Keeping brushes clean

As a makeup artist, I clean my brushes after every use in order to not transfer any germs between clients, but the brushes I use on my OWN face need washing too on a regular basis to keep them nice, and to keep my skin healthy. Any mild shampoo can be used to wash your brushes. A lot of people use baby shampoo, I personally use Suave shampoo. its cheap, works well, and smell great. I've been asked what the proper way is to wash your brushes, so I put together this post.

I'm out of Suave, but was given a bottle of Trader Joes shampoo, so I tried that out this time. I LOVED it. It cleaned really well and had a nice mild smell that didn't stick to the brushes.

The Shampoo

My dirty brushes

When washing your brushes, keep them angled down. This keeps water from dripping up into the ferule (part that holds your bristles together on the handle) and can loosen the glue and eventually make it fall off.

Wet your bristles and gently swirl your brush in a bit of shampoo in the palm of your hand. Be careful to not smash the brush, just lightly swirl, rinse well. Cream products, gel liners, and black products can sometimes need a second washing. Rinse well. Roll up a hand towel halfway and rest your brush with the handle on the roll to dry (so that the handle is higher than the brush head).

Rolled hand towel.

Lay flat to dry.

Gently swirl in palm.

For large brushes like powder or blush brushes, after rinsing, gently squeeze to remove excess water, the twirl the brush (head down) quickly between your palms. Excess water will spray out and refluff your brush so that it dries in the proper shape, then lay on towel to dry.

I had to get a second towel, I ran
out of space! Here they are, all
laid out to dry.

Dry, packed up, and ready to shoot!

I recommend washing your brushes at least twice a month. I try to do my personal brushes once a week as I use a lot of gel and cream products.