Guide - Deep Cleaning Makeup Tools the Right Way // How to make your Beauty Blender spotless.

One thing I’ve learnt from being a beauty addict is that its never to late to learn to do things the right way. I’ve messed up correctors, contour powders before, but continuously watching makeup tutorials has taught me how to do them right. In the same vein, I felt that I have been washing makeup brushes the wrong way. I always used Johnson & Johnsons Baby Shampoo to clean makeup brushes & sponges….

… and I think that was wrong. Firstly because I needed more quantity of it and secondly because I hate its smell. I didn’t hate its smell earlier but once I started using it for my sponges, they started smelling like the shampoo & it was awful. Thirdly, it took A LOT of effort to get sponges spotlessly clean with that shampoo (hence large amounts were needed & so they smelled like it ).

When I purchased the original Beauty Blender last year, I did not want to fool around with cleansers. It would really suck if the pricey Beauty Blender also started smelling like that shampoo. I even contemplated buying the ridiculously expensive blender cleanser….Thankfully a little research on the internet brought me to an interesting cleanser option – a soap. One makeup artist had said that she uses hotel soaps to clean beauty blenders.

 I decided to just use what soap I had with at that moment, and that was a Dettol soap my dad had gotten for free when he purchased something. And viola – clean, spotless Beauty Blender that smelled lovely too. I tried the same for my makeup brushes and I was elated to discover that the soap cleanses all of them thoroughly too. And I was saving so much more time this way too. After that Dettol soap got over & I got a cheaper one – a Lifebuoy soap. And so far its been working great for me. I’d like to add that just any soap won’t do, I used a Dove soap and it was too gentle to clean out my tools completely.

The benefit of using Dettol & Lifebuoy soaps is that you get the two step process of cleaning & sanitizing your makeup tools in one product.  I have been using this technique since 5-6  months and I love it so much more than when I used shampoo. Also, my sister also started cleaning her makeup brushes this way and she’s a fan of the process too !

Here’s what I follow when I need to clean all those dirty brushes & sponges.

Deep cleaning a Beauty Blender or any makeup sponge and making it spotless :

1. Make sure the Beauty Blender/makeup sponge is completely wet and expands to its full size.

2. Now gently rub it on the soap and make sure you get sufficient soap all over it

3. You need to work in the soap now. Gently rub the Beauty Blender on your hand (or between them). You will be able to notice the foundation stains falling on to the sink whilst you do this.

4. Make sure you CLEAN out the soap completely. This will require couple of rinses till you notice no soapy water coming from the Beauty Blender.

That’s it. Four steps to a stain free Beauty Blender. I know a lot of people complain about how hard it is to clean a Beauty Blender and I faced the same problem when I was using baby shampoo. With the soaps…not at all =) See the picture below for the proof. Also see this pic.

The procedure to clean brushes is similar

1. Make sure the brush bristles are soaking wet. DO NOT get water in the ferrule and especially not past it. If water gets into the ferrule of your makeup brush, it will loosen the glue holding the hairs together and your makeup brush will shed like crazy :/ The brush used here is the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush.

2. Gently rub the brush hairs against the soap and make sure its got sufficient soap.

Here I’d like to point out that it is very helpful to have a good soap case for the soap. Not those fancy tray kinds, but this simple one which has holes so that water can pass through the soap case instead of collecting in the soap case. Imagine your soap setting amongst all the dirt deposited by your makeup tools !

3. Like we did with the Beauty Blender¸ work the soap into the brush hairs. I always use my hand as the thing against which I gently rub the brushes. But you can use those cleansing trays as well.

4. Wash the brush thoroughly; again, be careful not to get water in the ferrule.

Drying makeup tools with precaution:

I prefer to put my wet, cleaned makeup brushes on a thick towel. You’ll notice in the picture that the brushes are standing at an angle, this ensures that the water from the bristles will flow down onto the towel. Also, keep the bristle end of the brushes on the towel & not the other way around, otherwise the water will flow into the ferrule of the brush.

Another big NO is using hair dryer to dry makeup brushes. It is said that the heat from the hair dryer loosens the glue in the ferrule of the makeup brushes.

Drying a Beauty Blender or any makeup sponge for that matter also needs to be done with care. Make sure that they are not in an air-tight place when wet, it can lead to the formation of fungus. Once I’m done with washing them, I leave them on the same towel to dry. Forever 21 sponges dry within a day, the Beauty Blender takes 2-3 days to completely dry.

Also see How to Sanitize Makeup and Makeup Brushes.