Washing My Makeup Brushes

Washing makeup brushes is a painful experience. It takes a super long time, especially when you have as many brushes as I do. I loathe knowing the time is coming to give my brushes the dreaded deep-clean. I do use a spot cleaner, mine is one by Quo which you can find at Shoppers Drug Mart, but for the deep clean you can use a special brush shampoo, or I like to use the much cheaper alternative that is baby shampoo. It is very gentle, and makes sure the brush bristles don't dry out or even worse, fall out... all over your face, and then you have to pick stray hairs out of your foundation before a big night out.

 Here is the mess of dirty brushes I have neglected for so long.

 Here is the baby shampoo I use to get my brushes squeaky clean!

 To begin washing my brush, I dampen the bristles under running water. Never fill up a sink and wash in the water- you won't be cleaning anything and you might even get a suspicious break out from all of the bacteria on your newly washed brushes. I wash the brushes with the bristles pointing down, if you get water into the ferrule/handle it will loosen the glue and you will lose bristles much faster than if you just wash them properly.

 Then I apply the shampoo into the palm of my hand. I use the palm of my hand so you can see the makeup coming off, use your fingers to help clean a brush, and also by the time your finishing up your hands will be wrinkly enough to really give your brushes a deep clean. Probably my least favourite part.

 I swirl the brush around in the palm of my hand until the pigment has left the brush. I repeat if necessary, and then run it under clean water just to make sure there is no residue.

 I lay my brushes on some paper towel, or a regular hand towel, and make sure the bristles are over the edge of the counter. This means any excess water can drip down and avoid harvesting bacteria in your clean bristles. Also, your brushes won't take nearly as long to dry.

 Once I've finished washing a batch I make sure all of my bristles have been somewhat shaped to how I want them to be when they're dry. If you leave them to dry in strange shapes, they will stay that way until you wash them again, and sometimes the weird shapes last longer.

Here is my result. I didn't count them, and I don't want to. My hands are wrinkly and I smell like a baby. I've left them on a towel to dry and they should be dry by tonight- or at least the smaller ones should. Bigger brushes take a bit longer, especially dense ones, so I wouldn't recommend washing brushes if you need to put a face full of makeup on within 24 hours.

Thanks for reading, happy washing!