Important Notice: Wash your makeup brushes!

In my last post I talked about makeup expiration dates and its importance, today its all about our makeup brushes!


Ok ladies fess up, when was the last time you gave your makeup brushes a good wash?
Its very important to keep your makeup brushes clean and sanitary because they can accumulate tons of bacteria too.

Did you know that dirty makeup brushes can cause acne? The oil on our face & the old makeup can get trapped in the bristles of your brushes & cause bacteria to grow, which can cause skin problems such as acne.

I often get asked how often should I clean my brushes?
The answer is if you are using your brushes on other people then they need to be washed right after. If you are an MUA & are working on multiple people then a good cleaning with 99% alcohol in between clients is a good way to keep brush sanitary.

If your brushes are strictly for your face only then a deep clean every 1-2 weeks is fine. If you use a brush cleaner such as MAC's Brush Cleaner in between you can stretch that out to every 2-3 weeks.

Here is how I deep clean my makeup brushes.
Step one: Pour some baby shampoo in the palm of your hand, add a small amount of water.
Step two: Swirl your brushes back and forth into a lather
Step three: Rinse thoroughly until water runs clear
Step four: pat dry & lay flat to dry (never dry brushes vertically)

I use Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo because its very gentle on the brushes. You can choose a mild conditioner after you shampoo if you would like, this will help keep the brushes soft. I don't do this step too often as I find the baby shampoo leaves them soft enough. Of course there are several methods of cleaning brushes out there, this just happens to be what works for me :)



Don't forget your other beauty tools while your at it!
Eyelash curlers & pencil sharpeners can be cleaned using a swab saturated with 99% rubbing alcohol. Clean pencil sharpeners often to prevent bacteria being redistributed onto your lip and eye pencils.

Are you guilty of not washing your brushes as often as you should?
Do you have another method you would like to share?

I hope this serves as a reminder to some of you who think washing your brushes once a year or not at all is ok! Yikes!

Great makeup starts with clean beauty tools so we need to take care of them so that they can take care of us!