Caring for your Make-Up Brushes

Make-up brushes and pencils need to be cared for and kept clean. Remember this makeup tool comes in direct contact with one of the most important parts of your body your skin. Here are some Basic Makeup Tips for maintaining your brushes:

Make-Up Brush Maintenance  Tip 1:

Use mild liquid soap to clean your makeup brushes. Simply cup your hand, and some soapy water and swirl the brushes around in your palm for a few minutes. Then rinse and reshape. Finally hang them over the edge of your vanity to naturally air dry. You can avoid damage by not soaking or wrapping to dry.

Make-Up Brush Tip 2:

Look for clean, firm bristles when buying an eyebrow brush. Soft bristles will cause the brush to only slide over your brows rather than penetrating. Firm bristles will allow the brush to penetrate and groom your short eyebrow hairs.

Make-Up Brush Tip 3:

Use a concealer make-up brush for applying eye makeup in the inner corner of your eye.

The small, firm concealer brush has the right tip for reaching this tough to get at spot. If you don’t have a concealer brush you can try using your finger for applying concealer to this area.

Make-Up Brush Tip 4:

For quality make-up brushes, you need to invest in natural bristles (yes, animal hair) rather than synthetic.

Sable is always a big favorite of professional make-up artists. Be sure the bristles are packed tight. A quick check is to simply brush it across your hand and make sure very few bristles fall out or come loose.

Make-Up Brush Tip 5:

When using your eye brow pencil, use short strokes in the direction your hair is growing.

Also, be sure to apply a little extra to areas where there are less hairs to give even coverage.

Bonus Basic Eye Make-up Tip: Don’t be tempted to use an eye liner pencil on your eyebrows. An eye-liner is soft and malleable. It’s made for your delicate eye areas. But an eye brow pencil is hard allowing you to use firm, tiny strokes on specific areas.

Make-Up Brushes Q & A

Q – Where can I find good make-up brushes that aren’t made from animal hair?

I checked and found out that most of department stores Clinique, Loreal, MAC, etc. sell brushes using animal hair. It’s typically goat hair or camel hair. They looked at me like I was crazy when I asked about ‘Cruelty Free’ and makeup that didn’t exploit animals.

If you don’t understand me, think about picking up a dead animal and using it’s hide on your face! – Sorry I think that’s just Gross!

I’m not sure where you are located but, I hear you and … ‘Times they are a changin‘. A lot of cosmetics companies now offer brushes made with synthetic hair and they’re often quite inexpensive. That said, I have to say, synthetic means plastic – means oil. Would you rather be dependant on a resource which is diminishing everyday and is likely to cause more and more war and problems in the world – or – a renewable resource that can be harvested form an animal without even hurting it?