It’s not a flashy subject, not one most people like to think about often, but it’s worth noting to all artists and beauty enthusiasts out there that a good brush cleaner spray and a good brush cleaner brushes for deep cleaning 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 so that your brushes last, even the cheap ones. You’ll not only protect your brushes, but your investment in them, and ultimately your investment in the health of your skin.
Ideally, brushes should be spray-cleaned between skin contact and color reloading, regardless of color match or not, to preserve cosmetic items in your kit or personal collection. Skin carries a lot of bacteria, oils, and dead cells, as well as dirt and debris on occasion. In fact, researchers are now finding 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 Brush Spray or Brush Cleaner Spray. I make myself with equal parts 70% isopropyl alcohol, olive oil, glycerin, and disinfectant (available at any piercing supply store or Claire’s Accessories as ear piercing cleaner).
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 dry and free of the final spray. All of these methods will work to sanitize a brush. Note that pure isopropyl should never be used on a brush, as this will dry out and destroy the bristles of a natural hair brush, and may dissolve the glue in the ferrule of brushes of all materials, depending on the saturation. It is very important to spray and not wet the brush with any of these methods. Doing otherwise can ruin your brush investment.
The isopropyl oils plus option works best, for me, as a brush sanitizer while working on the 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 are not going to 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 this incorrectly will dramatically 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 walk 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 brush cleaning solution. Two things make this a less than stellar idea. One, baby shampoo is usually fragranced and fragrance does not need to be deposited on the brushes. Two, the baby shampoo contains lidocaine to achieve its tear-free claims, and you don’t need that in your brushes, either. A prescriptive cosmetics education executive once gave me the best brush-washing advice I’ve ever gotten: “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 away completely, but it leaves behind deposits of most of the ingredients in it, and that goes straight to your face. A better idea is to make your own brush cleaner. Whole Foods 365 Brand Fragrance Free Shower Gel is perfect for this, and keep in mind that you would use it as a face wash after you’ve gone through the ingredients, because it’s that gentle.
this is how you do it: Empty about 1/4 cup from the top of the soap bottle, then add 30 drops of tea tree oil and one and a half tablespoons of grapeseed or olive oil to the shampoo bottle and shake. This provides a very inexpensive and pleasant brush cleaner.
This brush cleaner will work for most uses, but if you’re using special effects, removing adhesives and the like from a brush will be next to 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 gum and pro aide and all other adhesives, they will ruin anything they come in contact with. The key for these artists is to use a brush cleaner spray before these products fully set. If the adhesives or latex are still wet, you have a better chance of getting them off 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 it 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 well, maybe two or three times, to prevent a buildup of these solvents on the brush, as they can irritate your skin.
Side note: I’m not a fan of using any of the above products to remove adhesives from your face, but one of the unfortunate things about using special effects is that the products are often difficult to remove and harsh on the skin, and sometimes it is necessary to use a solvent such as bond-off. It is very important to use a good nourishing facial cleanser and a great non-irritating moisturizer for dry skin that is paraben and toxin free after putting either of these products on anyone’s face, because irritation and dermatological sequelae can be detrimental to delicate skin. face skin. Using a moisturizer made for drier skin, no matter your skin type, is essential, because anything made to combat oil will actually make the skin oilier in this case, as the lipid barrier of the dermis breaks down. compromised when adhesives are removed in any way, using solvents. Or not.
Finally, it is very important to know the method of washing the brushes and how to dry them. You can quickly ruin a brush if you wash it poorly or dry it poorly.
The best thing to do is wash your brushes in two flat-bottomed cylindrical tumblers (Rocks tumblers from a supply bar work perfectly) and fill one with equal parts warm (not hot) water and brush cleaner, the other with clean, warm rinse water. . Make sure that no water gets on the metal part of the brush, known as the ferrule. The glues inside the splint will break down and disintegrate the more they come in contact with water, so it’s important not to drench a brush or fill the cup you’re using with water. Swirl the brush in the soap and water solution, and then take it out and shampoo by rotating it in the palm of your hand in a circular motion, making sure not to squash 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 using the same method, until the water you squeeze out comes out clear and free of 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, plug 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 rinsing it lightly under running water.
Once you’ve washed all your brushes, drying them is easy. Place 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. NO Dry your foot brushes, as this will ruin the glue on the splint.
I like to dry my brushes overnight as the brushes dry out easily this way in the desert climate I live in. The more humid your environment, the more you’ll want to make sure you get as much water out as possible. This will not only 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 it is, I recommend rotating the brush in a circular motion on a towel after squeezing it, without crushing the bristles, and sharpening the brushes with a chisel after making sure they are 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 do have brushes that I got as a gift in shopping sets when I was working 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 for what to use to do it without costing you a ton of money to do it or introducing toxins and parabens. to your skin unexpectedly.
Regards and happy brushing,
~Audra