Makeup Brush Cleanse in 5 minutes

Here’s a question for you: when was the last time you washed your makeup brushes? Fess up!

Tell me in the comments if you’re brave! 😉

I have become much more serious about taking good care of my skin this year.

Never too late right? (see my skincare routine here) and washing my makeup brushes is a large part of this since they can get pretty gross. Today I’m sharing how I clean my makeup brushes and how often! It takes 5, maybe 10 minutes. It’s not hard — other than remembering to do it.

If you don’t clean them often, they can become FULL of bacteria from your skin, makeup bag, house and air. I mean, some bacteria is fine and life is full of it. But, you don’t want it to build up over time and transfer it to your skin. You stick that stuff on your face and then back on your makeup and then back to your face. That’s one cycle of nasty.

If you suffer from breakouts, this might even be one of the causes, or at least a reason your breakouts don’t clear as quickly as you want. (Something I can truly relate to)

I try to do this monthly but as I have become a bit more involved with my skin- I will confess, I do it weekly now.

Below are my general guidelines/goals; I think of it as liquids vs powders:

Foundation & concealer brushes: once a week!
Eyeshadow, blush, and bronzer brushes: 1-2x a month

Liquid products build up on brushes more easily which is why you should wash them more. But, if you’re washing those anyway, just wash them all! It takes just a few minutes – the key is remembering to do it! Set a reminder in your phone or do it whenever you replace the toilet paper or something! Just something to trigger a reminder.

I use the Beautycounter Charcoal Bar as the cleanser & the Amazon Silicone Makeup Remover Mat.

Let’s break it down:

Wet your brush with warm water and rinse as much product out as you can with water.
Then, wipe the brush head all back and forth on the bar of soap
I use this amazon makeup brush mat, suctioned to my sink to do the rinse work.
Just follow the brush strokes on the mat and the makeup rinses right off.
Rinse and repeat this process until the water runs clear and the soap is no longer the color of the residue from makeup
Squeeze the excess water out of the brushes. Use a towel for a second squeeze to get out even more water, but don’t pull on the bristles!
Lay flat to dry

So simple and SO effective!

I transitioned over to the Beautycounter’s Charcoal Bar

Here’s why:

It can be used for multiple things– body wash, facial cleanser + makeup brush cleanser.

It’s affordable and lasts forever — like 3-6 months- which for soap, is forever.

Charcoal products in particular are great for dirty jobs since charcoal traps dirt and makeup and removes them. And that’s exactly what we want for this scenario.

Since it’s Beautycounter, I know I’m not putting something with sketchy ingredients on my brush and then on my skin which I have done plenty of times in the past.

I always lay them flat and then put something that is raised under the handles so that the brush hairs are tilted down just a little. A hand towel is great for this. This way, the water won’t dry up in the handle of the brush or cause any residual soap to get into the glue, which can break it down over time. That can cause your brush to start to come apart and bristles to fall out.

Drying it this way also helps the bristles dry in the correct direction. Be as gentle as you can on your brush; the bristles are usually very fine!

my favorite brush selections: