Brush Washing 101

Washing your makeup brushes is essential for keeping them in good condition.  Not only that, but when used over and over (especially with wet products like liquid foundation), brushes become breeding grounds for bacteria.  Washing them regularly helps to kill the bacteria and keep your skin clear.  Brush washing is really pretty easy and doesn't have to be expensive.  Taking just a few minutes to clean them every 10 to 14 days is all you need to do.


What To Use
A long time ago, a sales associate at Ulta sold me this brush cleaner by Bare Minerals.  This was before I really knew anything about makeup in general, and I had no idea that spending $14 on this little bottle of specialized brush cleaner was unnecessary and that I could have just used my regular shampoo.  My point here is that you don't need to get sucked in by a uni-tasking, specialized product like brush cleaner.  You can use any shampoo you have on your brushes.  If you use expensive shampoo, go to the store and buy something inexpensive for your brushes.  Several makeup gurus recommend using baby shampoo because it's cheap and gentle.

More recently, I switched over to a solid soap for brush cleaning.  I (again) got sucked in by a pricey product, the Beauty Blender Solid Cleanser.  Originally, I bought this just to clean my beauty blender.  Then, everyone on YouTube started talking about how much they loved using it to clean all their brushes.  I tried it and had to agree--it worked better than liquid shampoo did.  This tiny bar of soap costs $16, and I found myself going through them quickly.  I did some research to find a cheaper alternative.  I decided to try Dr. Bronner's Castile Bar Soap.  Drugstore.com sells the soap for $4.29, which is the cheapest price online I've seen for it.  I actually picked mine up at my local grocery store for a dollar less.   It comes in several varieties, and I chose the tea tree oil one. I also went to Target and bought a container so I would have something to put the soap in (I found it for about $1 in the travel toiletry section).  The Dr. Bronner's soap/Target container cost me less than $5.  The Dr. Bronner's soap bar is 5 oz compared to the 1 oz Beauty Blender soap.  In total, the drugstore alternative costs 1/16th as much as the high end option, and it works just as well!  This is further proof that you don't need an expensive brush cleaner.

Technique
Grab your brushes, a towel, and your soap or shampoo, then head to your sink.  You can use any sink in your house--I prefer my kitchen sink.  I'll list steps based on how I clean my brushes with the Dr. Bronner's solid soap.  If you have shampoo, can use the same technique.  The only difference is that you'll squirt some of the shampoo onto your hand and swirl the brushes in it.  Once you're at the sink, here's what you do:

1.  Wet the brush bristles and bar of soap with warm water.  I prefer to hold the bar in my left hand and the brush in my right (dominant) hand.  IMPORTANT: make sure the bristles are facing downwards.  If they are facing upwards, water will get into the brush ferrule and loosen the glue, eventually ruining the brush.

What to do--point the bristles downward

What not to do--point the bristles upward under running water

2.  Swirl the bristles directly into the bar of soap.
3.  Swirl the soapy bristles into the palm of your non-dominant hand under warm, running water until you have rinsed out all the soap.
4.  Depending on how dirty the brush is, you may need to repeat this procedure a couple times until it looks clean and the water runs clear.
5.  Lay it down on the towel to dry.  It needs to lay flat until it's completely dry to avoid getting water into the ferrule as mentioned above.
6.  Repeat procedure on all brushes.
7.  Rinse the soap bar so there is no makeup residue on it before it goes back in its case.

Some brushes dry faster than others.  I've noticed that some of mine take a full 24 hours, so plan accordingly.  I hope this post was helpful and saves you from overpaying for brush cleaner.  Happy brush cleaning!