De-Gunk Your Make-up Tools With These Easy Steps

We're absolutely aware that cleaning makeup tools is one hell of a pain!!! It takes an eternity to wash those brushes, sponges, tweezers, and eyelash curlers, it even takes longer to wait for them to dry out completely and an additional problem is when bristles start to shed from your expensive bushes… It takes a lot of time and energy to sanitize your tools. But, we can't lay anymore emphasis on how important it is to sanitize your tools every time after you use it! And if I give you a UV light to those unwashed makeup tools, you would never want them to touch your face, it would be totally gross.

Buying makeup brushes and sponges can be an expensive investment, so here is how you can maintain them with few easy steps:

1. After every use, you can clean your makeup brushes with a brush cleaning solution/liquid (Something like Sephora’s daily brush cleaner).
2. Once a week you will need to deep clean your brushes, now this takes a lot of patience and time, so I would recommend you to do it when you have some good amount of time to spare. It’s a very easy procedure to deep clean, and you’ll need the following things:

• A shallow bowl
• Baby shampoo or gentle clarifying shampoo
• Your sink
• Lint-free cloth

Procedure to deep clean your brushes is as follows:

• Soak your brushes in lukewarm water, rinse off the excess residue of makeup. Avoid rinsing the area where the head meets the handle, as this can loosen the glue over time and just concentrate on cleaning the bristles.
• Fill the bowl with lukewarm water and pour some shampoo, and gently swirl the tip of the brush in the water. You can swirl the brush on your palm too to work up the lather.
• Rinse the brush under running water and repeat the step at least 2-3 times until the water comes clean from the brush.
• Use a cloth to wipe the brush and excess water and remember to reshape the bristles of your brush.
• Lay them nicely and let it air dry.

3. Sponges like beauty blenders or real techniques accumulate a lot of bacteria over time, so it’s advisable to replace the sponge every 3-4 months. Avoid cleaning your sponges with salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide cleaners, it will just reduce the shelf life of your sponge, instead, use this easy method to sanitize your sponges for your next use, it is as follows:

• Use a mild bar soap.
• Wet your beauty blender or any sponge.
• Clean the sponge with the mild soap.
• Rinse till you remove all the dirt out of it.
• Pat dry your sponge and air dry it.

4. Clean your tweezers every time you use it, to avoid bacteria build up. Cleaning tweezers with water are not enough, use IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) with a cotton ball to remove the filth which is stored in it.
5. Cleaning eyelash curlers are extremely important since it has the maximum amount of mascara left over and a lot of bacteria. It is extremely easy to clean, here is how you can clean it:

• Use a cotton ball with makeup remover or baby oil and clean the rubber pad and the metal bar of the curler.
• Take a damp soft cloth which is dipped in soapy water and clean the makeup residue from the curler.
• Keep the eyelash curler under running water and clean the excess soapy residue on the curler, try to keep away the metal joints of the eyelash curler from the water as it may cause rust.
• Immediately pat dry the curler with a help of a towel and if your see makeup deposit on the towel, repeat the process.

However, not cleaning your makeup tools can lead to an unwanted build up on your makeup brushes which can lead to weakening the fibers of the bristles and loosening them too, which in turn will affect the makeup application. There are a number of things that can happen to your skin in a bad way if you don’t take care of your brushes and tools and keep using them in a unhygienic way on yourself or other, let us point out some harmful effects of it:

1. The constant build up on makeup brushes makes the bristles hard and change its form, from originally being soft to hard. Continued use of such kind of tools can lead to skin irritation and redness. Which you would want to cover it by applying more makeup.
2. Regularly using dirty makeup tools and putting it in your makeup product can lead to clogged pores, blemishes, textured skin, and acne.
3. One of the many reasons of causing conjunctivitis is sharing makeup, you never know whose eyelash curler or eyeliner brush is clean. So, we would strongly advise to at least not share your eye products.
4. Your brush can also catch some perilous skin bacteria such as E.coli (Escherichia Coli) and Staphylococcus as well as various fungus causing bacteria. These bacteria can cause some serious illness. It is better to take prevention than to just assume it can never happen to you. Try to avoid sharing makeup brushes too.
5. Development of premature aging, such as wrinkles can happen because of constant use of dirty brushes.

If a pimple or any of these skin infections are not good enough for you to start sanitizing your makeup tools immediately, then think of the amount of money you put in buying such amazing Kabuki Brushes, Beauty Blenders or Shu Uemura eyelash curler, it would just go to waste if you don’t take care of it properly. Cleaning your makeup tools is a crucial step towards the clean and healthy skin.

Yogini Hemani is a professional makeup artist and has received her training from Fat Mu. She also holds a cosmetology license from Christine Valmy School. 

If you want us to write on any particular subject on makeup or skincare put it down in the comment section or drop us an email at sayhello@vauntskincare.com. Our experts will deep dive for you!