Righty then ladies, time for us to tell the truth.
Do you honestly, hand on your heart swear that you wash your makeup brushes after every single use? This, whether using cream, liquid or powder makeup.
After. Every. Single. Use.
Honestly? 😉 I was thinking about this after reading some of your comments and fears or concerns about using a brush to apply your foundation and I wanted to know what the general opinion was. Naturally, you get my honest opinion too! 😉
Well, I don’t.
I think ideally, we are supposed to do so, especially if we use liquid or cream products like foundation and concealer. This is something that is drilled into most of us – wash your makeup brushes! Every beauty blogger tells you that but hmm… how honest is everyone at doing it? 😉
Truth to tell, I’m a right slacker when it comes to washing my makeup brushes. Sure, I do it and if I’m hardworking about it, I do it once a week. But if I forget to do it on a weekend, there it stays until the next weekend.
From a hygiene point of view, its yucks, isn’t it? That explains why I do have a myriad of brushes that serve a similar purpose 😛 Its to tide me over the times when my brushes start looking skanky and yucky.
So, how do I change eye colours or cheek colours daily? Won’t the colours be muddy and awful switching from one colour to a different colour day to day? Here’s a quick trick you can employ if you are faced in this situation (applicable when using powder products. It doesn’t work with cream or liquid stuff).
- Take a clean piece of tissue paper.
- Run your eye or cheek brush over the tissue paper a few times until the colour lightens or until there is no colour on the tissue.
- Use as normal
I use this little trick because I don’t wear the same eye or cheek colour every day and this allows me to use my favourite eye and cheek brushes daily until the next wash. Besides, I do wonder if washing a brush that often can be good for it?
I have read of people using brush cleaners on a daily basis – you can get them from most makeup brands, MAC being a popular one. They dry quickly so you can wash them in the evening and have clean brushes for the morning. Some people make their own and yet others use wet wipes or makeup remover wipes (instead of tissue paper) and run their brushes over them as I’ve outlined above.
What do you do? Do you do a big brush wash once a week or when the blue moon shines? Or do you wash them daily after every use?
Personally, because I’m the only one using my brushes, I am not too fussed if I don’t wash them everyday. If you share your brushes (and you should not be doing that!) then yes, washing them after every use will be a wise move.
Paris B
I wash my concealer brush every single use and I’ve couples of concealer brushes on standby mode, hahaha~~ I didn’t apply liquid foundation or else I’ll wash it every single use too. I wash all other brushes thoroughly every week.
Waah… everyone is so hardworking! I feel like a lump 😛
I’m not that hardworking actually~ It’s simply because of the dirt brush break me up, especially my undereyes (which is really abnormal area to have acne…).
I try to wash my foundation and concealer brush after each use. If I fail, then definitely after 2 uses and no more! The same goes to eyeshadow brushes. I’m a bit more relaxed about my blush/contour/powder brushes, but I try to get to them once every week as well! I don’t wear makeup every day, so that makes it easier. I keep thinking I need new foundation and concealer brushes in rotation though!
Sometimes I wish I worked from home so I had the time to wash my brushes after use but then I’d never wear any makeup so there’d be no brushes to wash! LOL! 😀 But yeah, I think once a week is ideal and regularly for cream products brushes. I should be a bit more diligent it seems. Everyone is! >.<
I spot clean all of my brushes after every single use because i have a very sensitive skin. And i will make sure that I deep clean them every week.
Good on you Farha, because sensitive skin will definitely benefit from using clean brushes 🙂
No, i don’t. I’m pretty much the slacker this year when it comes to washing these guys. I’ve only washed them once this year. Oh noooo…..no…… 🙁
I’ve seen this spray-on disinfectant brush wash thing at Sephora. Perhaps i should get one of it to try out.
Yikes! Your mission this weekend, Lisa is to put all your brushes into the sink and give them a good scrub a dub! 😀
Yesss! I have resolved to do it too upon reflecting on my slothful behavior. 🙂 Been too caught up on other stuff to realize this. This is why i love your blog so much. It wakes me up at times. haha.
Aww very happy to be a wake up alarm! 😀
Every other day I will put Bioderma on cotton pads and clean all my brushes like that. Once a week I will take them all and wash carefully! I wish I did it more often with cheek/face brushes, I dont notice any acne or irritation but I feel like it could cause that.
Bioderma on cotton pads! Catherine, I think that’s genius! 😀 I use Bioderma in the evenings now to remove my face makeup so I suppose I could use another cotton pad and do some spot cleaning before hitting the shower 😀
I used to do that when I was using liquid foundation. Now I don’t use it that often anymore, so the answer is no 😀 I wash all my brushes once a week. Sometimes every 1.5 week if I don’t get lazy on Sunday 😛
Haha at least you have a 1.5 week thing, I am usually either 1 week or 2. Mid week I’m just too tired after work 🙁
Generally I do not wash brushes every day, with the exception of some that get particularly mucky like the one I use for concealer and the one I use for eyeliner. I also use a baby wipe to clean them off a bit after the make up is applied. I’ll usually wash the most used brushes weekly. And my big secret for a cleaner is a bit of Dawn dish washing liquid. It breaks up the oils easily, isn’t drying, is easy to rinse out and leaves no perceptible residue. It is safe for use on living animals and many fiber artists use it for cleaning their natural fibers. I figure that if I feel comfortable using it on the cashmere I work with, it will be fine for my brushes. 🙂
Gosh that’s a great tip! I don’t know if we have the same product here but you’re right. If it works on cashmere that is so delicate, it could very well be safe for our brushes too!
I love it when you do these kinds of posts! Like most of us, I hate cleaning my brushes, and like you, I have multiple face brushes, eye brushes, and the like, so I don’t have to clean frequently. For the in-between-soap-and-water-cleanings, I use rubbing alcohol that’s 90 proof or higher to quickly spot clean. It disinfects and breaks down all the junk quickly! (This is best for synthetic bristles. For natural bristles, it can be drying, though mine are fine.)
Love this discussion!
Thank you Laura and I’m glad you enjoyed this! 😀 I’ve realised that having multiple brushes has actually made me lazier than I should be and it actually is harder to clean the brushes after products like cream or liquid products have soaked in. I should start to be a bit more hardworking and do some spot cleaning between washing. Really, I’m sure my brushes will thank me for it >.<
Hi^5! haha, but t’is not a hi-5 for something worth being proud of. =P I am as slack as you, if not more slack, when it comes to washing brushes.
I do the wipe with tissue until no more colour thing too. And I spot clean with my Sephora spray when I remember. This “remember” can range from three times a week to weeks, and months!
I think for me, it depends on how frequent I do eye makeup. I am so crazily busy at work, that I only use a foundation brush and a blush brush everyday, hardly touch the eye. And I have tonnes of foundation brushes, so I pretty much use one till I can see the foundation sticking on it, then I switch. Needless to say, I have tonnes of blush brushes too.
And then I deep wash when I get my holidays! Whee! hahaha. It’s so funny how I use my off-days to do cleaning. This kind of happens twice a year. So I guess, if you want to ask how often I wash with soap, it would be twice a year.
For some reason, I see the need to clean eye brushes almost every other day. So I will conveniently spot clean my blush brushes if I use loads of eyeshadows.
If all these makes sense… …
Like you, I spot clean my eye brushes, even if just to run it over tissue paper, every other day but my face brushes not as frequently 😛 I think its because we know that dirty eye brushes mean the colours will be muddy when applied, but for foundation, we just use the same one all the time anyway lol.
[mumble mumble] global wash for all brushes with Dove soap about once a month – (brown paper bag over the face).
Tried using a brush for the liquid foundation – after 2 days, gave up and went back to fingers. I find then finger method faster – but then, I noticed the SA at the Lunasol counter cringe when she saw how “zealous” were my finger strokes when I tested the primer/foundation on my face.. 3 weeks later and that same brush I used for 2 days has not been used since – but also not washed yet. (crawl under stone and hide)
Hahaha… Is there space under that paper bag for 2? 😉 looks like its brush washing time at Casa JK this weekend!
I washed my brush as often as every week esp foundation brush cuz I m worried of the bacteria lurking inside yet I m not that hardworking as drying d brush seems take very long as I only hv one set of brushes. So I found method. Don’t use brushes instead I use good cheapo sponge. So when is real dirty after many use I just throw it away. 🙂
Haha that’s smart, if it works, it works 🙂 I haven’t had much luck with sponges because they get so grubby so quickly and I get really irritated when I can’t clean it LOL
Oh dear! If I really had to wash them every single day, I would trow them in the garbage, and devote myself to use finger for the rest of my life 🙂 So, foundation brushes I usually wash them every week , ahem.. or two. Yeah… I know. The rest of the lot goes with them every two washes. I have tried Mac cleasing brushes but I do not really see the point of it, just a waste of money, it does not perform well enough for in my opinion. I prefer to clean them with a tissue just as you mention. Finally, whenever I wash them, I use Shiseido tsubaki head spa extra cleansing with essential oil, wich gets rid of every single bit of oil and foundation.
Haha I hear you Pipa! I think few of us have the patience or the time to actually wash our brushes after every single use. I always tell myself its just me using it so its not as bad as if I were sharing brushes. And honestly, that would be rather icky won’t it? 😛
I wash my brushes once a week but i have enough brushes to do a mid-week change for the face brushes and daily change for the eye brushes. =D