Extend the life of your makeup brushes

I love my makeup brushes. I hand picked each and every one of them for a particular reason. There are two brushes in particular that I could not live without while on a job. Luckily I take great care of them to extend their life.

Great makeup does not stop at the right eyeshadow color and the perfect brush. Sanitizing plays a huge role, not only in the health of your skin, but also in the longevity of your brushes life. You could spend $50 on one single brush and it could be the softest and most effective brush in your kit…but two months later it starts to feel scratchy. Perhaps it doesn’t blend as well as it used to. You get angry. You say to yourself “I just spent $50 on a brush that is supposed to be great, yet two months later it is practically useless!” The answer lies within sanitation.

Protect your investment…

Brushes and makeup tools are an investment. If you spend good money on buying them in the first place then you need to follow that up with taking proper care of them. “How do you do that?” It is really quite simple. As a makeup artist working on jobs consistently and using my brushes on many faces, I end up sanitizing them several times per week. For someone using brushes only on themselves, you do not have to be as extreme on the cleaning as I am, but you really should still be sanitizing your brushes.

Where to begin…

The first step is to find a cleanser. There are a vast variety of brush cleansers out there, or you can make your own. I personally use Cinema Secrets Brush cleaner. I use this brand because it does not contain ingredients such as alcohol, which will dry out your brushes causing even more scratchiness to occur. Instead it contains moisturizing ingredients that make the bristles feel as if they are brand new. It also has a wonderful vanilla scent to it, which stays with the brush even after you are finished sanitizing it. I cannot even count the number of times the person in my chair has commented on the great smell of my brushes. This, however is just one of the many cleansers out there. Chances are your favorite makeup line carries their very own cleanser. If you are on a budget and cannot afford a fancy cleanser that is still no excuse to not properly care for your brushes. You can make your own version of cleanser at home using a mild shampoo and warm water. Just fill a small bowl with warm water and add a dime size drop of shampoo. Swish it around softly, so no bubbles form, but the shampoo is distributed throughout the water. Whichever cleanser you decide to use, homemade or store bought, the cleaning process is the same.

Step-by-Step

1. Pour some of the cleanser into a small bowl so that it is about one inch deep. Take your brush and dip it into the solution. Be careful not to dip any further than halfway up your brushes bristles and always take care to keep any solution out of the barrel of your brush. (The barrel is the piece which connects the bristles to the handle, it is usually made of metal and is silver, gold or black in color) Exposing your brushes barrel to liquids can break down the adhesive which holds the head of the brush onto the handle and can cause shedding of your bristles, or worse, the full head to come off.
2. Now that your brush has been dipped in the solution, grab a clean rag or towel and swirl your brush around on the rag. You will notice makeup debris coming off the brush. You may need to repeat the dipping and swirling routine until you no longer see any makeup coming off of the brush.
3. After all makeup has been removed use your fingers to reshape your brush to its original form. At this point, your brush is clean, yet still wet. Lay your brush down on a clean, flat surface. The number one mistake people make is standing their freshly cleaned brushes up in a container. This is okay to do once your brushes are dry, but by doing this when they are still wet you run the risk of liquid slipping down into the barrel.

Ready to use…

Your brushes are now clean and ready to be used once again! Your brush cleaning schedule can vary greatly from other peoples, depending on how often you are using them. I always recommend that if you use your brushes on a daily basis then you should clean them once a week. So, when you see a fantastic brush in the store and you just have to have it don\’t sweat the price. As long as you take care of it, that brush will be a longtime investment in your kit