You could spend countless amounts of money of beauty products, but that won’t mean anything if you’re applying your makeup with brushes and sponges that are collecting weeks worth of foundation, dust and bacteria. Even if you don’t use your brushes often, it’s still a good idea to be cleaning them once in a while. Take a look below and we’ll explain how to clean makeup brushes, why you should be cleaning them and how to store them.
Reasons to start cleaning up your makeup brushes
- Your brushes are hoarding bacteria: Without washing your brushes, they start to hoard dust, dirt, dead skin, and bacteria from your face. If you aren’t cleaning your brush then all of this bacteria starts to breed and multiply and you start reapplying all of this back onto your skin every time you use your brushes.
- Sharing viral infections: If all that bacteria comes off your face, imagine what is coming off your friends face when you do their makeup for a night out. You’re sharing foreign microbes onto each other’s skin and that runs a risk of your body rejecting those microbes and you can end up with anything from breakouts to herpes or pink eye.
- Attracting creepy crawlies to your makeup: In the past few years, there have been many viral videos of people cutting open their makeup sponges and brushes to find disgusting bugs in them. When you don’t clean your makeup brushes, the bacteria and build up is a great attractant for some gross creatures who want to share your makeup with you! Yuck! (You can check out one of these videos here “Bugs in my beauty blender?!” )
- Clogged pores and breakouts: As you know, makeup can clog your pores and oil glands, so imagine all that hoarded makeup and dirt from your brushes being applied onto your face. If you’re having breakouts, it might be time to learn how to clean your makeup brushes.
- Damages your brushes and ruins new makeup: You could be spending more time in the bathroom applying makeup because you’re not just applying the makeup you want, you’re also applying grime, dirt and this is affecting the performance of your tools. Not only that but if you’re repeatedly using dirty brushes it begins to clump the bristles together and your brush will lose shape or start to fall apart.
You can check out some more reasons to start cleaning your brushes on this readers digest blog.
How to clean makeup brushes
- Boil a cup of water and wait a few minutes before adding 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
- Dip your brush in the liquid and swirl around making sure to gently scrub it on the bottom of the cup
- Rinse under cold water
- Reshape with your fingers if necessary
- Place the brush down flat to dry so the liquid doesn’t drip down and loosen the glue that holds the bristles in place
How you should store your makeup brushes
Makeup brushes will accumulate dirt and grime faster if you’re storing them in your makeup bag with your other makeup. A makeup brush should be cleaned and then stored in an upright position to prevent even more bacteria from collecting on them.
It’s very important to be cleaning your brushes at least 2-4 times a month and as always, our cleaning instructions involve only natural ingredients to help keep your skin as healthy as it should be.
In this article, you can find out what Jenny Patinkin, celebrity makeup artist and founder of luxury brush line Lazy Perfection has to say about cleaning your brushes. You will also find two other methods on cleaning them.
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