Care & Feeding of Your Cosmetic Brush-Babies

How often should I clean my brushes, and why?  Once every week or two for powder-only brushes should suffice, and after each use for brushes used with any liquid or cream-type product.  The answers for "why" leads to a more in-depth response...

Think of your cosmetic brushes as an investment.  When you invest your hard-earned money into something, you should take care of it, right?  The same goes for your brushes - on many different levels.  The best care you can give your brushes (and yourself) is a proper, regular cleaning.

I am often asked why it is important to clean your brushes beyond knocking the powder out of them and dry-cleaning them with a cloth.  There are several reasons.

For one, it extends the life of the brush.  Over time, brushes that aren't properly cleaned on a regular basis will become matted, misshapen and even become brittle and break at the bristles, especially with natural hair brushes.

The most important reason is it is imperative to your skin's health.  Brushes  (whether natural or synthetic) literally collect and trap oils, dirt, dead skin cells, makeup and bacteria.  A dirty brush can lead to breakouts, blemishes and even infection.  Let's get a little gross for a minute so I can show you an example:

Say you have a cold sore/fever blister and you apply your makeup as usual.  If you don't clean that brush, you run a VERY high risk of spreading that herpes virus - even to your eyes.  Yes... the same virus that causes your cold sore (HSV-1) can be transmitted to your eye - which is a mucous membrane and making it more susceptible - and cause conjunctivitis or even Ocular Herpes, both of which are very contagious.  Ocular Herpes can also cause vision loss and corneal scarring.

Does that convince you to regularly clean those brushes now?  Good.  Here's my opinion and personal practice:

First rule of thumb - Always clean new brushes before you ever let them touch your face.  This will remove dust, dirt, bacteria and any chemical treatments that may be present.

I believe you should think of your brushes like you do your hair.  Whe your hair gets dirty, you shampoo it.  Shampooing takes out the buildup and basically sanitizes your hair on a rudimentary level.  Apply that same thought to your brushes.  Put a tiny bit of shampoo in your palm (it doesn't take much), wet the brush and pat back and forth to work the solution into the brush.  Use your fingers to gently work the bristles and rinse all of it out with warm water until it runs clear and no longer feels soapy.

The next thing is to condition.  Yup.  Conditioner.  Conditioning the bristles keeps them soft, moisturized, and also strengthens them.  Shampooing alone can leave the bristles dry, brittle and scratchy.  Follow the same steps as you do with the shampoo.

Always let your brushes air-dry.  Don't blow dry or apply heat to dry them.  This will weaken and melt the glue holding the ferrule to the handle.  To dry, gently squeeze excess water from the brush between the thumb and index finger, working your way to the tip.  Place the brush between your palms with the bristles pointing downward and briskly rub back and forth to expel any remaining trapped water in the bristles.  Reshape the brush and allow it to air-dry.

If you really want to sanitize your brush, UV toothbrush sanitizers will work fine for your personal use and can be purchased for less than $20.

Saphoros is now offering a new Two-Step Brush Cleaning Kit with all-natural shampoo containing a special blend of essential oils to clean and sanitize, and an unscented, specially-formulated conditioner with biotin, keratin and panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5) to maintain bristle strength and softness for only $5.95.  Give it a try!

Technique: Shadow Foiling

Instructions & Tips on Wet-Foiling and Eyelining with Loose Minerals

We're really high on hygenics around here, so we are going to start off this article with a little instruction on sanitation. With regards to wet-foiling minerals, it is best to never introduce moisture into your powders. While powders have an incredibly long shelf-life, introducing a wet brush into them will dramatically shorten it, not to mention be a hazard to you. When moisture is allowed into them, the powders can and will harbor any number of various bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus (a really big baddie). This can cause irritation and infection, which you don't want. With all that said, please use caution with foiling and use a separate clean container - not the lid - and use only dry accessories to introduce the minerals into the liquid.

