How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes #1

The CorinnaB.com brush line.


Today I want to tackle the serious business of taking care of your makeup brushes.

If you have bought quality brushes they will last you forever, so long as you take care of them properly.
To show you how to do this the right way, Kelly Cappelli and I shot a couple of brush care and cleaning tutorials for you, and this is the first one.

When I'm on a shoot and need to clean brushes in between people, or if I'm at home and want to do a quick color change, I use Parian Spirit to clean and disinfect my brushes.
Parian Spirit is an environmentally friendly cleaner that dissolves all makeup products and disinfects, while conditioning your brushes at the same time. It's made from citrus spirits, has no artificial colors or fragrances, and it wont damage the wood on your brush.
I'm not sure that I've ever seen a pro makeup artist ever not use Parian!

You can probably buy it at Ulta or Sephora etc. I buy huge bottles because I go through so much of it, but you can buy little bottles too.






The super speedy way to use it is to put some on a folded kleenex,



and gently paint your brush through it. This method will dry really quickly, and you'll be ready to use the brush again within a couple of minutes.


The second way is more of a deep clean, so you want to mostly be doing it this way.
Pour some cleaner into a small non metallic container, them gently swirl the brush in the parian spirit. You'll see the color coming out of it!


Next you need to gently paint the brush across a folded tissue, until the color stops coming out. Hold the tissue in your hand rather than laying it on the counter, as this will make sure you are gentle with your brush.




Don't scrub or push the brush hard - always be gentle.




Next you need to re-shape your brush. Gently re-mould it to its original shape.




Finally, I lie my brushes flat on a folded towel to dry. They may take several minutes to dry, and a towel or paper towel will help to draw out the moisture.



Never, never, never stand a damp or wet brush up vertically. The moisture will roll down inside the ferrul (thats the metal part of your brush) and eat away at the thread that ties the hairs together, and the adhesive that keeps the wood and the ferrul bound together.
Always lie them flat!

Once my brushes are dry I store them vertically in a glass vase at home (because it looks pretty!) or in a brush roll in my kit.

Keep and eye out for "How To Clean Your Makeup Brushes #2"

Have a gorgeous day!

xo

C