How to clean make up brushes on a budget

Washing our make up brushes is one of those terribly boring tasks that we must do to avoid spreading bacteria all over our faces. ewww. I have friends who don't wash their brushes for months at a time, and although I am far from a clean freak, that is one thing that seriously grosses me out! For those of you who skip rinsing your brushes on a regular bases here is a little debrief on why it is so important, every time we spread product onto our faces with a brush, dead skin and the bacteria along with it gets stuck in the bristles of our brushes and festers over time, the more you do this without washing your brushes the layers of dirt and grime are then spread back onto your face and it can easily cause break outs. I do have spot prone skin so for me to keep a clear complexion washing my brushes regularly is essential. 

here are some of my dirty brushes before a good scrub

You can buy professional brush cleaning solutions (Mac and Sephora both do good ones), I have tried these in the past but I find Shampoo does just as good of a job and is much cheaper. I keep a bottle of Aussie shampoo to wash mine in, yet any gentle shampoo does the job. I've also find Asda's baby shampoo is really great for it too.

1. Dampen your brush with some lukewarm water first

2. Squirt a little bit of shampoo onto the end of the brush and then gently rub it  into the centre of all the bristles, adding a little bit more water if necessary to give it a bit more of a lather

3. Squeeze out the excess product from the bristles, rinse your brush under the tab and voila! watch all of the shampoo and foundation disappear down the plug hole (you might need to repeat steps 2 and 3 if you have left your brushes for a little too long)

4. Then after you have admired your wonderfully clean new brushes you can lay them out to dry, make sure you lay them down flat over a towel and don't pop them back upright until they are completely dry to avoid the water getting down into the very base of the bristles as over time this can loosen the glue holding them all in.

and afterwards, lovely and clean!

Denser brushes like this powder brush and foundation brush usually take a bit more of of a deep cleanse!

Interestingly my more affordable brushes like real techniques are usually a lot easier to clean,  my mac brushes (such as this sparkly blusher brush) cling onto the product a little more.

Thank you for reading, and happy brush scrubbing!

Emma xxx