Why is it important to clean make up brushes

Our make up brushes could be the nest for multiple bacteria, fungus and dust.

These little “bugs” can be the cause of skin infections, acne and other skin issues…

Each time we use our brushes for different make up, it accumulates different colors of pigments, minerals and other ingredients contained into our make up, blushes, eye shadows…

If you pick up a bright purple eye shadow on Monday, and switch for a nude on Tuesday,  chances are that your nude…won’t be as nude as you wish…

How I was used to clean my brushes: Method 1: With Natural Marseille’s Soap

I used to clean my make up brushes, as well as my art painting brushes with Marseille’s soap (or Castille’s soap). This natural soap contains a minimum of 72% of olive oil. I was used to clean even the durtiest brushes, packed even with oil painting and heavy mediums…

How it works….?

Oil contained in soap prefers to avoid water…it is said that oil’s molecules are lipophobic. So they prefere to surround dust and durt…to avoid water….they bind together…against water…once rinsing…these binded molecules are flushed together with water…and are leaving your  brushes free of durt…or make up.

and just for the few of you who would like to know…here is what I use to paint:

Now here is an easy switch….as you can see…I loooove horses…

I also had all the material to ride horses…such as saddles…and saddle pads… even a fluffy lambskin to protect my oldest horse’s back….

and I was dry cleaning it pretty often…with an old tip taught by elderlies in South of France…Terre de Sommières was their secret….

Terre de Sommières is a Provence’s clay, very white…which has the capacity of soacking all the dusts, durts, smells, oils, stains….

Why it works…this clay has the capacity of soacking (if I remeber well 100 times) its weight in oily and to bind with dust.

Magic isn’t it???

The secret method was to deeply impragnate the lamb fur with the Terre de Sommières…to let it do its job for a few minutes…then to shake it to remove all the Terre de Sommieres AND the dusts and durt…

I have done that for years….the pad was staying clean…and my horse’s back was so happy about it!!!

How to clean your Make Up Brushes: Method 2: Dry clean

The ingredients you will need:

-1 small jar

-2 tbsp of terre de sommières (mineral)

-2 tbsp of arrow root (vegetal), this vegetal powder have the same benefits as terre de sommières…you can find it any organic store..it is also used in cooking…

-10 drops of an antibacterial essential oil***, it could be cinnamon, lavender, pine, Geranium ( pelargoniumX asperum), peppermint essential oils….these oils have a pleasant smell…and have a powerful antibacterial and antifungal benefit.

If you don’t find any Terre de Sommières…you can replace it by this formula:

-4tbsp of arrow root

-1 tsp of backing soda

-your choice of essential oils

Close the jar with its lid…and shake to mix all the ingredients…

Dig your brush into your blend, allowing the brush to be well impragnated with the powder.

Proceed with all your brushes.

Shake your brushes over the sink, allowing all the powder to dust away…you can help by gently brushing the edge of the lid with your brush…

Your brushes are now ready for the next uses…

As you can discover below, the action combined of arrow root, terre de sommieres, which are neutralizing dusts and impurities, and essential oils which are killing germs…is the perfect blend to maintain your make up brushes by dry cleaning.

The topic of this post has been totally inspired by a great blog I follow: say hello to gorgeous…where you will find great reviews on cosmetics and beauty!!! Her post was about how often we clean our makeup brushes…

*** about the antibacterial and anti fungal properties of essential oils, all essential oils are not equal, depending on the chemestry of the oil…one of the oil category presenting the largest broad spectrum are the phenolic essential oils (see the proposed list above).

It has been researched and proved scientifically, one of my main source for learning is Pierre Franchomme, who lead many researches showing the effectiveness of EO against pathogenic micro-organisms (understand germs).

It is proved that essential oils are killing streptococcus, staphylococcus (even aureus), and even staphylococcus epidermitis (EO are therefore very helpful to treat epidermitis), also escherichia coli…this is a non exhaustive list for bacteria…

it also works on fungus: some EO are destroying Candida (5 different kinds), aspergillus….

As well as on viruses.

I hope you enjoyed reading, thank you for visiting my blog

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Be beautiful with nature, be beautiful by nature

Xx