How I Clean My Brushes | Two Simple Ways!

A little while a go I shared with you guys a handful of my favourite face and eye brushes to apply my makeup with. In order to get a good application it is important that your brushes are clean otherwise your makeup wont blend well and you'll be left with lasts weeks product on your face which is especially not good.

Makeup brushes harbour bacteria so you don't want to be putting that on your face otherwise it'll lead to breakouts or even infections. There isn't an amount of time set in stone on when you should clean your brushes, in an ideal world we would after every use but that's just not possible for most. So for this post, I thought i'd share with you a couple of ways I clean mine.

As I said, I for one do not have enough time to wash my brushes on a daily basis. However, if I find my brushes aren't blending my makeup as they usually would and I don't have enough time to wash and wait a long time for them to dry, I will do a spot clean. This consists of my makeup remover and a cotton pad, it's pretty simple.

I'll simply take the Garnier Micellar Water and put a bit on a cotton pad that I've split in half. I'll use one half for cleaning and the other half to dry. I tend to swirl my brush around on the cotton pad until the majority of the makeup has come off, next I'll take the dry cotton pad and do the same to dry the brush. I'll do this the night before or an hour or so before so that they can dry properly.

Now for the deep clean. I've heard lots of people say that they hate cleaning their brushes but personally I don't mind, I actually quite enjoy it. I used to just take a little baby shampoo on my palm and dampen the brush under the tap and swirl until the water runs clear. 

However, when reading a blog I saw that they were using a silicone oven mitt, I know it seems a little odd at first. They said they got the idea as they're a similar, cheaper alternative to the Sigma Brush Cleaner. The bristles get in between the little ridges on the mitt that actually clean them really well, I was so impressed at how clean my brushes looked and how soft they felt once I had tried it.

I will do the same process as I mentioned earlier, just with the mitt. First I will take some baby shampoo on the mitt, I will then dampen the brush under the tap and swirl on the glove til the water runs clear. To rid the brush of shampoo I will rinse it under the luke warm tap then either pop it bristles facing downwards in a brush stand or lay them to dry on a towel over night. Though, its better to stand the brushes with bristles facing downwards as the water will run away and prevent the glue from dissolving.

For sponges, its a little different. I must admit my sponge is on its way out, its starting to crack a bit and is really stained. I tend to do the same process for brushes but instead I use this Body Shop Tea Tree Cleanser as Tea Tree kills bacteria, therefore I know although my sponge is stained, I am hopefully killing the bacteria. I will the leave it to dry on the towel with the rest of my brushes.

And there you have it, a couple of simple ways to cleanse your brushes. Nothing too hard, time consuming or expensive! I'd love to know whether you have any techniques or tricks on how you clean yours, let me know!

HOW DO YOU CLEAN YOUR BRUSHES?

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