Best way to stay on top of hygiene (ie prevent breakouts) and ensure a proper product application like a professional make up artist? Regularly making time to clean your make up brushes, beauty blenders, and similar items. Staying on top of brush maintenance also helps to lengthen their life (saving you $$) and retain quality. Without cleaning, brushes can grow bacteria or fungus as well as hold onto oils an debris; all of which contribute to breakouts, irritation, or infections like E. coli (pink eye causing) or staph. Eye make up brushes are especially at risk for this.
Once a week, at minimum, is ideal for brushes with beauty blenders requiring twice-weekly or even daily washing. Single use make up sponges (that typically come in bulk bags) should be tossed after one use while beauty blenders can be safely used with proper care for up to 3 months.
As far as what cleanser or soap to use, stay away from those with a high alcohol content or harsh ingredients as they can shorten the lifespan of the brush and overly dry them out. My personal favorite is typically baby shampoo (unscented is great), which is gentle on the bristles but still does the job of cleaning well and the bottle lasts many cleaning sessions. It is also possible to use a make up brush cleanser or even unscented dish soap in a pinch, though only use this on brushes and not blenders as they will retain the soap essentially forever and defeat the purpose of cleaning and sanitizing.
Steps for make up brushes (synthetic or natural hair):
- Using either a small dish, a pre-made brush cleaning mat or glove, or just the palm of your hand – apply dime sized amount of cleanser
- Wet the brush bristles, not the handle, with warm (not hot) water and swirl it to create a lather on your chosen surface
- Repeat process until rinsing with lukewarm water results in a clear rinse
- Pat bristles and handles with a clean towel, gently reshaping the them
- Lay brushes, including those that can stand alone, flat on said clean towel (not upright as this can result in water loosening the glue) to air dry* ideally overnight in a well ventilated area
*Using heat from a blow dryer or fan may loosen the glue that holds the brush together or cause it to lose shape
Steps to for beauty blenders:
- Fill small bowl with warm water
- Wet the blender
- Apply dime sized amount of cleanser (not dish soap) onto blender
- Submerge the blender in the bowl while gently working it into a lather, squeezing delicately as to avoid rips or tears
- Repeat process and rinse the blender until the water is clear
- Allow to air dry on a clean towel ideally overnight or several hours
