How I Deep Clean My Brushes

Hey!

Before: Dirty orange tinted brushes

To be quite honest, before I started this blog I had no interest in brushes. Make up went on well with my fingers, in fact I can do one hell of a smoky eye with my hands so why would I buy/need a brush?

However once I started blogging, I found myself lusting over brushes. I did own some brushes, a few Clinique ones from when I had my prom make up done, a few cast offs from my mum, but like I said I had no interest in them.

When my girl friends bought me the Real Techniques Core Collection and Powder brush for my birthday however, I was  thrilled! Now I intend to build up my collection but before that my current ones needed cleaning. Being new to the brush world, I was both apprehensive and scared to even put my brushes near water for fear of ruining them.  Also I had no idea what to wash them with. After some research, I found mild shampoo and hand washes seemed to be the general consensus (if not a proper brush cleaner).

Asda's own Hydrate and Cleanse handwash (the honey one)

This was the only hand wash I had to hand (geddit? ;)) so I decided to use that. Being honey, I hoped that it wouldn't be too harsh on the brushes and the anti bacterial part of it reassured me it would get rid of all the nasty bacteria. I don't believe either of those aspects are a necessity, as long as you aren't using anything too harsh, it should be fine.

I was unable to get pictures of the process I used (balancing a camera with one hand, running water and trying to rinse a brush seemed to be asking for trouble) so I'll do my best to explain it in easy steps.

1. Dampen brush with warm water

2. Pump your cleaner of choice onto the brush

3. Swirl on the palm of your hand to create a lather

4. Repeat if necessary (needed for my buffing brush)

5. Rinse (I found cold water got rid of the foam best)

6. Squeeze out majority of water, reshape and leave to dry (as you can see, mine are on a window sill on a fetching Daisy Duck flannel)

And that's it! Easy peasy! While researching I did see many warnings not to get water on the ferrule (the metal part connecting the bristles to the handle) as it may make your brush moult so be careful of that!

Hope this post was helpful! What do you use to wash your brushes?

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