One Good Habit: Washing Your Makeup Brushes

Hello ladies,

March is here and I can feel spring in the air! However, the weather begs to differ and this week is actually quite chilly and rainy in the Sunshine State. How ironic is that? Since spring is coming, I guess spring cleaning is also in the agenda for some of you. When I first moved to my new place about a month ago, the one thing I did was to wash all of my makeup brushes because only God knows what kind of things they touched during the move. Also, I prefer to have clean brushes to use when I apply makeup for my own health safety. Makeup can harbor bacteria when not stored and washed properly and I do not want to have an eye or skin infection from using dirty brushes.

So if you do not like to wash your brushes often, I urge you, beg you, and badger you into washing them regularly. I maybe crazy to think that there is a connection between the brushes and the user. Mine seem to develop their own personalities after time. Through using and washing them, I feel comfortable as time goes by and they also perform better when being well taken care of. A brush can last for a very very long time. I have some brushes bought since 2002-2003, the time I started playing with makeup, and they are still as full and soft as they day I brought them home. And they are not even expensive *cough*MAC*cough* brushes at all!

And believe it or not, I am not the only one who urges you to wash your brushes...

The 44th president of the United States also happens to agree!
(Photo by AP, caption by Dao*)

"But Dao, brush cleanser is so expensive and I have a kabuki brush. Every time I clean that brush, it takes away half of the bottle!" you may retort.

And I do agree, MAC brush cleanser is $11 USD per bottle. It ain't cheap, considering a MAC mascara is also the same price. However, you don't have to buy them because you can make them! Yes, I said it, you can make them!

The genius whose name is Koren (aka Enkore Makeup from YouTube) gave a very good video on how to mix your own brush cleanser. I always contemplated to mix my own but happened to miss this and that item until I settled in my new place and bought...a bottle of 91% alcohol! The whole process took less than 5 minutes to make and I have a full bottle of brush cleanser to use. Now the brushes are clean and I am very happy!

Stuff that I used: Suave Detangling Spray (~$2 USD), 91% alcohol (~$1 USD), Johnson's baby shampoo (~$2-3 USD), and Ajax lemon dish washing detergent ($1 from dollar store)
Not pictured: water

Instruction: mix everything together and pour the final product in a jar or bottle. Then label it properly before use.

I reuse a water bottle to store the brush cleanser as the jar is small enough

After making the brush cleanser, you can start using it by pouring enough liquid to a glass or a bowl. Just make sure to use that glass or bowl exclusively for this purpose (do not use it to drink water or eat anything!) Then dip your dirty brush in there and swirl around . You will see the grimes being removed from the brush. Once you are finished, remove the brush and squeeze the excess liquid out. Then lay flat to dry.

My clean brushes, ahhhh

Overall, this is a very good brush cleanser. My brushes do feel soft and fluffy after each wash. Also, it is very cheap to make and as long as you have water and alcohol, you can make a lot of batches out of the other ingredients. Small brushes dry really fast when using this method: I can clean them and wait for less than 5 minutes before using. However, big brushes take more time to dry: the kabuki took about a day to dry while the skunk brush (the last one on the right) took almost two days. Still, it is faster than washing with shampoo and conditioner.

One precaution: please do not inhale the cleanser as it smells nasty! Although the other ingredients smell great, the alcohol is not. I almost choke when inhaling the liquid: it reeked! However, once the brush dried, it actually smells quite lovely as the detangler has an apple fragrance.

*Ok, I believe the Prez didn't say anything about cleaning your brushes but I think he would agree with me. After all, he is very good looking and his wife is also gorgeous. Now, there's a lot of genetic factors into that but having good hygene habits does not hurt either.

So please make a change in your life by washing your makeup brushes more frequently. I have two other methods that I will blog really soon. Depending on the time you have and the situation you are in, one method may work better than the other.

I hope you are having a wonderful week ahead. Stay gorgeous and wash your brushes!

Love,
Your Makeup Blogger

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