Be honest, when is the last time you washed your makeup brushes? If it was in the last week, give yourself a pat on the back. If it was sometime this month, well done you're on the right track. If it was longer than a month ago, go and wash them right this minute, or after you've read this blog post...
Did you know makeup brushes can accumulate dead skin cells, dirt, oil pollution and bacteria just through daily use of makeup brushes? If you don't wash your makeup brushes enough you're spreading dirt and and bacteria from your face to your makeup and then back onto your face, and back into your makeup again and again.
Common problems that occur from not washing your makeup brushes enough include:
- Clogged pores
- Breakouts
- Pink Eye (from sharing dirty eye makeup brushes)
- Wrinkles (oh yes)
- Badly applied makeup
- Bugs (in sponges)
So you're wondering how often should you be washing your makeup brushes? The answer is simply once a week at minimum for anything touching your face and twice a month for anything used around your eyes (eye shadow brushes). However if you're using multiple eye shadow shades then you should be washing those brushes more often.
Some people think if you wash your makeup brushes too often it can cause them to break or cause the brush hairs to fall out. This is false to a certain degree. Firstly good quality brushes won't break. Secondly it depends on how you wash and dry makeup brushes. Obviously over time you will lose the odd brush hair or two which is totally normal. Washing your makeup brushes regularly can actually extend the life of the bristles and brush.
How to wash makeup brushes the correct way:
1. Wet your makeup brushes with lukewarm water.
2. Apply your face wash or a brush cleanser on the palm of your hand.
3. Dip the brush onto the cleanser of your choice and scrub, add more water or rinse and continue scrubbing (depends how dirty they are).
4. Squeeze the excess water out.
5. Lay the brushes flat to dry. This is very important in order to extend the life of your brushes. If you leave your brushes to flat standing, the water will drip through to where the glue sticks the brush hairs to the wand.
If you don't have time to wait around for your brushes to dry, there are lots of different brush cleansers you can purchase such as the MAC Brush Cleanser or the No7 Makeup Brush Cleanser however these cleansers contain alcohol which isn't great for your skin. So you may be saving time however these are just quick fixes if you're on the go. I'm not a makeup artist so I'm pretty sure there are non-alcohol brush cleansers out there, however it's just like washing your hands. Hand sanitizers are fabulous however it doesn't beat washing your hands with soap and warm water.
If your face wash is an expensive one and you don't fancy using it to wash your brushes, again that's totally fine. Just buy a cheaper face wash (a good one) and use that to wash your brushes. I use my daily face wash because it's inexpensive and natural. If it's good enough for my face, it's good enough for my brushes which touch my face.
Now set a weekly reminder and get those makeup brushes washed once and for all. There are no cons to being clean.
No comments