Your brushes are your make up’s best friend and you need to look after them if you want them to last. If you’re cramming them upside down in a pot and misshaping them, they aren’t going to be much use to you.
1. Clean your brushes regularly.
- Your brushes hold millions of germs, dead skin cells, and your natural oils as well as product build up.
- Clean brushes apply makeup better.
2. Use conditioner or fabric softer on them
- Keeping them soft will stop your brush feeling scratchy on your skin.
- Your synthetic brushes won’t need softening that often but when you do use fabric softener.
- Use normal hair conditioner on your natural brushes.
3. Don’t loosen the glue holding the bristles
- If the water is too hot it will melt the glue and your bristles will fall out.
- If too much water hits the glue it may weaken in.
- Don’t soak your brushes, this will damage them and you will need to start replacing them.
4. Make sure the bristles aren’t mis-shaped when drying.
- You could run the risk of them permanently misshaping.
- If you can air dry them over an edge on top of a towel this is preferable
- Make sure your brushes are dry before you use them as this will change how the makeup applies.
5. Quick spritz in between washes
- After every use it’s advised to give your bushes a quick clean to remove excess product and kill bacteria. I use Jane Iredale’s Botanic Spritz.
- If you are more spot prone I recommend using an anti-bac brush spritz or one with Tea Tree in to reduce the spread of bacteria.
- Spritzing your eye shadow brush also helps remove dark heavier pigment. Trying to do a natural day look with the dirty brush you used for last night’s dark smoky eye never ends well.
6. The more you use your brushes the more often you should wash them.
- If you’re using your brushes every day I recommend giving your brushes a deep cleaning at least once a month.
- I wash my brushes after every client for hygiene reasons and if you are sharing your brushes with your mates, mom or sister you should wash them after they use them.
Sarah’s Jane Iredale Make-up Lessons include advice on which brush to use with each product and we now offer group lessons for up to 4 people.