How to: Wash and Dry your Makeup Brushes

Washing your make-up brushes is something that everyone does in their own way. There must be a million and one different ways that every one of us washes our brushes; but I thought I'd show you guys how I wash my make-up brushes and give a how to on how you can use my technique! 

So here is what you will need:

• Dirty make-up brushes
• A towel or flannel
• Johnson's baby shampoo or any baby shampoo
• An anti bacterial soap
• A conditioner, if you can try and get one for colored hair

So here is what you need to do!

1) Grab your Shampoo, anti bacterial soap and conditioner. I'll explain to you what each one of these is for. The baby shampoo is to get rid of surface make-up on the brush and because it designed for babies heads it won't be too abrasive on your make-up brushes. The anti bacterial soap is to get rid of the bacteria that gathers up in your brushes, this basically gets that really deep clean for your brushes. The last product, the conditioner, is to moisturize the brushes as the shampoos lathering effect and the soap that you will use will strip the brushes hair so this will help the bristles remain soft. This will also help to shape the brush back to how you want it. The reason why it is preferable to have a colored hair conditioner is that these conditioners are specifically designed to restore moisture to dry damaged hair from coloring so it will therefore fully restore the moisture in your brushes. Also to those that have make-up brushes with dyed bristles it will help keep the color.

2) Next step is to get your brushes, take the brush you want to clean and wet the bristles. DO NOT get the bit that attaches the bristles to the brush wet. This is called the ferrell and holds all the bristles in place with glue. If you manage to get water in there over time the ferrell will swell with the water and either loosen the ferrell from the brush, crack the ferrell or loosen the brush hair so that your brush will shed hair more. So the number one tip throughout the washing process is to avoid water going near the ferrell.

3) Once your brush has been under the tap its time to grab your baby shampoo and on the palm of your hand or a plate put about a coins width amount on your hand; more for larger brushes, less for smaller brushes. Then grab your anti bacterial soap and squirt two-three amounts of this on to your hand/plate. Now grab your brush and work it in to the solution in a circular motion.

4) Once you have worked the solution in to your brush its time to rinse the brush. Put the brush under running water, feel free to use your hands to work the suds and solution out of the brush; just make sure your hands are clean. If the brush is still dirty make the solution up again and repeat the circular motion and do this until the brush is completely clean. You will probably need to repeat on brushes such as your foundation brush.

5) Next step is to condition the brushes! You put the conditioner over the exterior of the brush and let it settle for the same time you would on normal hair; in this time I usually wash my other brushes.

6) After you have let the conditioner settle on the brush once again all you do is rinse the brush. This should e easier to rinse off than the shampoo and only take about ten seconds to clean off.

Finished!

Now your brushes are clean! Now its time to let your brushes dry! Here are my top tips for drying your brushes!

• Dry your brushes on a tilt - as you can see in the above picture all of my brushes are tilted up (yes on an ornament and on a trinket box) it doesn't matter on what just as long as they are tilted. Lay them flat or lay them stood up on there bottom with the brush facing to the ceiling and the water will get in to the ferrell; and we know this isn't good!
• Place down a clean towel or flannel - this is just so the bristles are touching a clean surface
• Check your brushes as they are drying - this is so you can check that the shape of the brush is drying correctly, with clean hands you can keep re-molding the shape as they are drying.
• Give plenty of time for your brushes to dry - although the outer exterior of the brush may be dry inside the bristles may still be drying so allow extra time. The last thing you want to do is put a brush in a brush roll/wrap and trap that moisture inside the brush and possibly send it into the ferrell, this will also happen if you stand the brush up as gravity will bring the water down in to the ferrell. Leaving moisture in the brush will allow mildew to develop and ruin the brush.
• Clean your brushes regularly - I recommend once a week, this is obviously different if you are a make-up artist, but I would recommend once a week to reduce breakouts on the skin and sebum build up. 

So that is how I wash my make-up brushes! How do you wash your make-up brushes? What do you use? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to follow the blog!

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