When I clean my brushes, though, I follow a specific routine. For all of the large brushes I use a plate and a small damp facial sponge from Penneys.
Foundation Brushes - 1tsp Olive Oil and 2tsps of Baby Shampoo. I swirl the tips of my brushes around in both the oil and the shampoo breaking down the foundation, then I swirl them around on the damp sponge to really work the product into the brush hairs. When I'm done, I set the brushes aside on a paper towel until I'm ready to rinse them. The foundation brush cleansing routine is less tedious than the others because I clean it every other day.
For blush, powder, contour etc I forgo the olive oil, and swirl the brushes around in either baby shampoo or a dove soap bar, working the product into the fibres on the damp sponge. I skip the oil for powder brushes as powder is not as stubborn as foundation is on the bristles. These brushes are set aside until I'm ready to rinse them, too!
To spot clean my eye-brushes, I take a tiny amount of micellar water on a cotton round and swirl the tips of my brushes in it. To deep cleanse them, I simply take them through my powder brush cleansing routine. I find Dove soap bars are better for eye brushes as the ferrules don't risk having any product coming into contact with it.
For gel liner brushes, I swirl them on a cotton round with a small amount of waterproof eye-makeup remover on it, and then deep cleanse with the same step as the eye and powder brushes.
For rinsing, warm water, not too hot but not too cold is perfect. Rinse until the water runs clear and then gentle squeeze out the excess water. If you want to dry your brushes in a nice shape, you can even go onto E Bay and buy a length of brush-guard, which is porous but allows your brushes to dry in a proper shape. You can find similar HERE. For large brushes especially, this is an important step. I've found large powder brushes have a tendency to spread and flay out if they're uncared for.
To dry my brushes, I lay a large towel out doubled over, and fold the edge over twice, to create a lifted edge, and lay my brushes with the end of the handle on the lifted edge with the ferrule and bristles pointing downwards, and leave them to dry away from too much heat and sunlight.
I even keep a small bottle of Baby Shampoo in Chris's house for cleaning my foundation brush away from home. I keep a rubber band in my travel kit, and use it to hang my foundation brush on a wire hanger, with the bristles pointing downwards to dry.
How do you clean your brushes??
Let me know!
Amy
xx