Cleaning your makeup brushes is something we all dread doing. It is something that even some of us do not do. It is absolutely crucial to make sure that you clean your brushes. Applying your makeup with dirty makeup brushes has long-term damage that you did not even realize. By not taking the time to clean your brushes, this can lead to breakouts, early aging, and blemishes. In addition to those threw negative side effects, your makeup does not go on as flawless when there is old makeup in your brushes. No matter how perfect your skin care routine is, if you have product build up in your brushes, you will still face the consequences of breakouts and early aging.

So, how often should you clean your makeup brushes?

Believe it or not studies have shown that washing your makeup brushes is still NOT enough. If you think about it, if you are someone that does makeup daily and you only wash your brushes once a month, there is so much product and bacteria in those brushes after an entire month of using it with no cleaning. If you are someone that does your makeup once a week, there is still enough product build up in the brushes that will show the downside of not cleaning them. Dermatologists have come out and said that you should wash your makeup brushes once a week. Yes… you read that correctly. You should wash your brushes once a week. This is especially important for your foundation and concealer brushes. For your smaller eyeshadow brushes, washing them twice a month is a good amount. Now that you understand that cleaning your makeup brushes is good for your skin, it also has shown to expand the life of your brushes. We all know that makeup brushes are not cheap! Cleaning your brushes, will make the bristles last longer and not fall off. Who can complain about not having to spend a paycheck on new brushes?

How to clean your makeup brushes:

Wet the brushes with warm water: Using warm water is important because if the water is too cold or too hot, the brushes can get damaged and the bristles will break off.
Put a drop of makeup cleaner onto your palm or silicone makeup pad if you have one. Silicone pads are good when cleaning your brushes because it is a bumpy surface that gets all the makeup off better than what your hand can do. If you do not have a silicone pad, that is not a big deal because any sort of cleaning is better than none.
Gently swirl the brush on the silicone pad or your hand. You should start to see all the makeup coming out of your brushes. Continue to do that until you no longer see makeup coming out of the brush.
Dip the brush under the water again. Squeeze out the brush as you are doing this to get all of the access water out of them.
Lay out your wet brushes on the edge of a table or counter. It is important to have ht bristles hang over the edge so they can dry in the correct shape. If you dry them on a towel, this will cause the brushes to form mildew.