How clean is your brush?

Is there anything better than clean makeup brushes?

I love cleaning, I actually do. Ask me to clean a house, a car - whatever. I love it, especially when there's music on! I feel like I could make a great addition to Kim and Aggie's cleaning team because I would love to clean people's homes and get them sparkling again. However, whenever it comes to deep cleaning my makeup brushes, I cannot stand it. I don't know why because I love having clean makeup brushes. There is nothing better than the softness and fresh scent of clean makeup brushes. It's obviously better for your skin as well because dirty makeup brushes harbour lots of nasty bacteria (I really do sound like Kim and Aggie now, don't I?) and I think that's what freaks me out and makes me bite the bullet and clean them so regularly. I clean my brushes most weekends, it is always on my to do list. So, this weekend I decided once I'd cleaned my makeup brushes that I would write a blog post about how I do it!

*Note* I do very roughly clean my brushes from day to day. For example my MAC 217 and MAC 219 are cleaned so that I can apply a different colour after each use. To do this, I use B. Makeup Brush Cleanser. I have used MAC and Real Techniques brush cleaner in the past and have found both to be very good - especially the Real Techniques one but B. is so good and so cheap - you can't not love it!

However, in this post I'm predominantly going to talk about how I like deep clean my makeup brushes! So, sit back, relax! Pull up a chair and make yourself a cuppa :)

I often find that the makeup brushes I use for powder makeup are the one's that I don't deep clean as often. However, for the makeup brushes I use for liquid foundations, lipsticks, concealers etc - I often find myself cleaning and wanting to clean them more often.

To clean my makeup brushes I usually use Dove baby wash because Dove is a brand that I know is good for my skin and won't cause me irritation. I use the baby wash because it's sure to be sensitive. My Real Techniques brush cleaning mit is also very useful as it provides three corrugated areas for cleaning thick, medium and small sets of bristles.

(If you want a handy tip for creating your very own brush cleaning mit, you can make one using a glue gun and a piece of plastic. Just glue sticky dots onto it and leave to dry. Anything that will get between those bristles to clean them out.)

Now that I have my Dove baby wash and my brush cleaning mit ready, this is where it gets really technical ;) *Hold onto your hats....* I use cold, yes cold, water for cleaning my makeup brushes and run my makeup brushes over the corrugated part of my mit until the water runs clear. Most people would advise using hot water to get rid of bacteria. However, I find cold water definitely helps to take any staining out of my brushes and once they are rid of all of that, I then douse them in hot water to make sure there is nothing lurking in them that shouldn't be 👀

I then place them on a hand towel to dry and that is it! Ta-dah!

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So that is my post for this week!

I promised myself that it would be a shorter one than usual so I have tried to limit my ramblings :)

Let me know what you think. If you prefer a short post or a slightly longer one.

Thanks for reading.

Lots of love,

Lauren

xoxo