I’m definitely not an expert in taking care of my brushes, but I do wash them! Brush laundry is kind of a chore, but I hate the idea of face bacteria and old make up together mulching away on the used brushes for weeks – ick. I try to do them on a Sunday if I get round to it.
This isn’t a tutorial but this is how I wash mine. If any of these steps are super stupid, tell me!
1. Sink full of tepid or slightly warm water, swish brush part of the brush in the water, trying not to immerse the ferrule (bristle holder) or handle too much
2. Gently soap up the bristles with gentle handwash or shampoo
3. Swish in water to rinse
4. Then rinse in running water to get the swish water off. Rinse a lot. Rinsing is key to washing.
5. Brush should look clean, feel clean. If not – repeat.
I know there are brush wash soloutions out there and you can use them if you like. I prefer to use products I know my skin is happy with, so if anything remains on the brush it won’t irritate me. I think if I had very expensive make up brushes I would buy a proper cleaning fluid. Many of these came from Poundland though and although they work, I’m not too precious about them.
Drying make up brushes is tricky because:
a) You shouldn’t stand them up because the water will run down into the ferrule and damage the brush
b) You shouldn’t stand them the other way up because leaning on the bristles will bend/damage or splay them – ruined!
So ideally you should dry them at a bit of an angle, bristles down, so the water runs out of them but no pressure is applied to the fluff.
This is where this guy comes in (click the picture to go and buy one if you like – it’s not sponsored or anything I just like it)
It’s an Ikea Brada Laptop Support, which was £3.99. I usually use it for supporting my laptop, unsurprisingly!
However, when it is not busy holding my laptop, it makes an excellent angled surface to dry my brushes on, like so:
Excuse the towel, it is faded but clean. Always use a clean towel for drying clean things, making them dirty again after so much work would be sad indeed!
It’s just the right angle so the brushes can point down without resting on their ends. To do this, take your wet brush and very gently squeeze the water out of it. So gently, you are hardly doing anything at all, mind, otherwise bristles will come out. Then gently shape the brush head into its ideal form and place it gently on your sloping surface. If you don’t have one you can roll up the towel at the handle end to make a gentle slope. The only other step is leave it. Leave them until they are properly dry. Overnight or longer. I know it is tempting to fiddle but don’t you’ll make them dirty again.
That’s basically all there is to how I do it. The only other tip I thought I’d mention is that I don’t recommend keeping a used brush in a zipped/sealed plastic case. Many of them come in zippable wallets, but once make up or dampness is on it, the sealed environment stays damp and bacteria love it. Brush bristles can be damaged and pick up nasty smells and be basically ruined by being sealed in something when dirty. Keep your dirties in the fresh air until you can clean them and they should be fine!
Got any hints and tips? Unlikely Ikea conscripts? Please share in the comments!
That is an astoundingly useful post! I, um.. my brushes are comparatively horrendous. Lucky I don’t wear makeup all that often.
Gemma Thomson recently posted..Ursuppe: Survival of the Fittest, or Simply Chores?
I’m glad you liked it!