A Necessary Evil or Heaven Scent?

Groan, washing your make-up brushes is such a chore and a bore.  But not any more for me as I’ve found one that I really love to use, which is a good thing as it makes me wash my brushes more often.  Obviously, I wash my professional set of Ken Boylan brushes (www.kenboylan.com) after every client makeover but with my own brushes, I can be quite lazy; I tend to use the same brush for the same colour (ie, my taupe Lancôme one is used for my favourite grey shadows and I have a pink/black Model’s Own that I use exclusively for my Urban Decay green shadow) so I feel that justifies my laziness but I do clean them properly about once a month.

So what is the best cleanser for brushes?  Some pro-MUA's prefer to use Fairy Liquid, some use baby shampoos and some fork out for expensive ones.

I used to wash mine with washing-up liquid (M&S) but when I was buying make-up from Makeup Revolution, I noticed that they did two brush cleansers so I thought I would try them.  They do the Makeup Revolution Antibacterial Brush Shampoo 200ml and Makeup Revolution Antibacterial Brush Cleanser.  Both are £5 for 200ml.

I bought these two products back in January (along with a whole load of products) and I certainly will be repurchasing when I’ve used them up.  First off, I adore the smell of the cleanser and the shampoo.  I recently contacted Makeup Revolution as I wanted to know what the ‘parfum’ on the ingredient list was.  I could smell apples and hubbie could smell peaches so I wanted clarification.  Turns out hubbie has a better nose than mine and the parfum consists of peach, orange, rose, musk and soft aldehydes (series of organic compounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen).  Gorgeous.

If you’re on a pro-shoot then the cleanser is perfect for in-between makeovers as it quickly removes the make-up, bacteria and disinfects and sterilises the bristles.  The shampoo is great for cleaning the brushes that have been used for foundations and concealers or anything creamy and it removes all traces of dirt, oil and make-up, leaving the brushes clean, soft and conditioned. 

At home, I shampoo my foundation brush after every use (which isn’t very much to be honest, as I prefer to apply my base with my fingers).  I dollop a Tic-Tac size into the palm of my hand and swirl the wetted brush under a tap and the make-up is washed away quickly. 

When it comes to cleaning my eyeshadow brushes, I spritz the brush cleanser onto a sheet of kitchen roll (which is stronger than toilet roll) and swirl the brush into the wet part and again, the shadows come off with ease.

After use, you are left with a lovely subtle fragrance on the bristles (which is nice for your clients too) and another plus with these two little beauties is that they don’t leave the bristles stiff after they’ve dried.  Leave them to dry naturally, flat with the bristles hanging over the edge of something so the bristles keep their shape.

PS. The products are easy to decant into smaller bottles, if you’re pro-kit is heavy enough as it is.