Don’t forget to watch the video as well!
Get a cup of water. I like having a cup of water on the side and using running water for rinsing only to prevent excess water waste.
Get your soap. I like using a charcoal soap from Beautyblender, great options as well are: The Masters Brush Cleaner and Preserver which you can get at any art/craft store and plain Dr Bronner's castile soap, I prefer to have a soap that isn’t scented which helps to bring the chance of allergic reactions to a minimum.
As an option you can use a mini brush pad, that has ridges on it to help with sudsing and getting in between the bristles. I have it but tend to just use the palm of my hand.
First off I dip the brush, bristles vertically down, into the cup of water to make it wet.
Next use some soap and create a lather to wash out all the makeup residue.
I slide the bristles in between my thumb and pointing finger base starting from the base of the brush and following to the tips and apply some pressure to get rid of excess soap.
Finish up with rinsing under the running water.
RINSING Dos and DON’Ts:
DO hold your brush vertically to the water stream bristles DOWN!
You DON’T want any water/soap to get into your brush base and ferrule (the metal part of your brush).
You brush bristles are glued together inside of the ferrule and excess water there only helps soften up the glue which then makes the brush shed/loose hair and also bacteria grows much better in that softened sticky environment.
I check my bigger brushes for any left over soap suds, after rinsing them, by holding them up next to my ear and moving the bristles, there’s a very distinct soapy sound.
SOFTENING YOUR BRUSHES
Sometimes I would use a tiny amount of hair conditioner to soften my natural hair brushes. They don’t only start feeling smoother on the face but also look brand new.
Imagine using your natural hair as a professional makeup artist – you have to wash it after every use, sometimes every day so the hairs can start to dry out and eventually break. The dryer the hairs on the brush the more open the follicles of each of the hairs are – the more powder product the brush picks up and keeps in and the smoother and healthier the hairs are the less product it picks up and keeps in. The difference might not seem significant but it does play a part. To prevent that from happening I like to soften the hairs with a bit of conditioner. After soaping your brush, get rid of the excess soap and then apply a bit of conditioner for 30 sec - 1 minute to the brush and then rinse it altogether.
I would recommend doing it once a month for a professional makeup artist and if it’s your personal brush maybe once a quarter, you don’t want to overload your brushes with the conditioner too.
DRYING AND RESHAPING YOUR BRUSHED
You always want to dry your brushes horizontally – lay them flat on the towel, preferably with the head off the brush hanging off the edge a bit to provide for proper circulation of air which helps drying it much faster.
Sometimes from over washing the brushes tend to fan out and to prevent it I use brush guard which is a small net that keeps all the hairs pressed together when drying out. It does take a tiny bit more time to dry out this way and it is definitely worth it. The makeup brushes tend to be the most expensive and long-term investment in a kit of a professional makeup artist so taking proper care of them is extremely important.
Let me know if you find this article useful and if you’ve got any feedback/recommendations related to the topic.
You can find all my favorite product for taking care of my brushes and some tools I use here.
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