Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes

It's so important to clean your makeup brushes! With that being said, most of us do not do it frequently enough. If you wear makeup every day, it is recommended that your wash your makeup brushes at least once a week. Failing to do so, or washing them infrequently, may result in breakouts or even rashes on those with really sensitive skin. Makeup brushes, as well as improperly stored makeup, can hold bacteria that irritate or affect the skin. Personally, I have fallen prey to the occasional breakout caused by constantly using dirty brushes. I'm sure some of you have too, without realizing what the cause might have been! Professional brush cleaners are expensive sometimes. MAC's Brush Cleanser is $15. Clinique Makeup Brush Cleanser is $15.00. Sephora Collection Daily Brush Cleaner is $6.00...but for only 2 fl oz! Many of the high end brush cleaners are around $15 and up. But not a lot of us have that kind of money to spend on a brush cleanser. What are some cheaper, but effective alternatives? Some things you've got right in your kitchen (where I normally wash my brushes anyway ^_^)! The things I use to clean my makeup brushes are baby shampoo and a concoction of dish soap and vinegar. Each of these are inexpensive, but work like a charm!

Products Used

I used two different kinds of vinegar and two different dish soaps to show that you can use pretty much whatever kind you have. It also doesn't matter whether you use apple cider vinegar or regular vinegar, both will work!

How To Mix Vinegar & Dish Soap:

1/4 a cup of vinegar and 1/2 a cup of dish soap, and fill the container a little over halfway with warm water. You can put it in any small Tupperware or cereal bowl, as long as the bowl is deep enough to hold the water without it splashing. On the left is the clean fresh solution, on the right...it's time to dump that bad boy! ;)

How To Clean:

For the solution (vinegar & dish soap mix, left), submerge the brush head into it and gently swirl it around throughout the mixture for about 2 minutes. After doing this, dot a little bit of the dish soap onto the brush, scrub gently, then run it under warn water while rubbing the bristles between your finger tips. For the baby shampoo (right), wet the brush, dot a generous amount onto it, then run gently back and forth in the palm of your hand. For smaller brushes, you can put the baby shampoo directly into your hand and run the brush through several times. For both methods, it's important to get a good lather while cleaning the brushes. I usually do this 3 times before I'm satisfied. By the third time, this lather is nice and white!

After Washing

After rinsing the rest of the soap out, be sure to squeeze excess water out, and then shape the brush. This will help ensure that the shape of your brushes doesn't change as a result of washing. Be sure to lay them down on a paper towel or towel as you wash them. The brushes on the left were washed with the dish soap & vinegar solutions, the brushes on the right were washed with baby shampoo. :)

Makeup Containers

Don't forget to wash these too! No point in putting clean brushes back into dirty containers after they're dry.

Drying

I always tilt my brushes at an downward angle when letting them dry so that whatever water that's left doesn't drip back onto the handle, which can loosen up the glue and cause the brushes to fall apart.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this, hope the pictures helped to make it more interesting :). If you have any budget beauty products that you would like for me to review (makeup, skin care, hair care, and related items), please send your request to me at lindsi.green@gmail.com. Looking forward to hearing from you! ;)