How I Clean my Makeup Brushes

Cleaning makeup brushes. Three words that strike terror in almost every makeup addict. I'm here to share with you how I clean mine.

There are a couple of ways to clean your brushes; spot cleaning and deep cleaning. I'm going to go through both because, well why not?

Spot Cleaning:
This is the fastest of the two and take only seconds depending on the size of the brush. All you need is a brush cleaner which most brands now offer. I use one from MAC but I want to buy the Pro Hygiene Collection one which comes in a spray bottle. Pour out a little bit of your brush cleaner onto a paper towel and swirl your brush around in it until the colour comes out. If you are cleaning a rounder more fluffy brush, use circular motions. If you are cleaning a flat brush, go back and forth with the brush. This helps the brush keep it's shape. Leave it to dry for a couple of minutes and hey presto, you have a clean brush.

Deep Cleaning:
The beast of the two methods. This one takes a little time and a lot of patience. It's best to use a baby shampoo, I use Johnson's, as they are the most gentle. I take a small blob in the palm of my hands, dampen the brush and swirl it around in the shampoo. Rinse until all the soap has comes out and the brush is clean. You'll be able to tell when it's clean because the water runs clear. Leave them to dry off the edge of a table to stop the water going back into the brush. This will help those brushes last longer. I do this every couple of weeks or whenever I feel my brushes need a good clean.

Extra Tips:

• When deep cleaning, use tepid water. Trust me, I've cleaned mine under cold water and after about 4 brushes, your fingers will go numb!
• Reshape the brushes when they're wet so they dry back in their original shape.
• I lay my wet brushes down on a paper towel to avoid bacteria build up.
• It's best not to do the whole one bowl for clean water, one bowl for soapy water because you'll have to change it after each brush. Ain't nobody go time for that!
• Don't blow dry your brushes to dry them, it will melt the glue causing them to shed.
• Any gentle soap is fine to use to clean makeup brushes. The general rule is that if it's gentle enough for your skin, it's usually fine for your brushes. 

So that's all my tips and tricks for cleaning makeup brushes. I still don't like the process but there's nothing quite like a set of freshly cleaned brushes!

How to do clean your makeup brushes?

Thanks for reading,
Avani 
xoxo