Makeup brushes go through a lot of use on a daily basis. Between makeup and the natural oils makeup brushes can get dirty, fast. It is important to keep your makeup brushes clean and sanitary, and store them in a cool temperature. Using makeup brushes that have not been cleaned for a period of time is terrible for your skin as well as unsanitary. A combination of built up and old makeup sitting on your brushes can make your skin break out after continuous applications. Without a solid brush cleaning routine, you are directly reapply dirt, oil, and old makeup to your skin which leads to clogged pores. If you are breaking out and do not know why, this could be your problem. At a minimum, you should clean and sanitize your makeup brushes once a month. If you use a heavy amount of makeup, or apply your makeup more than once a day, I suggest cleaning your brushes once every 2 weeks. The brush cleaning regimen I use is simple and easy. Here is my brush cleaning process:
- Fill a medium sized bowl or container with warm water.
- Fill a second medium sized bowl or container with warm water.
- Add a few pumps of your favorite shampoo to one of the bowls. Baby shampoo also works well.
- Stir the water to create bubbles. Make sure all of the shampoo is mixed in with the water.
- From here, take one brush at a time and submerge it into the water. Gently, scrub the brush hairs. Do not disrupt the brush patterns. Wash in the direction that the hairs were placed onto the brush.
- Place brush in the second bowl of water. Wash away excess soap and makeup.
- Rinse brush off under the faucet.
- Dry off with a towel and place on separate clean towel to dry over night.
- Repeat until all brushes are clean. (I like to change the water in both bowls about half way through cleaning because the water gets very dirty.)
- Once all brushes are completely dry, spray handles of the brush with rubbing alcohol to sanitize.