How To: Keep Your Makeup Brushes Clean

In the spirit of cleansing your face, you must also keep your makeup and brushes clean.  Yes, you are the only one using them however, bacteria can and will infiltrate your brushes, dirtying your makeup and ultimately transferring bacteria to your face and eyes.  As an aspiring makeup artist I have to keep my brushes clean, so I have been doing some research on this matter.

1. Deep Cleansing - this involves shampooing your brush.  When should you deep cleanse your brushes? 1) Every time you get a new brush - it's just a good practice to utilize; 2) Heavy product build up - when your bristles are dusted with color from foundations, powders, eyeshadow, concealer etc. When you do this is entirely based upon how often you use your brushes and how much product you use.  There is no set time frame to do this - when depends on you and your level of cleanliness. I deep clean my brushes about once a month because I have so many brushes I switch out dirty ones for clean ones.  When all my brushes are pretty much filthy, I clean all of them.

I use a clarifying shampoo (Suave $1) to shampoo my brushes.  I just did a review on E.l.f brush shampoo and it's "ok" compared to the Suave.  E.l.f lathers really well, you only need a small amount (super concentrated) but you get the same bang for your buck with the Suave.  

ELF REVIEW:

2. Daily Cleaning - now this is where things get tricky.  Cinema Secrets, MAC, Crown Brush, E.l.f , Parian Spirit are some brands of this kind of brush cleaner.  I personally have used MAC, Crown and E.l.f.  Crown and MAC are the best of the three.  I have heard great things about Parian Spirit...

They are easy to use, but it's a matter of which one you like.  It is easier to tell how well the cleaners work when cleaning a white haired brush (duo fiber, blending, blush brushes).  I usually pour a little onto a white hand towel and swirl the brush around then swirling it on a dry area to dry it.  I have had the most success with the Crown and MAC. But, I am not sure if these cleaners disinfect as well.  I clean my brushes this way maybe every other day to every three days... Depending on how much product I use, I may clean them daily.

3. Disinfecting with Alcohol - now I have seen this done many times on YT, I even tried it with 91% rubbing alcohol.  Gossmakeupartist on YT talks about using hospital grade 99% rubbing alcohol.  I have not tried the 99% as of yet - it's on the way! - but with the 91% alcohol, it did not get clean to my liking.  But I felt confident that most of any bacteria was killed.  To be honest, no one of these methods gets the brushes totally clean (white). There was always a hint of color residue.  But I decided to try something because I'm always experimenting.

Experiment 1: Deep Clean + Alcohol treatment.

THIS WORKED WONDERFULLY WELL!!!!!! My brushes where super duper clean (white!!)

Experiment 2: Adding Alcohol to Daily Cleaners

This was just "ok" mainly due to the kind of daily cleaner.  I used E.l.f, which already has alcohol in it, but it did not get most of the residual color from product off the brush.  So, I will try this duo with one of my favorites versus the quick grab product.

Clean your brushes people.  It promotes brush longevity, good hygiene, and good color pay off.

Ohhh, wanna learn how to reduce breakouts when using liquid foundation??? I have a good tip that WORKS wonders!!!

~MUAH~
Lisa Rose aka TheMakeupBaby13

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