how often should i clean make up brushes?

Freiheit

hi bought a set in boots, with Sam the beauty blogger on the back, orange rim, anyway im wondering how often should they be cleaned? Every use or every few?and how should they be dried? Near a radiator? Advice appreciated,thanks,k

dee_mc

I do mine once a month, in the morning directly after using them. I use a dot of shampoo and very hot water (mine have natural bristles- you probably shouldn't use very hot water with synthetic brushes), rinse well, reshape, and dry by lodging them, brush end down, between the body and door of the bathroom cabinet! They dry in time to use the following morning.

bscm

If they are face brushes (which you may use everyday), washing them once a week or so is a normal time limit. Eye brushes can be washed as needed (if you use a dark eye shadow colour, you're obviously going to want to clean that brush before you use it to apply a light colour).

Baby shampoo or brush cleanser (available from places like MAC) are the two most used products to clean brushes. You wet the brushes with a bit of warm water, use your cleaning product like a shampoo, rinse, repeat until clean. Then you allow them to dry upside down (brush pointing downwards) if possible.

Never let the water get into the roots of the bristles, it destroys the glue and causes shedding. So don't let them dry with the bristles pointing up, or allow water to get into the glue when you're washing them.

Pang

I use a clarifying shampoo every fortnight for my facial brushes. I used the Mac brush cleaner before but the shampoo works just as well and is miles cheaper.

I wash my eye brushes sporadically. It all depends on what colours I used previously.

Tasden

I use my brushes every day or every second day so I wash them once or twice a week. I would do it more if I could tbh but waiting for them to dry and timing it around my morning routine makes it awkward! The way I see it is, you wouldn't touch your face with dirty hands or use a dirty cloth to wash your face so I wouldn't use dirty brushes on it either, I'd be scared of breaking out.

I wash them with baby shampoo and then lay them out on a half rolled towel so that the end of the brush is resting on the height with bristles facing down. Hard to explain. I wash them at night and leave them to dry on the towel on the floor of my room.

Toast4532

I wash all my brushes every two weeks usually.

I have oily skin and acne so I tend to use a different brush each week so I just leave the dirty brushes to one side and wash them with the others.

I use baby shampoo on mine, or sometimes the MAC cleansers.

Robyn_14

Recently my Mac 187's head literally came clean off while I was washing with my MAC brush cleaner..I'd had it a year..I went to buy a new one and the girl in MAC said that their cleaner is really too strong to be using regularly!! She said to use baby shampoo..was a bit miffed since I thought I was doing the right thing by using their cleaner!

Tasden

Oh also, I read a review of the beauty blender solid cleanser on Reddit/mua and it looks to be very easy and effective so I'm looking into that. Might be worth a try!

bnagrrl

I have a few of each brush which I rotate and wash about every 2-3 weeks. So I nearly always have one brush in use, one brush drying on the windowsill and one in my brush holder waiting to go!

Freiheit

Thanks all, I bought a sterlising solution from a salon supplies store (to be mixed with water), how incidentally am I to dry them facing down? and should I rinse them in water after?

Freiheit

This is what I got, from Boots http://realtechniques.com/shop-collection

Can anyone also please recommend a decent Make up box or case?:)

bnagrrl

Freiheit wrote: »

Thanks all, I bought a sterlising solution from a salon supplies store (to be mixed with water), how incidentally am I to dry them facing down? and should I rinse them in water after?

I reshape my brushes by hand then dry them on the windowsill with the bristle end hanging over the edge so it doesn't get mishapen from lying on itself. I rinse my brushes after washing to make sure the shampoo is all gone. When they're dry I spritz them with a sterile spray I got in Sephora.
Edit to add: try not to let water go up over the metal end that joins the bristles to the handle as the water will dry the glue out over time and ruin your brush.

Freiheit wrote: »

This is what I got, from Boots http://realtechniques.com/shop-collection

Can anyone also please recommend a decent Make up box or case?:)

I use some tea light holders I got in IKEA. I think they look pretty on the bathroom counter. They were 1.50 each and I have three. http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/catalog/products/50248287/

This from Make Up Forever looks good too and you could use it travelling.

http://www.mufe.ie/products/danys-pouch-262.html

Storming

I've used MAC cleanser but it's ridiculously expensive. I use baby shampoo and got a tip to add a little drop of vinegar which makes cleaning so much easier. I've been doing this for over a year and brushes are perfect. Agree once a week is good and like others rotating brushes is a good idea

Twee.

I really don't like the MAC cleaner, it takes so much product to get them properly clean. The Make Up Forever one is miles better and lasts much longer.

I try and clean the brushes every week, and I usually do the gel liner brushes after each use. For storage, I got pretty plastic cups in Dunnes and filled them with rice to stand the brushes up in.

Freiheit

Hi I sprayed them a few minutes ago with a surgical spirits solutions, however it's only a spray, and very effective without some rubbing or submersion, I know it's basic but what should I do next?:eek:

Novella

I clean my brushes once a week, though I have four or five foundation brushes and numerous eye shadow/blending brushes so I switch between them during the week. I use baby shampoo to wash mine and I store them in pretty glass containers which I bought from Next.

panda100

I use dr bronners tea tree oil soap to clean my brushes.i get it from American apparel. I don't find baby shampoo gives a sufficient deep clean to my brushes, with de bronners I feel they are much cleaner.i give them a deep clean every two weeks.

Tiddlypeeps

bnagrrl

^^^^^^^^^^^
where can I get a big bottle of surgical spirits like that in Dublin? Pref North County

Belle Morte

You can get IsoPropyl Alcohol (Surgical Spirits) in most pharmacies - to be honest, any chemist should have it as it has many uses. I always get the 99.9% strength - but you can get it in different strengths.

Try decanting it into a spray bottle too - very hand for doing quick spot cleaning on your brushes.

Tiddlypeeps

Belle Morte wrote: »

Try decanting it into a spray bottle too - very hand for doing quick spot cleaning on your brushes.

Handy for cleaning make up too. Eyeshadow pallets, blushes etc will never go off if they are kept bacteria free. The alcohol doesn't change the consistency of it either because it evaporates straight off. (not suitable for liquid products)