It’s not a flashy subject, not one that most people like to think about often, but it is noteworthy to all artists and beauty enthusiasts that a good spray brush cleaner and a good brush cleaner A deep cleansing brush is an absolute essential in every beauty connoisseur’s bag of tricks. Read on to find out how to make your own perfect brush spray and deep brush cleaner, and for tips and tricks on how to perform this essential function to make your brushes last, even cheap ones. It will not only protect your brushes, but also your investment in them and ultimately your investment in the health of your skin.

Brushes should ideally be spray-cleaned between skin contact and color refilling, regardless of whether it’s the same color or not, to preserve cosmetic items in your kit or personal collection. The skin carries a large number of bacteria, oils and dead cells, as well as dirt and debris at times. In fact, researchers are now discovering that the 500 million bacterial cells in every square inch of the body vary from one part of the body to another, and that may have implications for skin health.

Personally, I spray my brushes with Clinique’s brush spray or a brush cleaning spray that I make with equal parts 70% isopropyl alcohol, olive oil, glycerin, and disinfectant (available at any piercing supply store or Claire’s accessory store as a cleaner for ear piercings).

Then I spray them again, once clean, with a mixture of 99% isopropyl alcohol mixed with about 15 drops of tea tree oil and 40 drops of grapeseed oil, shaken in a 4 oz bottle. bottle, or just bactine, and then I slide the brush back and forth across a clean, dry cloth until it’s dry and free of the final spray. All of these methods will work to disinfect a brush. Note that pure isopropyl should never be used in a brush, as this will dry out the bristles of a natural hair brush and destroy them, and may dissolve the glue in the ferrule of brushes of all materials, depending on the the saturation. It is very important to spray and not wet the brush with any of these methods. Doing otherwise can ruin your investment in brushes.

The plus isopropyl oils option works best for me as a brush sanitizer while working on cosmetic application because the tea tree and grapeseed oils moisturize and sanitize the bristles, and the alcohol evaporates, leaving only the oils. , and therefore conditioning the brush while disinfecting it.

It is very important to note that these methods will not strip your brushes of product. They will only protect your skin and cosmetic products from cross contamination. You should clean your brushes weekly if you want them to be optimally clean for skin health and good brush texture, but keep in mind that doing it incorrectly will drastically reduce the life of your brush. Read the tips below to make sure your brushes last a long time and don’t contribute to skin problems.

If you scroll through the vast majority of beauty blogs, artists and beauty enthusiasts alike will tell you to use baby shampoo on your brushes, but I think this is a poor solution for cleaning brushes. Two things make this a less than stellar idea. One, baby shampoo is usually fragranced and there is no need for fragrance to be deposited on the brushes. Two, the baby shampoo contains lidocaine to achieve its tear-free claims, and you don’t need that on your brushes either. A prescriptive cosmetic education executive once gave me the best advice I’ve ever received for brushing: “If you wouldn’t use it to cleanse your face, don’t use it to shampoo your brushes.” You would rarely use baby shampoo as a facial cleanser, so don’t use it to clean your brushes. You may think that soap washes off completely, but it leaves behind deposits of most of the ingredients in it, and that goes right onto your face. A better idea is to make your own brush cleaner. Whole Foods 365 brand unscented body wash is perfect for this, and note that I would use it as a face wash after I’ve checked the ingredients, because it’s that gentle.

that’s how you do itHow To: Empty about 1/4 cup from the top of the soap bottle, then add 30 drops of tea tree oil and 1 1/2 tablespoons of grapeseed or olive oil to the shampoo bottle and shake. This provides a nice and very inexpensive brush cleaner.

