If you’re quite active on Facebook, you might have seen the viral article of a lady who got paralyzed from her waist down because of borrowing her friend’s makeup brush for concealing her pimple. You can read the full article here. Using clean makeups and tools is something that we should practice even just for our personal use. Microbes and germs can live and contaminate beauty products and tools, we must be really careful and meticulous with whatever we put or use on our face and body.
I religiously spot-clean both personal and makeup brushes for clients every after use. Then, I deep-clean them at least twice a month. Yup! I have a different set of brushes for myself and for my clients. It’s funny because I actually just use nice makeup brushes for myself, then I reserve the best ones for my clients. Soon, I want a luxury makeup brush set for myself. Then for makeups, I sanitize them with 99% alcohol (you can buy a bottle at landmark and online) or a makeup sanitizer. Today I’ll show you how I deep-clean my makeup brushes. There’s also a video below this post that I’ve filmed almost two months ago. I have a tutorial on How I spot-clean my makeup brushes here.
Makeup Brushes for my Clients
This set of brushes are the ones that I use for my clients. I try my best not to over-pack this brush case, so I make sure I only bring makeup brushes that I normally use. These brushes are from Sigma, Zoeva, Real Techniques, Ellana Minerals, Virginia Olsen, and Artist Studio.
As you can see, they are not tremendously all unclean because as I said in the intro, I spot-clean them every after use that’s why makeups don’t stain the bristles.
Here are the items that I’m going to use:
1. Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo (not in the photo) – Use this as a shampoo for my brushes. Since it’s for babies, it’s mild and good for my brushes. Smells good too! You can use liquid dishwashing soap, anti-bacterial handwash, or body soap like Safeguard (kills 99.9% of germs, as advertised in commercials *haha*).
2. Egg Brush Cleaner from Fluff by SumWear Co. Your hands will thank you for this! Before I roll the bristles on my palm over and over! Imagine how many brushes I need to clean, and my hands are already crying (it makes my palms super dry!).
It’s super cute with a hole at the bottom where you can insert your fingers if you’re cleaning small brushes. For bigger brushes, I want to grip it with my palm to hold the pressure while scrubbing my brushes onto the board. It comes in different pastel colors like purple and blue.
What I currently use for spot-cleaning my brushes and sanitizing my makeups. I bought this in Ortigas at HD Makeup Studio store. I also love my Ellana Minerals Clean-it-up! Brush Cleaner but I recently emptied my second bottle and I’m gonna buy my third one soon. You can purchase online through my affiliate coupon link to avail 15% off your total purchase for first order.
Here’s how I do it.
1. Spot-clean. Some of you might say, why do you need to do it if you’ll be washing your brushes with soap and water? Well, it’ll be easier to wash your brushes and remove the remaining makeups on the bristles when you spot clean them first. There’ll be zero to minimum dirt left on the bristles therefore your babies will not be exposed to running water that long. It can damage the glue that holds the bristles altogether when you wash it with water. Do it as fast as you can.
2. Deep-clean makeup brushes with baby soap and in running water. Please see the video below.
3. Squeeze the bristles gently to remove excess water.
4. Lay and spread your brushes on a towel or clean cloth.
5. Spray with makeup sanitizer or brush cleaner. I’m not sure but for me, they dry faster and smells better.
6. Let them air-dry. It takes 1-2 days for the brushes to totally dry.
7. Quick spot-clean to remove dust. Our house is dusty, therefore this step is a must for me.
8. Then I put my brush guards before I store them in a brush case. This will help the brushes keep their shape.
TIPS:
1. Always hold your brushes upright, the bristles facing down while washing them. Avoid the whole ferrule to get wet. It can weaken its hold on the bristles.
2. Never ever use hair dryer or blower for drying your brushes. This can damage the ferrule and the bristles. Trust me. If it’s urgent, better spot-clean instead then schedule deep-cleaning your brushes when you have 1-2 days time before you use them again.
3. Use brush guards! This can save your brushes, keep them in shape, and extend their lifespan.
4. As much as possible, never share your personal tools and makeups with anyone. If needed, sanitize before and after you lend anything to your friends.
5. For pimples, as a makeup artist, I use a pimple sealant on the affected area before I apply anything on my client’s face. You can do the same to yourself if you have open wounds or pimples but you need to cover them up.
That’s it! This is one of the duties of a makeup artist that I enjoy a lot! It makes me feel happy whenever see them all clean. Then personally, I like my makeups and tools clean too to avoid breakout, pimples, and skin allergies.
I hope that you enjoyed and find this post useful. If you have any suggestions or additional information on cleaning your brushes, makeups, and tools, let us know in the comments! It’ll be a lot of help for us both! 
