spring brush cleaning

It's fitting that this post is about washing makeup brushes because it's been raining all day. April showers, eh? As a sort of therapeutic procrastination activity I decided to clean my brushes. I usually do this every 2 weeks or so. I used to have a nice little spot cleaner from Sephora that I used more frequently but that ran out about two weeks ago so now I'm stuck with this method, which isn't so bad because it is a thorougher way of getting all of the leftover makeup off of the brush. It just takes a little bit of time.

I saw Allison from Amarixe use baby shampoo to clean her brushes and I saw we had some laying around so I said, "why not!" It works really well! This was the video she uploaded:



She has a really great YouTube channel. So if you didn't watch the video here are the basic steps!

1. Find your dirty brushes! This is half the battle! Most of my brushes are Real Techniques. The black one is from elf and it is amazing (and $3!). The brush with the wooden handle is from EcoTools. It is really nice for bronzer. 

2. Get your soap/shampoo/brush cleanser. This bottle has lasted me forever.

3. This is probably the most important step. While wetting the brush you should angle it down so no water goes into the brush where the glue is holding the bristles into place. That would ruin the brush. The water should be warm, not scalding hot.  

5. Put a few drops of your cleanser in your hands and swirl your brush around in it. Then rinse the cleanser out with warm water again.

This isn't the most confusing brush cleaning method in the world but it does a great job at giving the brushes a nice deep clean. One of my favorite things in the whole world is having clean makeup brushes. Ah, it's the little things. 

The last thing you should note about any sort of brush cleansing method is the way in which you dry the brush. Like first wetting the brush you should dry your brushes angled downwards. This either means hanging them upside-down if you can or drying them on an angle. I usually dry them on a folded towel. It works well. 

I hope no one washes away in this rain!

Until tomorrow,

Caroline