This brush cleaner will work for most uses, but if you’re using special effects, removing stickers and the like from a brush will be virtually impossible using this method alone. For these artists, it is imperative to have a product called “bond off” or medical adhesive remover in the kit, as well as the 99% isopropyl plus oils in a spray bottle. Using this on brushes can sometimes even remove liquid latex, which is known as tea product that will absolutely destroy a brush. Same with chewing gum and pros aid and all other adhesives, which will ruin anything they come into contact with. The key for these artists is to use a brush cleaning spray before these products fully set. If the adhesives or latex are still wet, you have a better chance of getting them out of the brush. If it’s set and the brush is hard to the touch, soaking it for about a minute in a capful of either solution, then washing with a deep-cleaning brush cleaner and repeating as needed should help, and this is true for all alcohol activated adhesives and make-ups. stuck in brushes. After cleaning your brush with these products, be sure to rinse them thoroughly, maybe two or three times, to avoid a buildup of these solvents on your brush, as they can irritate your skin.

Side note: I’m not a fan of using any of the above products to remove face stickers, but one of the unfortunate things about using special effects is that the products are often hard to remove and harsh on the skin, and sometimes it is necessary to use a solvent as a bond-off. It is very important to use a good nourishing facial cleanser and a great non-irritating moisturizer for dry skin that does not contain parabens or toxins after putting any of these products on anyone’s face, because irritation and dermatological sequelae can be detrimental to the skin. delicate skin. face skin. Using a moisturizer made for drier skin, regardless of skin type, is essential, because anything made to fight oil will actually make the skin oilier in this case, as the lipid barrier in the dermis is compromised by removing the adhesives in any way, using solvents. Or not.

Finally, it is very important to know the method of washing brushes and how to dry them. You can quickly ruin a brush if you wash it wrong or dry it wrong.

The best thing to do is to wash your brushes in two flat-bottomed cylindrical cups (Rocks cups from a supply bar work perfectly) and fill one with equal parts warm (not hot) water and brush cleaner, and the other with clean, warm rinse water. . Make sure that water does not get into the metal part of the brush, known as the ferrule. The glues inside the ferrule will break down and disintegrate the more they come into contact with water, so it’s important not to soak a brush or fill the cup you’re using with water. Swirl the brush around in the soap and water solution, and then remove and shampoo by rotating in the palm of your hand in a circular motion, making sure not to crush the bristles hard against your hand. Squeeze out the soap by flattening the bristles and repeat until you don’t see tons of color coming out during the squeezing part of this process. Then rinse and squeeze with the same method, until the water you squeeze comes out clear and without soap bubbles. You may have to refill the rinse cup each time, and sometimes it helps if you let the water run, or if you have a double sink, cap one side and keep one side full of clean water, and pour out the dirty water rinse in the other. Refill by immersing the cup in the clean water side after lightly rinsing it under running water.

Once you’ve washed all your brushes, drying them is easy. Lay a towel on a counter. Squeeze the water out of your brushes and put it in the sink to drain, then shape the bristles into a flattened, tapered point and dry flat. DO NOT DO dry your brushes standing up, as this will ruin the glue in the ferrule.

I like to dry my brushes overnight, as brushes easily dry this way in the desert climate I live in. The more humid your environment is, the more you’ll want to make sure you’re getting as much water out as possible. Not only will this protect the glues used to hold the bristles in the ferrule, but it will also prevent mold from forming on the brushes. If you have a real problem with mold where you are, I recommend turning the brush in a circular motion on a towel after squeezing, without crushing the bristles, and sharpening the brushes with a chisel after you’re sure they’re sharp. almost dry with the towel swirl method.

Keep in mind that I use an extensive set of brushes and get new ones all the time, but I have brushes that I got as gifts with sets I bought when I worked at cosmetic counters as a makeup artist in the late 90’s that I never expected to keep but that They have lasted me over 15 years using this washing method. I subscribe to this method with an almost religious fervor for that very reason.

I hope this brush care tutorial encourages you to embrace new methods of caring for your brushes and gives you a couple of options on what to use to do so without costing you a ton of money to do so or introducing toxins and parabens. to your skin unexpectedly.

Greetings and happy brushing,

~Audra