Good Question...

Becky asks:

 "As for your cleaner recipe, I loooooove it and it's all I use now. I'm sure you've mentioned this like 5 million times but do you deep clean your brushes every day? I've been doing that and am wondering what you do. I've tried just spraying on like a washcloth and wiping back and forth but I don't feel like my brush is totally free of shadow since I use a lot of dark or bold colors. It seems to work okay for face brushes though for a couple of days."

 Okay Becks, here's the lowdown. I wash my brushes at LeAsT once a week, as in deep clean. I don't do it everyday. My process? Use olive oil to treat the brushes that have remnants of gel or wax based products i.e. lipstick or gel liner brushes. Just dip them in and wipe back and forth on a rag. Then disinfect all brushes with the homemade brush cleanser. Then to get my brushes SuPeR white (for the ones that are) I clean them again with Clearasil and warm water. After cleansing them all I put the brush guard on them so they look like new and don't fray everywhere. If I need a brush super quickly, sometimes I'll just use the Clearasil and dry it with the blow dryer. Don't recommend that like crazy but sometimes a girl's gotta do ya know?

Homemade Brush Cleanser on am 590

- 1 cup bottled or distilled water
- 1/4 cup alcohol ( I use 99%) This will be your disinfecting, sanitizing & antibacterial agent
- 1/2 TBSP dish soap (if it can cut grease on your dishes, think of the grease on your brushes)
- 1/2 TBSP gentle shampoo (I used Avalon Organic Shampoo from Walmart)*
- 1 TBSP spray leave-in-conditioner (not cream) to condition bristles

Stir GENTLY!!!!! You do not want the soaps to start foaming or to sud up. After it is all mixed together pour it into your container and there is your inexpensive homemade brush cleanser.
Okay, so for those of you having a hard time cleaning lip brushes or eyeliner brushes with your ordinary cleanser, I have NEWS for YOU!!!!! Since lipstick and most liquid liners are gel/wax based you need something to prep them before disinfecting with your cleanser. You'll need:
- Any olive oil you have in the house
- A paper towel or cloth (best) to deposit color
- A dirty lip or liner brush =)
Put just a DrOp of oil on the rag and clean brush back and forth (avoid circular motions) till most color is gone. Add another drop if needed and repeat process. After color is off of the brush, cleanse normally with your home made brush cleanser or any cosmetic cleanser you have. A trick that I follow for keeping my white brushes white is that after this whole process...I wash them again with Clearasil and they return to WHITE WHITE WHITE!!! =) Click here to see how I clean my brushes (alert! OLD video!!!)

*Click here to learn more about "safe and natural" shampoos. Unfortunately we are led to believe that all baby shampoos must be the most gentle but it's not the case. There are three major ingredients that are unsafe that can be found in your shampoo but the Avalon Shampoo from Walmart has none of them.

Cleaning Brushes In Us Weekly

In this recent issue of Us Weekly, Poppy Montgomery asked this question,"Do I really need to clean my makeup brushes? If so, how often?"

The response was this ABSOLUTELY; clean them once a month. "Brushes can harbor bacteria that causes skin irritation and breakouts," celeb makeup pro Christopher Drummond tells US. Swish bristles in baby shampoo for 30 seconds then lay flat to dry.

I agree, for sure that they need to be cleaned but more than that wouldn't hurt and I think they should be disinfected as well. For a homemade recipe click here!

The Miracle Cleanser

Okay, so for those of you having a hard time cleaning lip brushes or eyeliner brushes with your ordinary cleanser, I have NEWS for YOU!!!!! Since lipstick and most liquid liners are gel/wax based you need something to prep them before disinfecting with your cleanser. You'll need:
- Any olive oil you have in the house
- A paper towel or cloth (best) to deposit color
- A dirty lip or liner brush =)
Put just a DrOp of oil on the rag and clean brush back and forth (avoid circular motions) till most color is gone. Add another drop if needed and repeat process. After color is out of brush cleanse normally with your home made brush cleanser or any cosmetic cleanser you have.

Homemade Brush Cleanser

Monica asked how to make homemade brush cleanser. You can buy one from Mac for a little over $10....but you can make your own for soooo much less!!!!! Pictured here are the items that you will need. The brush cleanser bottle from MAC is ideal to use again for your homemade cleanser so DON'T throw it away!!! You will need:

- 1 cup bottled or distilled water
- 1/4 cup alcohol ( I use 99%) This will be your disinfecting, sanitizing & antibacterial agent
- 1/2 TBSP dish soap (if it can cut grease on your dishes, think of the grease on your brushes)
- 1/2 TBSP gentle shampoo (I used baby shampoo)
- 1 TBSP spray leave-in-conditioner (not cream) to condition bristles

Stir GENTLY!!!!! You do not want the soaps to start foaming or to sud up. After it is all mixed together pour it into your container and there is your inexpensive homemade brush cleanser.