Tutorial: Make-Up Brush Maintenance

Be honest now: how many of you clean your make up brush regularly?

Cleaning your make-up brush regularly is important not just because it will extend the life of the brush and save you money in the long run. But it also keeps away dirt and bacteria that could harm your skin. Who wants acne or a stye on their eye, right?
Thankfully cleaning brushes are super simple and doesn’t require any fancy ingredients or equipments. Read on to find out how easy it is…

What you’ll need:

• Paper towel
• Baby shampoo or any mild soap

STEP 1
Put a dime-size drop of the soap on the palm of your hand and add a bit of water to it. You can go fancy and buy an expensive brush soap, but I find that the brush irritate my skin on first use after washing. So I use baby shampoo instead. If it’s good enough for a baby’s sensitive skin, it’s good enough for my brush.
Jess cleans hers with Biolage shampoo; that’s a good alternative too.

STEP 2
Rub the brush in a circular motion against your palm for about 10 seconds (you should see a good amount of lather); then do the same circular motion with the brush under running water. Repeat this step as necessary until the water runs clear.

STEP 3
Once your brush is clean, dry it by putting pressure using your index and middle finger.

STEP 4
Complete the drying process by stroking the brush against a piece of paper towel. Keep stroking the brush against a dry part of the paper — you’ll know you’re done when the stroke is no longer wet.

STEP 5
Dry the brush overnight on top of a piece of paper towel. DO NOT lay the brush vertically with the brush side up.
If brush feels a bit stiff after you’ve completely dry it, you can run the brush in against your palm to loosen up the bristles.

There you go. That wasn’t so hard, right? I try to wash my brushes at least once a month.