Brush Bath

I know, i know, there are a thousand videos and blog posts about how to clean your brushes and honestly i don't think they're so necessary...after all, everybody knows how to do it- shampoo/soap+water (+conditioner, optionally)+ a good rinse= clean brushes. Sanitizing, conditioning, brush guards, brush brushing (!!), bla bla, it's all a bit bleh to me. 

Don't get me wrong, i wash my brushes and enjoy doing it. However, there were several recipes that went wrong-the notorious dishwasher+olive oil. Oh no. It was a disaster. However.

My point is-i think i have discovered one of the best brush 'cleansers' out there, and it's a shampoo-L'Oreal Elvital (marketed 'Elvive' in some countries) Color Vive (for colored hair), the tomato red bottle:

This stuff is simply great. It's the first time a shampoo cleanses perfectly (a ton of lather nevertheless, since it's a shampoo) and leaves my brushes incredibly soft; they don't even need conditioning. What i dislike about this is the scent- smells very strongly of perfume, the sugary flowery scent L'Oreal shampoos have. This one is almost sickening and manages to linger on the hands, the brush hairs and in the bathroom (i don't totally dislike it there, though). Ever since i started using this shampoo (several weeks ago) i noticed my brushes look great and feel great, too; no harsh bristles whatsoever, this being more than surprising since i don't condition them anymore. I guess some of them had a bit of conditioner buildup, the form was shrinking and the hairs looked dull and flat. The Elizabeth Arden brush came with instructions that mentioned 'water and soap' for cleaning, no conditioner or other substances. I won't wash it with soap because i don't want the hairs to 'dehydrate', but i won't condition it either since the hairs are synthetic and don't need moisture surplus. 

Anyways, in case you're looking for a cheap and very effective brush conditioner, i recommend Head&Shoulders Classic Conditioner. 

It does a great job because it's almost neutral, calculated for sensitive scalps and normal hair, thus isn't too packed with oils or other ingredients that could over encumber the bristles. It gives a clean care to each strand, smells pleasantly (very fresh) and is really easy to rinse. I use it for my harsher, cheaper brushes (H&M) and several natural bristled brushes (to prevent breakage). However, be cheap with conditioner- less is more. 

Another great product (a tad on the expensive side) for cleaning brushes, especially the natural bristled ones, is Marseille soap with olive oil (or other natural extracts-lavender, seabuckthorn, etc)

It's a great product for washing your makeup brushes because it's as natural as possible, gentle, an efficient cleanser that will remove dirt, bacteria and oils (foundation brushes are the toughest to clean in this respect) without stripping the hairs off their natural balance (if they're made of real hair) or making the brush hard and scratchy (synthetic bristles). If you decide using this cleansing product, highly recommended by many makeup artists, then you should condition your brushes afterwards- less than a pea-size amount of regular conditioner does the trick.

Facial wash gels are also great because, in addition to being delicate yet effective, they contain an array of antibacterial ingredients that sanitize the brushes with no added fuss. I'm using the nasty Nuxe face wash (that didn't work for my skin), but you can obviously use something less expensive as long as it doesn't contain alcohol, kaolin or clays or salicylic acid (the former causes product buildup and the latter can cause skin irritation from the brush use).

I think i used dishwasher a couple of times with a synthetic foundation brush, but then i felt like i had to condition and it didn't look good after it dried up. Dishwashers are strong detergents that can make even synthetic bristles a tad harsher, they're hard to rinse off and a killer for natural hair brushes. I honestly don't suggest this method at all; i found a sort of 'recipe' with dishwasher and olive oil and to be honest, it was the crappiest thing i could have done for my brushes. The dirt remained stuck on the hairs and they looked flat, lifeless and soaked in oil (which is hard to remove). If you don't own industrial-strength brushes or a millimetric scale to measure the proportions (though i don't think there is such a thing as a correct measurement of oil and detergent) i suggest you stay out of it. 

I don't use alcohol or brush cleansers because well, they're all based on alcohol and the non-alcoholic ones (excuse the redundancy) are hard to find and expensive. 99% of the regular brush cleansers are too harsh and they might sanitize and give a fast solution when you need to use the same brush a couple of times, but on the long run they do ruin the bristles. I give my brushes a bath every two or three days; i use only neutral eyeshadows with most of my brushes (a couple are kept clean just in case i'm gonna fancy an electric green or neon purple, but that never happens) so i can use them two days in a row. After i take my makeup off, at night (so they'd be dry and ready to use in the morning), i give them their bath and arrange them horizontally on a clean, dry towel so that the humidity would drain out (thanks to gravity). 

I don't use the glass+brush guard 'method' because it keeps the moisture in the container and it's the same as letting your brushes dry upwards-softens the adhesive and you end up losing the brush. I don't know about blowdrying your brushes, never tried it, but i've heard many negative things about this method-the heat is too strong for both bristles and glue and in time, deteriorates the brush. I don't feel tempted by it, perhaps in emergency case(s) only i'd actually do this.

All in all, i guess the best products to use for cleaning are regular shampoo and conditioner. Don't be afraid of using the same shampoo you wash your own hair with-you only need a tiny amount for the brushes, or a shampoo you didn't like-it won't hurt the beauty tools.