CLEANING MY MAKEUP BRUSHES.

Today I took on the mammoth task of cleaning my make-up brushes. It's something we all despise, but it needs to be done. Make-up brushes can harbour all kinds of bacteria - let's face it, it's something that's used all over our face, eyes, lips and anywhere else you apply make-up on a regular basis. If they are your personal make-up brushes, they may not need to be cleaned as often as those that belong to a make-up artist and are perhaps used on a number of clients. I like to try and clean my personal brushes as often as possible, and there are a number of ways to do so.

First of all - you want to find a product to clean your brushes with. When we talk about cleaning the brushes, we mean the bristles - not necessarily the handles which can be wiped down with a cloth or a make-up wipe of some variety. I've used a variety of different products - shampoo, baby shampoo, a solid cleanser, a liquid anti-bacterial soap, a regular brush cleaner - all of which do the trick, but I think it's all about finding a personal preference. I've heard about using Olive Oil but I haven't tried that and I'm not all that convinced that using a product that you use to cook food is all that good on your face. At the moment I've been using the Dr. Bronner 18 in 1 Pure Castille Soap in the scent Rose, (I purchased mine from ASOS, but you can buy it in a lot of other places) but you can use anything you like that does the job properly. I'd also recommend Johnson's Baby Shampoo, BeautyBlender Solid Cleanser and if you're in a fix - regular shampoo.

Let's talk as though you are using a liquid product (anything that's not a solid cleanser). You need to put a little amount in your hand and massage the brush into the product until the residue begins to appear the colour of the product originally on your brushes. When rinsing the product from the brush, you need to make sure that you are angling the brush downwards so that you don't get water into the ferrule (the metal bit) which is where the bristles are glued into place - any water in here and the bristles can get dislodged and eventually begin to shed.

I used to use the product in my hands, but after a few brushes I found it became uncomfortable so I started to put the cleanser on my make-up mixing palette and rub the brushes onto that instead, it worked a lot better and my hands felt a lot nicer as opposed to beforehand. This works brilliantly and gives my mixing palette a good clean too!

Once their cleaned, I give them a good squeeze and set them back to their original shape so that they dry nicely. Some of my denser brushes don't always rinse that well so more often than not I'll have to go back and rinse them out again. I then use an old tea-towel (nothing fancy at all), and roll up the end slightly so that the handles are higher than the bristles when drying - again, this stops any residue or water build up in the ferrule so prevents bristles from shedding.

I know it's tedious but it's something you MUST do! If you haven't done so lately, go and clean your brushes now!