Tips For Taking Care of Your Makeup Brushes

skin specialists in Wilsonville

If looking at your makeup brushes causes you to wince from the guilt of letting cream formulas and powder build up for weeks at a time, you don’t need to throw away the evidence of neglect. We all get busy and forget to do the little things from time to time. However, taking a few minutes to clean your brushes can make a significant difference getting the evenly distributed and healthy looking application of makeup you want. Even better, cleaning your brushes is easier than you might think. Let’s take a look at a few tips our skin specialists in Wilsonville have to offer.

How Often Should You Clean Your Brushes?

Let’s start with the basics: You need to clean your brushes once or twice a week. Ideally, you want to use clean brushes every time you apply makeup. But we understand that might be a big ask considering how busy many of our schedules get. Instead, cleaning your brushes once or twice a week will work for brushes used to apply powder makeup like bronzers and blushes.

Cleaning your brushes becomes much more important when using any kind of cream or liquid makeup, such as concealers, eyeshadows, and foundations. These types of brushes really need a daily cleaning as they can potentially harbor harmful bacteria that can cause an infection.

What Should You Use to Clean Them?

An ivory soap or baby shampoo work really well for cleaning brushes. If you use a natural fiber brush, our skin specialists in Wilsonville recommend using baby shampoo. For cleaning liquid makeup brushes, ivory soap makes it a breeze to remove the makeup from each bristle.

Frequently, you’ll hear about using common household products like vinegar and olive oil as cleaning agents for brushes. However, we recommend you keep those items in the kitchen where they belong. If you want a product specifically made for cleaning makeup brushes, our skin specialists in Wilsonville recommend EcoTools Makeup Brush Shampoo or French Nerds Nerdiest Brush Cleanser.

How do I clean my Beautyblender?

To clean this useful beauty tool, simply dab a dime-sized amount of cleaning solution onto the sponge. We recommend using a dishwashing soap like Palmolive or Dawn over organic brands that don’t break down grease as effectively. A quality dishwashing soap won’t cause the sponge to fall apart, but the degreasing agents work really well at breaking down concealers and foundations.

After applying your soap, massage the blender for a couple of seconds, then rinse with water while squeezing out the sponge. Repeat this process until the water coming out of the sponge appears clear and soap free.

What are the Best Ways to Store Makeup Brushes?

Once you have cleaned and completely dried your brushes, store them standing brush-side up in a cup. If packing your brushes for on-the-go use, make sure you first clean out the cosmetic case or bag you’re storing them in.

How to Clean Your Brushes: Step-by-Step

  • Step 1: Wet the brush. Rinse the bristles of your brush under water while trying to avoid getting the brush wet above the handle. Getting the brush wet under the handle can cause the glue that holds the bristles in place to dissolve over time.
  • Step 2: Massage in the soap. Fill the palm of your hand with your selected cleaning product and them move the brush over your hand. This will help rub your cleaning agent into the bristles of the brush without breaking or pulling out any of the fine hairs.
  • Step 3: Rinse your brush. Rinse your brush using tap water, and then rinse it again. Keep rinsing the brush until the water running off is clean and soap free.
  • Step 4: Squeeze out the water. Gentle press on the bristles with your fingers to release any excess water. Make sure you don’t tug too hard so as to not pull out any bristles.
  • Step 5: Let it dry out. Give your brush enough time to dry out before using it again or storing it away.