We all know how important it is to keep our face clean by cleansing it daily, preferably twice a day, but have you given much thought to your makeup brushes? Many people haven’t and that’s just scary! When you start with a clean “palette” in the morning of freshly washed skin, but then turn around to use dirty makeup brushes, you are essentially putting dirt, oil and bacteria right back on your face. GROSS!
5 reasons you need to clean your brushes:
- Bacteria, oil and dirt that accumulate on brushes can lead to breakouts or irritation and that’s just no fun.
- Dirty brushes can hinder product from being applied evenly or blended well.
- Dirty brushes can adversely affect the color you are applying
- Cross contamination easily occurs with dirty brushes causing products, especially liquid or cream, to spoil and smell horrible. Who wants that? No one!
- Clean brushes live longer lives! You have to replace them less often, saving money!
How often should you clean your brushes?
Brushes that are used over large areas of your face, such as foundation brushes should be cleaned, at the very least, once a week. Smaller brushes that are used less can usually go about 2 weeks before they need a good cleaning, but you know what…I just do ALL my brushes at the same time, once a week.
I personally clean mine at night and lay them out to dry overnight and they are ready to go the next morning! You might find it helpful to choose a specific night of the week and simply incorporate brush cleaning into your routine.
allow to dry thoroughly
Cleaning Steps/Tips:
- wet bristles using warm water
- pour a small amount of gentle cleanser (I LOVE mine) into a bowl or glass
- gently swirl your brushes around in the cleanser and watch the color just “melt” right out of the brushes-you can also swish brushes in the palm of your hand
- rinse with warm water again
- squeeze excess water from the brushes, be careful not to pull out the bristles
- do NOT allow water to get into the ferrule of the brush (metal part that holds the bristles in place)
- reshape brush
- lay out to dry — I lay mine on the counter with the bristles hanging over the sink. Some people like to lay out their brushes on a towel to soak up the water, but I believe that can lead to mildew because the bristles are just sitting in their water on a damp towel.
- For a super fast drying cleanser that’s easy to use between thorough cleanings, I like to use Cinema Secrets. And it smells divine!!
Clean brushes can last you for several years. Take great care of your tools!
When to toss out your brushes:
Keeping your brushes clean and sanitary can prolong the life of the brushes but they do have a life span. So how do you know when a brush has lived it’s full life and it’s time to replace it?
- Does it stink, even after being cleaned? Most definitely throw it out and replace it
- Are the bristles falling out? This could be from any number of reasons, but replacing it now is smart
- Have they lost their shape? Then they aren’t going to do what you want…toss it
Thanks. I haven’t been paying attention to my brushes and went in and threw out a bunch of them!
I totally get it! They are easy to neglect because we just use them and set them aside. I hope you are encouraged to take some really easy steps with your next ones!
Thank you for the reminder and great tips! I need to clean my brushes very soon! 😁
I am sooo terrible at cleaning my brushes on a regular basis. But it definitely feels good when you take the time to give yourself a clean set!
Absolutely!!!! Thanks for reading!
Thank you for these tips because I really need to go through my brushes. I’m terrible at remembering to clean them since I don’t wear makeup super often right now.
Because of the fact that you don’t use them often, I can understand where remembering could be problematic. However, that is an even better reason to keep them clean…so they don’t sit there with bacteria building up on them for an extended period of time and then you put all that unwanted stuff on your face.
Ugh. I don’t clean mine nearly often enough! Thanks for this reminder and for the quick and easy tip! I’ll get right on it! 😉
Isn’t it weird how the “easy” things are what we neglect? I totally get it! I used to not clean mine often enough either, but now I’m MUCH better at consistency. Thanks for reading!
I was just thinking this morning that I need to clean my brushes. Thanks for the tips!
You are welcome!
This is a great reminder! I’m so bad about remembering to clean my make-up brushes. I don’t get it, because I take good care of my paint brushes. I should really clean my make-up brushes since they go on my face! 😅
#truth!