Easy tips for long-lasting brushes!
New Year, Fresh Start
Hi, my name is Joyce Clements and I will be bringing new and exciting ideas to you about skin care and makeup products. I’ve been in this field since I was 16 years old and as wisdom goes, I’ve tried, experimented, believed and ultimately realized beauty doesn’t have to be complicated. I’m here to help you simplify your beauty and makeup needs, to help you find out what does work and to help you to stop wasting your hard-earned money on things that don’t work.
First of all, let’s shop our makeup supplies. This way you can inventory what you use, what is junk (stuff to throw away) and what you use daily and love.
General rule: keep your beauty items clean
We start with how to wash your makeup brushes. And I know that a lot of you don’t, which is one reason you may have breakouts and probably the reason why your makeup is not blending smoothly.
Keep it simple
Yes, there are makeup brush cleaners on the market, but let me save you money by using a tried-and-true cost-saving way of renewing your brushes and killing that nasty bacteria that can cause skin breakouts.
Liquid anti-bacterial dishwashing liquid. This is the stuff you use for washing dishes in the sink, not the version for dishwashers. Some people say hair shampoo is good for washing brushes, but shampoo doesn’t normally have anti-bacterial qualities that kill bacteria.
• Choose a liquid that simply is anti-bacterial. No extra moisturizing is needed.
• Once a month, lay out a tray for drying your brushes and take the 10-15 minutes to clean and make your brushes look new again.
• Wet the brush and take a drop or two of detergent and gently massage the soap into the brush. If you haven’t cleaned them in a while, you may have to do this several times until all makeup is removed. Rinse several times, spreading the bristles to get down to the base of the brush. Now, this next part is critical—do not pull on the bristles as you may end up with the bristles in one hand and the handle in the other. Have a medium-sized bowl filled with water to swirl the brush around in to make sure all the soap is out. If you see suds, rinse some more.
• Next, squeeze out the excess water from the brush by laying it flat on a towel and pressing on the bristles. Lay the brush on a towel with the bristles hanging over the edge and allow to dry 12-24 hours. Do not fluff the brush up while it’s wet—simply shape it tightly, and when it’s dry, it will look new again.
Trust me, this works—I have makeup brushes from my filming days (about 25 years old) that still work beautifully. One word of advice: sometimes the metal part of the brush separates from the handle. Just use waterproof glue when the brush is dry to re-attach the bristles and handle.
Clean Brushes= Beautiful Makeup and Clear Skin!
Joyce
This entry was posted on Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Beauty & Style, Makeup, Skincare. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.
February 7th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Thank you so much for this information. How often do you recommend cleaning the brushes?
February 8th, 2011 at 9:48 am
anti bacterial soup is a terrible thing.
Dangers of Antibacterial Soaps
* Triclosan, the main ingredient used in antibacterial soaps, has been found to kill not only bacteria, but also human cells.
* Such soaps kill any and every type of bacteria and are not limited to disease-causing bacteria only. Since they kill every susceptible bacterium and remove competition from the ecosystem, they might lead to multiplication of resistant bacteria. The end result will be drug-resistant “superbugs”.
* Antibacterial soaps offer no protection against the most common germs, since they are caused by virus and not bacteria.
* Use of antibacterial soaps might do more harm than good to your baby’s immune system. This is because it has been found that for developing a baby’s immunity, it is very necessary to expose him to germs during the initial years. The children who are not exposed to common bacteria usually end up being more prone to allergies and asthma.
* Over-use of antibacterial agents has been found to be associated with environmental problems also.
* Studies have revealed that the triclosan in such soaps reacts with chlorinated water to produce inappropriately high levels of chloroform, which is a probable human carcinogen.
February 25th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
i use lavender baby shampoo to clean my brushes and it works like a charm. for in between washes i use japonesque spray.
March 6th, 2011 at 9:25 am
I recently did a video illustrating this clean brushes is very important for great skin! http://www.youtube.com/user/MakeupbyKeiKei#p/u/2/URuPp60xmDc
I clean my brushes weekly and recommend that you clean your brushes at least every two weeks at least.
March 8th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
I’m fairly new to wearing makeup, I was wondering Mrs Clements if you could recommend a brand for some decent reasonably priced makeup brushes?
Thanks in advance
March 16th, 2011 at 12:06 pm
In addition to just thoroughly cleaning them every 2 weeks, why not remove the make up you put on them daily with a brush cleaner like Brush Off.