OK. We're done preaching now.  Here are the supplies we're using:

Step 1: In your clean container, start with 1 or 2 drops of your mixing medium (we recommend our own Foiled Again! medium).

Step 2: Using a clean DRY brush (Wet/Dry Shadow or Taklon are best) or small spatula, dip into minerals (let's use Blueberry Glitterz) and swirl into mixing medium. You don't want the shadow to be too runny or too thick, but a nice, creamy consistency. If the mixture is too thin, the color thins out and will not be even or vibrant. If it is too thick, the shadow will clump, flake and crease. If you find your mixture is too wet, add a little more powder. If too thick, add another drop of liquid. It is best to introduce the liquid a drop at a time. Not much is needed at all.

Step 3: Once you get the shadow to the proper consistency, apply immediately. The mixture will dry quicker than you think!  Take a look at the difference.  On the left, the Blueberry Glitterz is applied with a dry brush, with no primer or anything - just naked skin. On the right is the Blueberry Glitterz wet-foiled.  It's an amazing difference!  Once foiled, these shadows will be darn-near waterproof and smudgeproof.

Step 4: Thoroughly clean your brush and container when you're done.

Application Tips:

When the shadow dries, blend lightly with a clean, dry brush to correct any streaking or uneven areas, and to create a seamless blend with other colors.

For an even more dramatic look or different effects, apply a dry coat of shadow (either the same shade or a different one) and blend.

Don't wet-line your eyes at the waterline. Not only can it look too harsh, you also run the risk of irritation and damage to the tear ducts and cornea. If you must color the waterline, a soft pencil is the recommended route. On a slightly gross and funnier note, wet-lining the waterline also increases the risk of really colorful eye-boogers!

It Ain’t Easy Being Green? It Can Be

Sustainable (adj) – Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment (1)

Sustainability is the buzz-word of the millennium, and whether you believe in global warming or not, our waste habits affect the environment – and sustainability is imperative. I could try to wow or shock you with tons of facts and figures, but I’ll stick with the basics and get to my point.

The point is we generate millions of tons of trash each year, most of which can be recycled in some way – yet approximately 80% of it goes to landfills. That’s pretty darn wasteful, right?

What can you do about it?

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says to “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” – in that order. While I may have my own personal issues with the EPA at times, this is good advice in my book.

At Saphoros, we are always trying to find ways to increase sustainability and be greener. Some of the things we do to reduce our carbon footprint include using recycled/recyclable packaging, hand-filling and hand-mixing. We are now offering more refills than ever on our Lueur Jeune cosmetics, including eyeshadows, blushes and even our Pressed Perfection Cream-to-Powder foundations (and more). By doing this, we are helping you to REDUCE (step 1) your amount of waste and REUSE (step 2) potential waste. We can’t make you recycle – that’s an individual thing – but we can tell you that 80% of American households now have access to recycling, either by curb-side pickup or recycling centers, and that almost all of our packaging can be recycled.

So save your mineral makeup jars. Clean them out and buy refills whenever you can. Buying refills not only reduces waste and energy consumption, it also saves you money. Refills are less expensive for both the company and the consumer.

More on reusing our packaging… You can save any glass jar, boxes, tissue, and just about any plastic jar that once contained powder. Take, for instance, our all-natural facial masks. These are powdered, so there is no residue to work its way into the plastic and potentially contaminate the container, and it can be easily cleaned and used for other things from storing/carrying small items (buttons, beads, etc) to dry snacks (candy-coated pleasures, dry cereal). The possibilities aren’t endless, but there are a lot.

These simple things might seem small potatoes in comparison to the amount waste we dump, but just think… If everyone did these small, simple things, it WILL make a positive impact.

I’ll leave you with a couple of links for further information and facts:

US EPA Wastes Site – Tons of information and facts on waste, recycling, how you can help, etc: http://www.epa.gov/osw/index.htm

Earth911 – News stories, articles, facts and more: http://www.earth911.com/

1 – The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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