Cleaning Make-up Brushes - This Works For Me

It's that time of month. Brush cleaning time. Above: my make-up brushes.

You may very well be far better at this than I am. You probably clean your make-up brushes every week. Feel free to scoff at me. I don't mind admitting I'm a bit lazy about cleaning my brushes.

Ok I confess.

I'm even lazier than that.

It's not monthly, but more like once a season that I get around to cleaning my brushes.

The Method - Is it Madness?

There are many different brush cleansing methods, and there might be smarter, faster and more efficient ways of doing this, but this particular method has worked for me an entire lifetime. It is equally efficient on natural bristles and synthetic bristles – my brush collection is a mix of both.

Some of these brushes are over 25 years old. None of them are showing even the slightest inclination of loosing bristles, becoming too stiff for comfort, or doing anything but what they are supposed to do: function perfectly.

Here's my brush cleansing method

Tools

• an old clean towel
• a bar of pure, unscented soap (this one is coconut based)
• water
• palms of hands 

We start at the sink by wetting the brushes. (I often pair up 2 similar sized brushes and do double duty)

Draw the brushes gently across the soap and gather some lather.

Lather up in the palm of hand. Draw tiny figure 8's in your palm to get the lather worked in everywhere.

Rinse thoroughly. Repeat lathering and rinsing until there is no trace of color left in the lather.

Shake out the water and dry the brushes gently on a clean dry towel, shape the bristles and leave to dry.

Depending on the size and shape of the brush, I will leave it either flat on the towel, or standing in my brush holder.

This batch of brushes took about 30 minutes to clean and reshape. They will be fully dry and ready for action within the next 24 hours.

Do Tell

Do you have a big collection of brushes? How do you cleanse yours?