How To: Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Okay, I haven't done a How-To in a while. I feel this one is very, very necessary though. Ladies, listen carefully.
Okay, I have very acne-prone skin. It's a toughy subject for me to talk about because I'm so insecure in this fact. And bad skin isn't something you can just ignore so easily. It's just so...there. On your face and in everyone elses'. So you can understand I go to lengths to cover up my imperfections as much as possible. Meaning: cover up and foundation.
I have a special, very soft brush I use for my foundation. I love it.
However, a week ago I really started noticing how it was feeling on my skin...it was very...gunky feeling. Weighted down. Gross.
When I originally got the brush, it was white. Now, it was dark brownish. Yuck.
So I decided to clean my brush. (And all of my brushes)

I got this method off of Pinterest. (Ah, my love!) It's really easy. All you need is Olive Oil, Water, Shampoo and some Paper Towels.

First, run your brush under some water. You can really see just how dirty it is when the water hits the bristles.

After you've wetted your brush, put some Olive Oil in your hand and twirl the bristles of your brush in the oil. Then you can start massaging the oil into the brush; make sure you do this over sink! It gets messy. You really get to see all of the gunk that gets stuck in your brushes. Yuck!

This was just me, it didn't say to on Pinterest, but I started squeezing out my brush while massaging the oil into it. I did this for a good ten minutes and I was still getting huge globs of makeup out of my brush. I'll be cleaning it more often, I can tell you that much.
After you've massaged your oil into the brush, run it under some water and squeeze the water (and makeup) out of your brush! Hot or cold water, it doesn't matter. You'll be amazed at the gunk that comes out!

Yuck! I sometimes wonder what I'm putting onto my skin...it just looks so...bleh! I can only imagine the bacteria that could just live in that...it makes me sick and so, so glad I did clean my brushes! 

After you rinse your brush pretty good, you don't have to get every out, then you'll move onto shampoo. Try to use a mild shampoo or baby shampoo. You don't want to ruin your brush's bristles. Gently lather the shampoo into your brush and try to keep the shape of your bristles. You don't want to cause breakage. 

Then rinse when you're satisfied. And repeat if you wish. I shampooed mine twice. 

You can then squeeze the water out of your brush with paper towels then lay it out somewhere safe for a couple of ours. My brush took overnight to dry, but it's thick. Yours might dry quicker. 

I'm more confident in my brush now. It's so soft and feels great! You can bet I'll be cleaning it a great deal of a lot more often. At least once every two weeks!

I'm thinking about making a Natural Foundation soon...keep in touch!

Thanks for reading!