Friday, January 21, 2011

Tips & Tricks: Reshaping Brushes

One of my beauty related New Year's resolution was to deep clean my brushes more frequently. Well, last time I counted, I have over 50 brushes (62 to be exact) and cleaning all of them can be such a longgggg tedious process.

I used to clean my brushes frequently until one day the clouds parted and the beauty gods shined down on MAC's Brush Cleaner. This thing quickly became a must-have for me. No more dirty brushes and waiting hours for them to dry. Just a squirt of it on a washcloth and a quick run of a dirty brush, cleaning my brushes became less of a hassle. I'd go through this stuff fast, and then I discovered Enkore's homemade brush cleaner "recipe" which was basically the same thing at a fraction of the cost.

But I've learned there's a difference between quick, spot cleaning and deep cleaning.

I'm happy to say that I've stuck by my resolution, and every Sunday I grab all my dirty brushes and give them a thorough cleaning with shampoo.

I wanted to share this tip that I learned online about reshaping brushes. I'm sure we've all heard of Brush Guards - I don't own any because I don't have a huge problem with misshaped brushes. (Although after looking at the website, they are many other benefits of Brush Guards). I do have a problem with spaying with some of my eye brushes - my blending brushes to be specific. I've tried this tip and it's worked pretty well for me, so I thought I'd share.

After I finish deep cleaning one of my spayed brushes and it's still wet, I wrap a strip of tissue paper or paper towel semi-tight around the brush hairs. I leave it on until the brush has fully dried, and once removed, the hairs are all condensed perfectly together - like new!




It's definitely saved some of my brushes, let me know if you've tried this out before and if it works for you as well as it works for me. I haven't tried it on larger brushes (like face brushes) but I'm not sure if it would work the same.

I apologize for the lack of updates, I've just been so busy with school and work and yadayadayada. And it's not like I have a lack of post ideas or anything like that, I have so many things that I want to blog, it's just getting around to actually doing it.

On a final note, I was quoted in a blog post on Marcelle's blog how cool is that?!

7 comments:

lindah said...

I have the brush guards! I really like them because they 'ventilate' the brushes whenever it's drying and it reshapes at the same time :) PLUS, I can leave it upside down drying! I got brush guards from their website and I'm gonna say it was a $5 well spent! I think I need more eye brush ones because I always fall short on those. I guess it's time to make another purchase from them ^_^

I'll probably review the NARS and Naked palette for you. Trying to think of posts to make LOL... My NARS is almost gone :( I'm down to the last centimeter or less! UGH, it's so expensive though but it's lasted me a good year with daily usage so that's more money well spent. I've gotta repurchase in two shades though because I'm inbetween right now... SIGHH! There goes my wallet -_-'

Celia said...

I'm a lazy ass blogger I swear, I have to draft everything at one go or forget it lol. But good tip - I usually just twist the bristles while damp and it keeps their shape. I wanna try ELF brush cleaner - have you tried them?

Neeyuh said...

Great tip! I have a few brushes that are starting to have some straying hairs so I'm definitely gonna try this! It took me awhile to really get into deep cleaning cuz before that I was just spot cleaning like you and was like this is easy! haha. Now I try to deep clean my brushes every week or so depending on how often I did my makeup.

AskMeWhats said...

Wonderful tip, I do own the Brush Guard but only one pack! So I use it to cover those brushes that are pricier! Good tip on this one, I hate brush cleansing too! takes a looonnnggg time! I use the Parian Spirit Spritz to clean and disinfect mine :)

Erica said...

Thanks for the amazing tip! I just washed my brushes last night and used this method, it worked amazing at helping my 217 retain it's shape!

Loves! xoxo

Ailah said...

Hi! I don't know if you've been tagged already, but I've given you an award! http://cosmeticblur.blogspot.com/

The Beautifier said...

Thanks for the great tip! I am sure gonna try this method! Hope it works for my brushes too! xoxo