Imagine not washing your hands for a week - that's how dirty your brushes could be (kind of!).

I can't say how important it is to clean your brushes - specially the ones you use everyday! Since I'm not a professional, I have only experiemented with my own brushes with some guidence from different sources and so on and I have learned what cleansing methods work best (for my brushes).

I say that you should clean your brushes constantly - but not everyday! I think that you notice once your brushes are really, really dirty and needs to be cleansed.

Why is it important to clean your brushes?
Lets look at the concealer brush (although I use an eyeshadow brush as a concealer brush since I think that they work better) as an example. You use your concealer brush everyday to conceal any blemishes, dark circles and so on. And if you happen to have an active break out and use your brush to conceal it (along with concealer of course) and put it back in your brush holder to use it the next day, chances are that you might spread the bacteria in your active break out to other areas of your face - we don't want that! That's why you should cleanse your foundation brush and your concealer brush constantly.

Now there are two types of cleansing:
- Spot cleansing
- Deep cleansing

Spot cleansing usually works with a some sort of cleanser spray that you can buy at any makeup store - I get mine at Kicks. You lightly spray the brush that you want to clean AFTER you've used it, and dry with a clean towel (don't use any white towels, only use an OLD towel that you don't need and make it your "brush towel", if you know what I mean) . I recommend spot cleansing your foundation and concealer brushes after every use. It's also a good way to spot cleanse an eyeshadow brush that you've used for a certain color, so you can re-use the brush (after letting it dry!).

Deep cleansing can be a bit tricky. You have to sort of try different methods to see which one you like best - and which one that maintains your brushes original shape. I use a shampoo for this. It's recommended to use a baby shampoo, since they are very "unharmful" or any non perfumed shampoo (although I'm using a shampoo with a light scent in the pictures below).
It's very important that your brushes are tilted down - don't make them "stand up" - while you are cleansing them; or else the water could ruin the glue that the brush hairs are attached to, and your brush would be ruined!

Another important thing is that you wash them in a way that wouldn't ruin their "original shape". For instance, if you are cleansing a kabukee brush, you should stir (wrong word?) it in circular moves (using the shampoo) and keep stiring it until most of the dirt has been "released". Then you should rinse it (with water) without letting the water going into the glue of the brush - as I said, keep the brushes tilted DOWN. Let them dry - lay them down - on a towel.



The spray cleaner - from Kicks!


Some of the brushes that I cleansed - the shampoo - the towel (my "brush" towel).


How I laid my brushes to dry.


I don't know if this post helped you, or if it just messed everything up :P.