There are 2 main compositions of makeup brushes, natural and synthetic. Natural brushes have different variations of animal hair in them, and can be more delicate and harder to wash. Synthetic brushes are man made, and are the easiest to wash. All of my brushes are synthetic. I mainly buy synthetic brushes because unlike animal hair, synthetic brushes allow the product to sit right on top of the brush and you can get more of the product onto your skin instead of soaked into the brush.
Some women are good about cleaning certain brushes right after you use them, for instance with gel or cream eye products. If you allow the product to stay on that brush, it will harden and affect the softness of the bristles. The problem is, we should use this same mindset for all of our brushes. It doesn't make sense to take excellent care of our skin, and then use dirty tools on it.
Deep cleaning of your brushes should be done every two weeks or so for face brushes, and every month for eye shadow brushes. For touch-up cleaning, I like to take a make-up removing wipe and lay it in the palm of my hand, then move the brush around to get the dirt and makeup off.
Here's a quick run-down (with pictures) to show how easy it is to deep-clean your brushes!
- These are the brushed that I deep-cleaned. ALL of these brushes took me less than 10 minutes to clean.
Pictured below are the two different brush cleaners I own. The Sonia Kashuk brush and sponge cleanser is a thin gel that can be sprayed onto smaller brushes, and I bought it at Target for $6.99. The E.L.F. Brush shampoo is a thick gel, and you can buy it at Target or on the E.L.F. website for $3.00.
DISCLAIMER: Whenever you clean your brushes, never tilt the the brush upward so that the water runs straight inside all of the bristles. Always point the brush down, and let the water run over the bristles. By completely soaking the head of the brush, you can weaken the glue holding the bristles in place and they can fall out.
- For this brush, I will be using the spray cleanser.
Step 1: Get all of the bristles wet using warm water. Once again, point the brush downward. Let the water flow over the brush instead of forcing it inward to soak the bristles.
Step 2: Spray the cleanser onto the brush, soaking most of the bristles and saturating them. Lay your hand flat and swirl the brush on your open palm. You should see product start to loosen and the cleanser to foam up.
Step 3: Rinse the brush as you did before, with the water running over the bristles. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until your brush is clean and the water runs clear.
Step 4: Squeeze the remaining water out of the bristles with your fingers, and lay flat to dry. I use the method of rolling a towel and laying my brushes at a downward slant to dry. This allows the towel to absorb some of the water and eliminates the chance of water to get into the head of the brush where the glue is.
For the next brush, I will be using the E.L.F. Brush Shampoo.
Step 1: Wet the brush, and deposit some of the shampoo into the palm of your hand.
Step 2: swirl the damp brush around on your hand, working the shampoo into the bristles and releasing the product.
Step 3: Rinse. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the brush is clean and the water runs clear.
Step 4: lay the brush to dry as I did before with the other brush.
Pictured below are all of my cleaned brushes drying.
If you use your hard earned money to invest in good quality makeup brushes, taking care of them and cleaning them regularly can extend the life of the brush greatly. Remember, if you take care of your skin, there's no reason to use dirty tools on it. That's almost like running a brush through your freshly washed and dried hair with a hairbrush straight from a dumpster! Gross!!
Moral of the story: CLEAN YOUR BRUSHES! You'll thank me later. :)
-Amanda
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