A Clean Brush is a Happy Brush

For my first real blog post, I've decided to write about the importance of clean brushes and the products I've used to clean them!

As a makeup artist, I have a LOT of brushes. These are just a few from my mass collection. (PSA- you can never have too many brushes)

I clean my makeup kit brushes every day just because it's important to keep excellent hygiene for my customers. Not only does the makeup mix and get "gunky" on the brush, but it also transfers dead skin cells and oils from person to person. Yuck. Would you honestly want someone using their (for lack of a better word) germ-infested brush on your face? No. (Plus, let's be honest, clean brushes just look so pretty)

For my personal use brushes, I'm a little more lenient. I try to clean them once a week, or at least every other week. I clean them so often because, like my professional brushes, my dead skin cells and oil transfer on to the brush too, but instead of the germs getting on someone else's face, they re-touch my face day after day.  For people with acne-prone skin, this could be a reason why you break out so often.

Real life example: I remember when I first started makeup, I was about fourteen years old, and I would do my cousin's makeup for her dance recitals and competitions. Since I had no prior knowledge, I used my personal brushes on her face without washing them before or after. A week later, I started to notice my face was breaking out more than usual. It was then that I realized that the oil from her skin got on my brushes, and everyday for that previous week I had been transferring that oil onto my face.

Now do you see why you should clean your brushes?

For cleaning my brushes, so far I've used soap and warm water, MACs brush cleaner, and most recently I've been using London Brush Company's brush shampoo.

I love LBC's brush shampoo. My brushes feel (and smell) amazing after every time I use it. MAC's brush cleaner was ok, but I noticed my synthetic brushes felt really coarse after I washed them, and the makeup never really came out even after washing them two or three times. But to each his own, so I'll let you try out your own brush cleaners and see how they work!

The process to clean your brush is very simple. First you need to wet your brush with warm water, get some of the cleaner on it, then work it into a lather in the palm of your hand. Rinse it out, gently squeeze out the excess water, then lay it out flat to dry!

I'm not a dermatologist, but hopefully I've given you some insight on the importance of cleaning your brushes and the yucky-ness of what happens when you don't!

Until next time.

XOXO,
Allison.