Brush series #3 - Cleaning

September 19, 2016

The last post from the brush series is about cleaning the brushes.

It is very important to clean the makeup brushes as often as you can - it would be ideal after every use, but I believe most of us don't do that. This is not important just because the brushes are stained with some color, but mostly because because it is unsanitary to use dirty brushes. The dirty brushes are the perfect home for the bacteria that you then transfer on your face, and that can cause many unwanted things, like pimples, acne, inflammations, uneven skin texture and many more skin problems.

I wash the brushes that I use on myself once or twice a week, depending on how many days I wore the makeup that week - it can be only one day, and sometimes it can be up to five days a week.

But, some of the brushes I don't use twice in a row. I wash the foundation brushes and concealer brushes after every use even though I wash them once a week. That is because I have so many of them so I use a different one every time. The same goes for eye brushes because it doesn't make sense to me to use the same brush you used to apply some dark eyeshadow and then go in with the some light shade.

Also, even though the brushes may be clean, but they just stand there in open for a while, I wash them because there can be dust on them.

The brushes can be cleaned in two ways - so called deep cleaning and spot cleaning. The first was is to wash the brushes with water and soap or cleanse, and the other way is a fast way - with the special spray. Keep in mind - spot cleaning can't and never will be able to replace the deep cleaning, it is just for occasional cleaning between the deep cleaning.

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Zadnji post iz serije o kistovima je onaj o čišćenju.

Kistove je potrebno što češće prati - idealno bi bilo nakon svakog korištenja, ali vjerujem da većina nas to ne radi. Ne samo radi toga što je kist zaprljan nekom bojom, već najviše iz higijenskih razloga. Prljavi kistovi su leglo bakterija koje prenosiš na lice, a koji mogu uzrokovati probleme kao što su ptištići, akne, upale, nepravilnosti, promjene u teksturi kože i slično.

Kistove koje koristim na sebi perem jednom do dva puta tjedno, ovisno o tome koliko dana u tjednu se šminkam. Nekada to bude samo jedan dan, pa ispada da ih perem nakon jednog korištenja, a nekada to bude do pet dana u tjednu.

Ipak, neke kistove ne koristim dva puta zaredom. One koje koristim za nanošenje pudera i korektora perem nakon svakog korištenja, iako ih perem jednom tjedno. Naime, imam ih dovoljno da svaki dan mogu koristiti drugi. Isto vrijedi i za kistove za sjenila jer nema smisla koristiti kist kojim sam nanijela tamno sjenilo ponovno nanoseći neko svijetlije.

Isto tako, ako su kistovi čisti, a stoje mi na otvorenom duže vrijeme, ipak ih operem prije korištenja jer po njima pada prašina i svašta nešto.

Kistove je moguće čistiti na dva načina - tzv. deep cleaning i spot cleaning. Prvi način je da kistove dubinski opereš vodom i sapunom, dok je drugi brzi način površnog pranja kistova i to sprejem s posebnom namjenom. Bitno je reći da spot cleaning nikada neće i ne može zamijeniti dubinsko pranje kistova, te je samo za povremeno korištenje između dva dubinska pranja.

Deep cleaning

My deep cleaning of brushes goes like this: I grab the jar that I use to separate the dirty brushes during the week, in a different small jar I mix some dish soap and add a bit of olive oil.

I wet the brush with luke warm water, holding it bristles down, so the water doesn't go in the part where the bristles are glued, that tend to take a long time to dry.

Then I swirl it in the cleaning mix and swirl the brush on the brush egg. This rubber "egg" has different textures that make the cleaning easier and quicker.

Then I rinse the brushes with water, still holding it bristles down, squeeze the bristles to get the water out and place them on the towel that has one side rolled up, so the brushes are placed at angle, bristles down. That is to help the water that may have gone into the base of the brush go out and make it dry quicker.

I wash all of the sponges and beauty blenders the same way, but because I get them damped before every use, I wash them right then.
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Moje dubinsko pranje kistova ide ovako: uzmem posudu u koju preko tjedna odvajam prljave kistove, u malu posudicu smiješam sredstva za pranje posuđa odokativno, ovisno koliko kistova trebam oprati, te dodam mrvicu maslinovog ulja.

Kist lagano smočim mlakom vodom, držeći dlačice prema dolje, kako bi što manje vode ušlo u dio kista gdje je zalijepljen koji se teže suši.

Zatim kistom zgrabim malo mješavine za pranje i kist vrtim po gumenom jajetu za pranje. Ovo "jaje" ima razne izbočine koje služe da bi brže izašla sva prljavština i boja s kista.

Potom kistove isprem vodom, još uvijek ih držeći okrenute prema dolje, lagano stisnem da izađe voda iz dlačica te ih slažem na ručnik čiji sam kraj zavrnula tako da ih mogu posložiti pod kutom, kako bi se eventualna voda koja je ostala u donjem dijelu kista iskapala i kako bi se dobro osušio.

Na isti način perem i sve spužvice i beauty blendere, ali kako njih smočim prije svakog korištenja, tako ih usput i operem svaki put.

Spot cleaning

There are special sprays for this way of cleaning the brushes, and you use them this way: you spray the dirty brush with the liquid and then you swirl it in a dry paper tissue or a cloth until the color comes off. The brush is dry in seconds and ready to use.

I don't really like this "dry cleansing" technique because I am a germ freak and it seems to me that it doesn't clean the brushes that well, at least not the face brushes that are used for liquid and cream products, but they only get the color off the eye brushes.

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Postoje sprejevi za ovu vrstu čišćenja, a koriste se na slijedeći način: prljavi kist posprejaš sprejem i vrtiš u npr. suhu maramicu ili suhi ručnik sve dok iz kista izlazi boja. Kist je suh kroz nekoliko sekundi i spreman za korištenje.

Ovu "suhu" tehniku pranja kistova osobno ne preferiram jer sam "germ freak" i čini mi se kako ne očisti kistove dovoljno, bar ne kistove za lice s kojima se nanose tekući i kremasti proizvodi, nego samo skine boju s kistova za oči.