Be honest…when was the last time you cleaned your makeup brushes? I’ll be honest and tell you I had never cleaned mine until I wrote Q Style’s chapter on “Makeup Design.”

Brushes are an investment, and good-quality brushes can last for years. Janna advises washing brushes every week if you have oily skin and are prone to breakouts.  If you have dry skin, once a month is usually fine.

For dry skin, use shampoo to wash your brushes. For oily skin, use dishwashing detergent.

There are commercial cleaners out there, but unless you are a professional makeup artist (like my youngest daughter) or test products on multiple clients  (like Janna), there is no need to purchase anything special to clean your brushes. The only advantage to using cleaners like “Cinema Secrets” is that it allows brushes to dry more quickly between uses.

If you use a foundation brush to apply your base, it’s best to use liquid makeup from a tube. That way, you are squeezing fresh amounts into the palm of your hand, instead of “double-dipping” into the bottle, each time you use it. Dipping a contaminated brush into a bottle, time after time, can actually change the color of your makeup.

My oldest daughter offered to clean her brushes and share pics of the water “before” and “after.”

I know…yuck. I could have been writing all night long, but all I needed were these two photos, to make the point.

After cleansing brushes, rinse, squeeze out excess water, shape them, and lay them out flat on a towel. If you stand them up while drying, water can potentially run down the handle and cause rust, or worse, cause bristles to fall out.

It will take a few hours for brushes to dry completely. (So don’t decide to clean your brushes, then an hour later realize you need to use them.) If you are in a hurry, a blow dryer can speed up the drying process.

Just imagine all the crud harboring between those tiny bristles—makeup, dead skin cells, oil, bacteria—a veritable village of scum. All of which would have been headed right back onto your pretty face…eeeks!

And the best perk of all– after cleaning your brushes, they will truly look and feel as if they are brand new again.