How to clean makeup brushes for a germ free glam session

We all love a cocktail, unless it’s a germ one. Spare yourself the pinkeye, blackheads and bacteria that form and hide in your beloved beauty kit by keeping it fresh. Because there is no point in spending hours and dollars on a skincare routine and quality makeup just to ruin it with contaminated tools. Here is how to clean your makeup brushes efficiently so you can spend less time sanitizing and more time glamming.

The ABC of cleaning brushes

Bathing your brushes and/or Beauty Blender should be a weekly occurrence. But you can never do it too often. In fact, it is even recommended for heavy makeup users and people with problematic skin to wash their tools every day. Still, making it a Sunday affair and pairing it with an I-woke-up-like-this kind of day to give your skin a rest while saving time is perfectly fine. So how do you get rid of all the oil, residual makeup, and potential bacteria thriving in your dirty brushes? With soap and water. It’s as simple as that. There are makeup brushes detergents on the market, but a gentle shampoo will do the job just fine if you are not ready to invest in a specialized one.

The step by step

There are two popular techniques to go about it, both incredibly simple.

Method 1

Wet the brushes under warm water. Add some soap or shampoo in the palm of your hand and gently massage each brush until clean. Rinse thoroughly with water. Remove the excess water. Carefully reshape the brush and lay it flat on a towel to dry.

Method 2

Fill a glass halfway with warm water and add a dollop of soap or shampoo. Let the brushes soak for a few minutes and rub them gently to remove all excess residues. Rinse carefully with clean water. Gently squeeze out the excess water, reshape the brushes and lay them flat on a towel to dry.

The gadgets to clean your makeup brushes

A few accessories are available to help you maximize your Princess Cinderella time and minimize your maid Cinderella one. Gadgets like silicone pads, fingertip brush cleaners and even electric spin machines will facilitate the process, save you hours and assure optimal cleanliness.

Repeat the massaging process twice if necessary, be careful to be gentle and don’t forget to properly reshape the brushes before laying them flat. Also, try not to stack them to dry so the moisture evaporates quickly and doesn’t remain in them which would promote the formation of bacteria and defeat the whole purpose of cleaning your beauty tools. Sure, cleaning your makeup brushes isn’t exactly fun to do, yet it is an important task to prevent spots, rashes and show some love to your loyal partners in glamming up and looking fierce.

Cover credit: @thrive.chiro.family | Instagram