Every beauty lover knows that cleaning your makeup brushes is a necessity from time to time. However, cleaning an abundant collection of makeup brushes is also an inconvenient hassle which many people put off for months at a time. While putting off washing your brushes might seem harmless, cleaning your makeup brushes is actually much more vital to your health and beauty than you might think.

via

Read on to discover the top five reasons why cleaning your makeup brushes is important. (click here to view the best chosen makeup brushes on amazon).

1. Do It Before It’s Too Late

via

This is one of the most important reasons to wash your makeup brushes. Every time you use your makeup brushes to apply product to your skin, you’re caking the bristles in product as well as oil, dirt, and other makeup residue from your skin.

After you finish using a makeup brush and leave it to dry, the oil and dirt from your skin as well as the product you’ve applied with the brush begin to settle into the bristles of the brush and create a gummy buildup. If you don’t clean up this buildup quickly by washing your makeup brushes regularly, your brushes can become unusable and require a lot more effort to clean the longer you let them sit around dirty.

Eventually, failing to clean your makeup brushes and letting residue build up on them can irreversibly ruin your makeup brushes. If you have high-end brushes in your collection that cost $40-$50 dollars per brush, the loss of a makeup brush can cause a significant deficit in your budget.

2. Avoid Breakouts

via

You might have noticed that your skin breaks out randomly at times, leaving tell-tale blemishes around your face. However, did you know that many of these random breakouts are likely caused by applying makeup to your face using dirty brushes?

Makeup brushes that have a buildup of powder or liquid product residue or oil and dirt they’ve picked up from your skin can spread germs and bacteria around your face when used again without being washed. This bacteria can clog your pores, irritate your skin, and create a fresh crop of acne on your face that could have been fully prevented if you’d washed your brushes in the first place.

3. Say No to Dull, Rough Skin

via

When makeup brushes are caked with natural residue from powder, cream, and liquid makeup products, their bristles get dry and rough when the product dries. Then, when you try to use the brushes again, it feels like scouring your skin with the rough side of a sponge.

Not only is this uncomfortable, it’s harmful to the texture and appearance of your skin. Scrubbing your face with a dirty makeup brush-turned-brillo pad can irritate your skin and permanently roughen its texture. It can also eat away at the natural protective layering of your skin and cause your skin to lose some of its natural brightness and appear dull. Plus, scrubbing your face with a rough makeup brush can be painful and increase the sensitivity of your skin.

4. Diseases Are Lurking

via

If you knew you could get diseases from using a dirty makeup brush, you probably wouldn’t be so keen to skip weekly washings. Herpes and conjunctivitis (pink eye) are just two of the nasty bacterial infections which can lay in wait, nestled invisibly within the bristles of unwashed makeup brushes.

Herpes and conjunctivitis can grow within the dark, moist environments of your mascara and lip product tubes. You might not think about cleaning the spoolie attached to your mascara tube or the wand in your liquid lipstick, but these brushes need to be washed just like any other brush in your collection. Dangerous bacteria can multiply on them after use and lead to the development of bacterial infections and diseases which are especially unpleasant to contract in the delicate regions of skin near your eyes and lips.

5. Keep Colors Clear

via

Using a dirty makeup brush that has been previously used to apply makeup products in other colors can cause a blotchy, discolored appearance in your makeup look. Even if you wipe off the brush before using it with a different color, residue from the color you previously used likely remains.

When you apply new color to the brush and start blending it into your skin, residue from the old color blends off into your skin, too. This blend can give an unpleasant, muddled finish to your makeup. It can also give a blotchy and streaked appearance to your skin makeup rather than a smooth, airbrushed finish. To keep your colors clean and clear, wash your makeup brushes regularly, especially between the use of separate dark or bright colors.

Cleaning your makeup brushes is a lot more important than you may have previously believed. The next time you’re considering skipping out on washing your brushes, remember the reasons in this post and remind yourself that cleaning your makeup brushes is important, no matter how much of a minor hassle it might be.  (click here to view the affordable makeup brushes on amazon).