It is not a flashy subject, it is not one that most people like to think about often, but it is noteworthy for all artists and beauty enthusiasts that a good brush spray cleaner and a good brush cleaner Deep cleaning brushes are an absolute essential in every beauty expert’s bag of tricks. Read on to find out how to make your own perfect spray brush and deep brush cleaner, and for tips and tricks on how to perform this essential function to make your brushes last, even the cheapest ones. It will protect not only your brushes, but also your investment in them and ultimately your investment in the health of your skin.
Ideally, brushes should be spray cleaned between touching skin and recharging with color, regardless of whether it is the same color or not, to preserve cosmetic items in your personal kit or collection. The skin contains a large amount of bacteria, oils and dead cells, as well as dirt and debris at times. In fact, researchers are now discovering 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.
I personally clean my brushes with Clinique brush spray or brush cleaner spray, I prepare in equal parts with 70% isopropyl alcohol, olive oil, glycerin, and disinfectant (available at any piercing supply or at the store). Claire’s accessories like 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 4 oz. bottle, or just bactine, and then brush back and forth on a clean, dry cloth until dry and free of 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 the bristles on a natural hair brush and destroy them, possibly dissolving the glue in the ferrule on brushes of all materials, depending on saturation. It is very important to spray and not wet the brush with any of these methods. Doing otherwise can destroy your brush investment.
The Isopropyl plus oils option works best, for me, as a brush sanitizer, while working on the cosmetic application, because the tea tree and grapeseed oils moisturize and disinfect the bristles, and the alcohol evaporates, leaving only the oils. and thus conditions the brush while you disinfect it.
It is very important to note that these methods will not leave your brushes without 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 it the wrong way will reduce the life of your brush drastically. Read the tips below to make sure your brushes last a long time and don’t contribute to skin problems.
If you go through the vast majority of beauty blogs, both artists and beauty enthusiasts will tell you to use baby shampoo on your brushes, but I think this is a bad solution for brush cleaning. Two things especially make this a less than stellar idea. One, baby shampoo is generally fragranced and the fragrance does not need to settle on your brushes. Two, the baby shampoo contains lidocaine to achieve its tear-free claims, and you don’t need it on your brushes either. An education executive at Prescriptives Cosmetics once gave me the best advice I’ve ever gotten for washing brushes: “If you wouldn’t use it to cleanse your face, don’t use it to shampoo your brushes.” Rarely would anyone use baby shampoo as a facial cleanser, so don’t use it to clean your brushes. You may think soap washes off completely, but it leaves 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 checked the ingredients, because it’s that mild.
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 use special effects, removing stickers and the like from a brush will be next to impossible using this method alone. For these artists, it is imperative to keep a product called “bond off” or medical adhesive remover in the kit, as well as 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. The same goes for chewing gum and professional assistant and all other adhesives, which will ruin anything they come in contact with. The key for these artists is to use a brush cleaner spray before these products dry completely. If the adhesives or latex are still wet, you have a better chance of getting them off the brush. If it sets, and the brush is hard to the touch, soaking for about a minute in a capful of either solution and then washing with a deep cleaning brush cleaner and repeating as needed should help, and this is true for all alcohol activated adhesives and makeup. stuck in brushes. Make sure that after cleaning the brush with these products, you rinse it well, maybe two or three times, to avoid buildup of these solvents on the brush as they can irritate the skin.
Side note: I’m not a fan of using any of the above products to remove stickers from my face, but one of the unfortunate things about using special effects is that the products are often difficult to remove and harmful to the skin, as Sometimes it is necessary to make use of a solvent like bond-off. It is very important to use a good nourishing facial cleanser and an excellent non-irritating moisturizer for dry skin that does not contain parabens or toxins after applying any of these products to anyone’s face, because irritation and dermatological side effects can damage the skin. delicate skin. facial skin. Using a moisturizer for drier skin, no matter your skin type, is essential, because anything done to fight oil will actually make the skin oilier in this case, as the lipid barrier of the dermis is is compromised by removing adhesives 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 ruin a brush quickly by washing or drying it improperly.
The best thing to do is wash the brushes in two flat-bottomed cylindrical glasses (rock glasses from a bar supply actually work perfectly) and fill one with equal parts warm (not hot) water and brush cleaner, and the other with clean, warm water to rinse. . Make sure that water does not get on the metal part of the brush, known as the splint. The glues inside the splint will break and disintegrate the more they come in contact with the water, so it is important not to wet a brush or fill the cup you are using with water. Swirl the brush in the soap and water solution, and then take it out and wash with the shampoo by rotating in the palm of your hand in circular motions, making sure not to crush the bristles tightly against your hand. Squeeze out the soap by flattening the bristles and repeat until you don’t see tons of color come out during the squeeze portion of this process. Then rinse and squeeze with the same method, until the water you squeeze runs clear and without soap bubbles. You may have to refill the rinse glass every time, and sometimes it helps if you keep the water running, or you have a double sink, plug one side and keep one side full of clean water, and pour the dirty rinse water into the other. Refill by dipping the mug into the clean water side after lightly rinsing it under running water.
Once you’ve washed all of your brushes, drying them is easy. Lay a towel on a counter. Squeeze the water out of the brushes and place it in the sink to drain, then shape the bristles into a flat, tapered tip and dry thoroughly. NOT TO DO Dry your brushes upright as this will ruin the glue on the ferrule.
I like to dry my brushes overnight as brushes generally dry easily this way in the desert climate I live in. The more humid your environment, the more you want to make sure you get as much water out as possible. This will not only protect the glues that are used to hold the bristles in the ferrule, but it will prevent your brushes from growing mold on them. If you have a real mold problem where you are, I recommend spinning the brush in a circular motion on a towel after squeezing it, without crushing the bristles, and pointing the brushes with a chisel after making sure they are almost dry with the towel swirl method.
Note that I use an extensive set of brushes, acquiring new ones all the time, but I have brushes that came as a gift with shopping sets when I was working cosmetic counters as a makeup artist in the late 90s, which I never expected. keep, but they have lasted me more than 15 years using this washing method. I subscribe to this method with an almost religious fervor for that very reason.
I hope this tutorial on brush care encourages you to adopt new methods of caring for your brushes and gives you a couple of options on what to use to do it without costing you a ton of money or introducing toxins and parabens. to your skin without knowing it.
Cheers and happy brushing,
~ Audra