Never Worry About Makeup Sanitation Again
Feeling nervous about sanitation right now? Are you looking at your makeup/products and feeling a little wary, knowing you haven’t cleaned those brushes in…. forever? Don’t worry, most makeup is actually pretty easy to keep clean.
When you get down to the basics, there are two important rules. One, you always want to use 70 percent isopropyl alcohol to clean your makeup, not anything above. Anything above 70 percent will evaporate before it can really sit on the product, meaning it hasn’t done its job. 70 percent, however, takes just long enough to evaporate that the alcohol will be able to sit long enough and kill any bacteria. The second rule is that alcohol will not be enough to clean your brushes.
First let’s get into the why, shall we? I mean, why bother cleaning your makeup and brushes if you’re only using them on yourself? It’s not like you’re using them on anyone else. But think of it this way. You wouldn’t want to use a dirty washcloth to dry your freshly washed face, right? So why would you use dirty brushes to put on (potentially) dirty makeup?
Let’s start with the big one!
Brushes
Clean your damn brushes y’all. It’s good for you. And I promise, it isn’t as tedious as it seems. Just grab a good brush soap (I recommend Sonia Roselli’s tiger eye brush soap. It’s the only thing I use for my personal and kit brushes. And there will be an affiliate link coming soon!), turn on your favorite netflix show, and get to work. Boom. Done. Sorry, but you can’t just use alcohol or even a spray brush cleaner. If you’re in a pinch and only using them on yourself, it can work. But if your brushes have touched anyone else’s face, alcohol or spray cleaner just isn’t going to fully clean them. For that, you need good old fashioned soap and water.
Eyeshadow/powder compacts
Honestly, they’re pretty easy. With some 70 percent isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle, spritz the top of the shadows and wipe down the exteriors. If your eyes get watery and you think your shadows have been exposed to that, just scrape off a bit of the top before spraying them down.
Pencils
Once again, these are pretty easy. But anything that comes in contact with your eyes (eyebrows are less important) should be routinely sanitized. Just sharpen the pencil a bit to shave off the top layer, and spray with alcohol.
Lipsticks/Stick Foundations
Lipsticks are slightly less important than stick foundations to clean regularly, but they use the same method. Take a clean cloth of some variation and wipe off just the top layer before spraying with alcohol.
Liquid Foundation
Now, you obviously can’t clean the liquid itself. But be sure to wipe down the opening so that old foundation doesn’t accumulate.
Mascara
Unfortunately, there’s no way to sanitize mascara or mascara wands. If you ONLY use your mascara on yourself, you should be fine. But if you’re worried, or if you share, you can use disposable spoolies to apply. Join my email list to learn what compostable disposables I use!
Makeup bags and cases
Not to be forgotten! If you clean your makeup and your brushes but then throw them into a dirty case, then you’ve spoiled a lot of good work. So grab some antibacterial wipes and wipe down those interiors!
Well, was this helpful? Learn anything new or unexpected? Tell me in the comments below!