Mid-Week Beauty Masterclass: Taking Care of Your Make-Up Brushes and Tools

Good morning everyone!! Today we will be taking a look at how to care for your make-up brushes and tools to make the utmost of them.  I will be sharing with you how I store and care for mine including cleaning routine etc... I hope you find this post helpful!  For a general idea of brushes and what are their best uses, please click here.

Storage

Let's start with storage... I always store my clean brushes in their brush roll and with the dust cover on.  When dirty, I like to keep them in a little pot I have on my vanity shelf but I still like to keep their dust cover on to prevent dust from adhering to the bristles.  When travelling, I suggest you take your brushes with the dust covers and put them in a case so that they won't get damaged.

All my brushes in their brush roll (top) and the pot I keep them in when dirty

Cleaning

I thoroughly clean my brushes once a week with Brush Shampoo while in between uses, I keep them as clean as possible by wiping them on a cloth dampened with a little Brush Cleaner.  Here are a few tis to bear in mind when washing your brushes to avoid them shedding hairs and coming off:

1. Always wash your brushes in lukewarm water and keep the bristles facing down so that the soap solution won't go into the ferrule and dissolve the glue in there.

2. Gently squeeze the wet bristles in a clean towel to absorb as much water as possible and hence cut down on drying time.

3. Leave the brushes to dry in a horizontal position so as to protect the glue inside the ferrule.

4. Make sure you rinse all the soap thoroughly from the bristles so as to prevent bacteria from flourishing in your brushes.  Also, never store away your brushes while still damp as this also creates the perfect environment for bacteria to breed. 

5. Here's a little tip to save water and brush shampoo... clean your brushes with some brush cleaner first to remove as much product as possible.  This will in turn lead to less rinsing time (hence saving water) and less use of shampoo (saving on it and ensuring you remove it all!).

6. To clean brushes used for foundation, cream eyeliners, lipstick and other creamy products, if shampoo is not enough, simply pour a little baby oil in the palm of your dry hands and dip the brushes into it.  The oil will lift the product in no time and you can then wash your brushes like all others.  I use this method for lip brushes, cream eyeliner brushes and concealer brushes and I can confirm it totally works!

Taking Care of other tools

Some people prefer to use make-up sponges and puffs over brushes to apply certain products.  If you are one of these people, make sure you replace your sponges every so often as these tend to house a lot of bacteria. You can use the same cleaning routine as for brushes to clean them but always remember to replace them frequently.

Eyelash curlers and tweezers are also two of the most widely used tools in the make-up routine of many women.  May sure you clean yours thoroughly to avoid any nasty eye infections and always store them back in their pouches.

Finally, sharpeners have to be cleaned thoroughly with a little antiseptic spray to remove all left-over traces of other colours and prevent contaminating your pencils with bacteria.  For this reason, it is best if you clean your sharpeners both before and after use.

I hope you found this post useful ladies and if you have any more tips on how you take care of your brushes/tools, do post them in the comments below :)