Beauty Shortcut: Cleaning Your Brushes

Hey y'all! I hope you're having a wonderful week so far. I am absolutely thrilled because I am going to be hitting the spa tomorrow and getting a massage! I haven't gotten a massage in over 6 years, so saying that I'm excited is an understatement! They're going to have to roll me outta there, I'll be so relaxed! YAY.

Today I wanted to talk about beauty brush hygiene. To be perfectly (and embarrassingly) honest, I didn't really know this was as necessary as it actually is. Ladies, we should be washing our brushes once a week. ONCE. A. WEEK. I started using facial brushes when I began using BareMinerals foundation- I got a starter kit, which comes with a few different brushes, and wasn't educated on how to take care of them. Thankfully, when buying my second canister at Sephora, I thought to ask the sales girl how to and how frequently I should clean my brushes. To my delight and mortification she informed me that it should be a weekly occurrence. I am sure that I blushed a deep red because I hadn't cleaned them at all before asking this question. She showed me a few specialty (read: expensive) cleaning solutions and must have read my face before asking me if I would be interested in a shortcut.

She took me to the samples near the checkout counter and picked up the Philosophy purity face wash sample. This bottle was only $10 and she said it works to clean your brushes just as well as the expensive solutions! Although small, it should last a while with my intended use. She suggested pouring a dime sized amount into a glass, adding warm water, and stirring/soaking my brushes in there. After a short soak time, the brushes should be rinsed until the running water is clear again. I lay them out on a hand towel to dry, typically rotating them once after several hours to make sure they dry all the way through. Because the face wash is gentle and is designed to remove makeup from our faces, it works wonderfully to clean the brushes. Thank the Lord for this timely tip, because I had to wash them about 5 times to get the rinsing water to run clean. I cringe just thinking about that first time I cleaned them. But, it's totally worth it- I love the texture of my brushes after they're cleaned!

If you aren't already cleaning yours, I highly recommend the Philosophy wash. I am still working to get through my first small bottle and feel like it will continue to last me a long time. Happy cleaning!

How do you clean your make-up brushes? How often do you do so?