MAC brush cleanser
And after
As you can see, the MAC brush cleanser does a great job of cleaning/sanitising your brushes between uses.
Deep Cleaning!
For deep cleaning I would normally go ahead and spot clean anyway, just to get the bulk of the product out first and make the shampooing easier and faster. Then I just pump some shampoo on my brush egg, wet the bristles of the brush and work it into the bristles to create a lather. For darker pigments and foundation brushes you might want to repeat the shampooing process until the suds stay white and the water runs clear.
When I'm done with all my brushes I like to squeeze excess water out with a kitchen towel.
It's important to reshape all of your brushes while they're still wet, but particularly brushes like these, as skipping this step will affect how crisp and precise a line you'll be able to create with them.
There are different ways you can dry your brushes such as hanging them upside down, rolling a towel and having them at a slight angle, bristles down, to avoid water soaking up into the glue and loosening the bristles, but the way I've been enjoying drying mine is by placing them on a windowsill with the bristles facing out off of the edge. I find it great if you have a radiator under the window as they're far away enough that they don't get hot, but the heat drastically speeds up drying time.
Once I have my brushes positioned the way I want them, I spray them with isopropyl alcohol 70% to ensure that all my brushes are sanitised properly.
It's important not to use a higher percentage though, as it evaporates too quickly to actually sanitise the brushes.
Deep cleaning Beauty Blenders
These are a little more time consuming to clean. I find it best to have a couple of these on the go as I prefer to wash them after every single use to avoid product buildup and spreading bacteria and gunk on my face!
First I spray a kitchen towel with my MAC brush cleanser and then press the sponge onto it to get as much of the product out as possible.
Then I put it in a bowl with a couple of squirts of baby shampoo, fill it up with warm/hot water, squeeze the sponge a couple of times in the water so that it soaks it all up and creates some suds, then let it sit for about half an hour after which time I'll take it out, and rub it in shampoo in the palm of my hand until the suds stay white and the water runs clear.
To actually sanitise the sponge I give it a 30 second blast of heat in the microwave.
To do this I put a little water in a bowl (about 1 inch of water), put the sponge in it and just microwave it for 30 seconds.
The sponge will be very hot, so let it sit for 5 minutes before squeezing it out.
So that's pretty much it.
You don't need the Brushegg, but I find it super handy, faster than using the palm of my hand and I feel like the soap penetrates the bristles easier and faster with it, and like I said, it's super inexpensive.
Hope this was useful!
Happy washing!
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