As make up artist I spend a lot of time cleaning the brushes from my kit however I admit that I'm not that good at cleaning the ones I use on myself. That said I know how important it is to keep your brushes clean, firstly for convenience sake, with your eyeshadow brushes if you clean them regularly it means that you don't end up mixing lots of different colours never getting the true colour pay off of the shadow.
Secondly brushes perform better when they're not clogged with products. This is particularly true of your foundation and concealer brushes that can leave streaky marks on your face when applying your make up if they are clogged up with old products.
Finally and most importantly to kill all the bacteria that is harboured within the bristles. This is particularly important if you have oily skin or acne prone skin. Bacteria will transfer from your face onto the brush and grow freely in the moist environment. On young, problem skin it's particularly important to keep your brushes clean so that if you are spending a fortune on skin care trying to clear your acne you're not undoing all your good work by spreading bacteria on your face with your make up brushes.
Most people wash their brushes with baby shampoo thinking that this will suffice however while this will remove product build up this will not kill the bacteria that are harbouring in your brushes.
Mac sell a brush cleanser which you can use in two ways, firstly you can use it like a shampoo, taking your brushes to the sink rinsing them in water and then working the brush cleanser through the brush before rinsing it out. Secondly you can pour a small amount of the cleanser onto a kitchen towel and work the brush in little circles gently on the towel to spot clean your brushes. This second method is what I use when I work on fashion shows when I make up multiple models and don't have enough different sets of make up brushes. The mac brush cleanser is antibacterial and and has a conditioning formula to help keep your brushes in good condition. I also use Beauty so clean to clean my brushes which works in exactly the same way.
I use the brush cleaner to spot clean my own brushes in between taking them to sink and giving them a really thorough clean. For this purpose I actually use The Body Shop's Tea Tree facial wash because tea tree is a natural antibacterial without being too harsh on your brush bristles.
I first rinse my bristles with warm water and then apply some of the facial wash to the palm of my hand and swirl the brush around in my hand rinsing regularly and squeezing the brush to see if product is still coming out of the brush. I keep swirling the brush on my hand during the rinsing process to make sure that there are no bubbles still being produced from soap left on the brush. Only when I am sure that the brush is rinsed clean do I squeeze the water out, blot the brush on a towel and transfer onto a towel to dry horizontally to avoid water getting into the ferrel of the brush and dislodging the glue which will lead to the brushes shedding their bristles.
If you take good care of your brushes there is absolutely no reason why your brushes will not last for years!!
Have a great weekend everyone!!!!
Lauren x x
