Cleaning Your Makeup Brushes & Mini Naturale Beauty Brush Review

Hi guys!  I decided to share with you how I clean my most used makeup brushes.  I also wanted to share my thoughts on the brand Naturale Beauty, a mineralized formula of makeup. Yes, I know that my method for cleaning makeup brushes doesn't involve some expensive cleanser or an even more expensive drying system but instead, offers an inexpensive method for achieving the exact same results as the more costly products and tools.

 

Cleaning your makeup brushes is essential for a few reasons. The most important part is to avoid any dirt and bacteria found in the dirty brushes to your face, which can cause breakouts, inflammations and infections. Another reason to clean your brushes weekly is to avoid mixing up makeup products which alters the colors when you apply them. Grab a bowl of warm water, Mane N" Tail shampoo (I use this shampoo & conditioner daily...it aids in moisturizing, strengthening and healthy hair growth..luv it), a wash cloth, a dry towel and your blow dryer and get to work! Here goes!

1. Soak all of your brushes in the warm water for about ten minutes. For sanitizing, add about 1/2 of a cup of rubbing alcohol to the water before soaking your brushes.
2. Add a little Mane N' Tail Shampoo to the wash cloth. Never add it directly to your makeup brushes; this makes it very hard to get out. Mane N' Tail, also known as horse shampoo, is gentle enough to cleanse your brushes without damaging them and drying them out.
3. With the wash cloth, work the shampoo into your brush. Start at the base of the bristles and work your way down, moving the soapy wash cloth in the shape of your brush. Never work against the bristles or you will damage the shape. Instead, soap of the brush by working WITH the bristles, keeping their shape as much as possible.
4. Rinse the brushes with luke warm water from the sink until the water runs clean. Move your fingers down, starting at the base of the bristles, working the shampoo and makeup out of the brush. Through out the entire cleansing process, try to keep the brush's shape as much as possible.
5. Use the dry towel to remove the excess water.
6. Keep your blow dryer on low and pointed in a downward angle throughout the entire drying process. And keep it at least eight inches away from the brush or you may melt your bristles. You can skip this all together if you are worried about messing up your brushes. While drying, use your thumb and index finger to work the makeup brush's into shape. For large powder brushes, place a rubber band around the bristles while blow drying. If you prefer, you can let your brushes air dry but this takes awhile.Make sure you shape your brushes first before laying them out on a flat surface to dry.

Now about Naturale Beauty. I recently purchased their mineralized face set which included a powder concealer, foundation and booster as well as an eyeshadow and 2 makeup brushes: a small face brush and a small fan brush. These brushes were described as soft, natural bristles but they were actually extremely rough. It felt as if I was being poked repeatedly both times I tried to use these brushes. The makeup is good, however. The foundation and concealer offer medium coverage and the eyeshadow, a golden bronze, is very heavily pigmented. As far as mineralized makeups go, Naturale Beauty is worth every penny.  But the brushes just aren't up to par.

Today, when I washed my makeup brushes, I decided to go ahead and wash the two Naturale Beauty makeup brushes as well. I hoped using the horse shampoo would soften the bristles some. As I gently worked the shampoo into the brushes, the bristles continued to fall out. Even more came out during rinsing and blotting on the towel so I decided to skip blow drying all together. After the brushes dried, I could tell that over half the bristles had fallen out and there were literally bald spots in the brush. These brushes get TWO BIG THUMBS DOWN! I had to trash them. Because my other brushes held so well during the many, many times I had washed them, rarely loosing any bristles, I knew it was the quality of this specific brand and not the technique used to cleanse them that causes extreme hair, um bristle, loss. 

Off to do some grocery shopping and cut my cousin's hair...til next time <3 Missie <3