After doing some research, I decided to try 2 different types of DIY make up cleansers for my makeup brushes. Being that makeup brush cleansers can be expensive, these too mixtures can be an easy way to save money while still giving your brushes a good cleanse. Generally you should clean your brushes around once a week. For brushes that you use liquids with, you should clean them daily. This is because your brushes can carry bacteria on them and if your acne-prone, it can cause more break outs on your skin. Also, you won't get the good quality use of your brushes if they're load up with tons of old makeup. Especially dark shadows on your eye brushes.
So the first one that I tried was a combination of the following:
1 cup of warm water
1 tablespoon of liquid detergent (I used dawn)
1 tablespoon of white vinegar
You can get a cup, bowl, anything that can hold more than a cup of liquid in it. Pour all the ingredients into your container and give it a little mix. One by one, you want to dip your brushes in the mix and swirl them around. You will begin to see the makeup come off the brushes and change the color of the water. After, you just want to run them under warm water and reshape them so they can dry. Its best to let them dry hanging upside down so that the water doesn't drip inside and detached the glue holding the bristles. I wasn't able to do this so I just reshaped them and let them dry on a towel. Generally you want to let them dry overnight, but for best results I let majority of mine dry for a day being that I wasn't going out the next day. For this particular mixture, I used it on my bigger brushes. Powder, blush, highlight, and all of that jazz. After the first couple of brushes, I disposed of the cleanser and started a new batch.
The new batch of cleanser consisted of the following:
1 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon of hand soap
1/4 cup of white vinegar
Like said previously, you just want to swirl each brush individually, rinse with warm water, reshape, and dry. For this mixture I used mainly my eye and lip brushes.
Initially you would think that the vinegar will leave your brushes smelling after they dry, but it doesn't. If you rinse them out well enough, the vinegar will not leave a stench afterwards. However, surprisingly the mixture that I used with the least amount of vinegar did leave some brushes of mine with a light scent of the vinegar. The brushes were my bigger brushes so next time I'm going to have to rinse them afterwards a little bit longer. Both mixtures did leave my brushes feeling very soft and brand new when the drying was finished. This was my first time doing these DIY makeup brush cleansers. I found both to be very effective.
Next week I will try out another DIY cleanser that consists of olive oil. I will most likely use the one that Michelle Phan did in one of her videos and tell you ladies how it turns out.
I also noticed that you can tell which of your brushes are low quality by when you clean them and how they come out afterward. If you reshape your brushes before they dry, they should come back to their natural state. It should be as if they're brand new, fresh out the package. Your lower quality brushes will not return to the shape that they originally are. For me, I had about 2 brushes that did this and I just threw them away. Remember when it comes to your makeup brushes, the better the quality, the better the brush will be. Your makeup brushes should be your beauty tools that you do invest your money in. I'm not saying you should buy $50+ brushes, but do your research and invest in brushes that have good quality. Like an artist, these are you tools. Create your art with good brushes, not ones that can't do the job right. From one beauty lover to another, see you soon.
