How to Sanitize or Disinfect Your Makeup
It's a good time to bring up the subject of how to sanitize or disinfect your makeup, cosmetics and tools and why you'd even want to do that.
If I asked you this, "When was the last time you cleaned your makeup?"
Most of you would probably cringe when you realize that either you haven't really cleaned your makeup or it has been forever since you did!
Everyone knows already that cleaning your makeup brushes is essential to prevent all that gunk and germs from collecting and transferring to our faces, but if your makeup is swimming in pools of germs, your clean brushes aren't going to do you any good to prevent possible infections.
MAKE SURE TO WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE GETTING STARTED! As in wash it with soap and water in the duration of 2 Happy Birthday Songs. :)
Also, keep your hair tied back out of the way. Let's get started:
Sanitizing Makeup and Tools
There are a few important things you will need to get everything clean and germ-free, so let's get into it:
An isopropyl alcohol is great for killing bacteria that could be living in your precious makeup. A concentration of 70% or higher is recommended but try to avoid 99% because it might evaporate too fast before penetrating those pesky bugs.
Place alcohol in spray bottle. This is to make it easy to spray cosmetics and makeup tools without making a huge mess everywhere!
To clean eyeshadows bronzers, blushes and lipsticks, just spritz alcohol directly onto the item. Be careful not to oversaturate! Leave them open to dry.
For pencils, grab your sharpener (make sure it is clean to avoid cross contamination), sharpen to take the outer layer off. Oh, hey, that was easy!
You can also wipe it down with alcohol on a cotton pad.
Additional:
I personally love to take the disinfecting wipes to clean the OUTSIDE of whatever makeup containers you have in your collection.
DO NOT USE it on the makeup itself or you will die... just kidding, but seriously don't do it. Those things contain harsher chemicals that could harm you and potentially ruin your precious makeup. We don't want that.
Other Things to Consider:
Liquid liners, lipglosses, mascara, loose shadows and other items that are in containers similar to these are very tricky to clean. I suggest getting rid of them when they start to turn gunky and dry.
As for loose shadows, you could always press them!
Summary
The point of all this is to make sure all your cosmetics, makeup tools and accessories are free from germs, bacteria and other nasty toxins that could cause problems for your skin without you even knowing it.
Cleanliness is cool especially when we're talking about having amazing skin that radiates a beautiful glow through the cosmetics we use to enhance our great looks!
I hope this was helpful for all the makeup lovers out there!
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Posted on February 3, 2014 in Beauty | 43 Comments
43 thoughts on "How to Sanitize or Disinfect Your Makeup"
natasjaepb says:
February 11, 2014
this is brilliant, thanks so much! won't using alcohol on your make-up be bad for your skin though? I suffer from rosacea and I try to avoid things like alcohol as much as possible.
Maria B says:
February 11, 2014
Although alcohol evaporates out of the makeup, there will be some residue left and it can irritate your sensitive skin even further. I would just look for other alternatives that is made for sanitizing makeup that can be use with super sensitive skin.
bpreethi says:
February 6, 2014
I only very recently started trying make up and this might be really great for sensitive skinned folks like me who can break out from dirty make up! Great post! :)
Maria B says:
February 6, 2014
Yes girl! Clean brushes, clean makeup and a clean face every night before bed!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it :)
momerrell says:
February 5, 2014
Thank you for this. I literally am in the process of cleaning mine but had no idea how. This helped me a lot.
Maria B says:
February 5, 2014
You're very welcome! I'm glad it helped you.
dapperdolly says:
February 5, 2014
Excellent post, I use rubbing alcohol too but must confess that I haven't cleaned the containers for a while! I do clean brushes regularly though, but the sponges needs a good wash :-S
Maria B says:
February 5, 2014
I'm guilty of not cleaning either until I find out I could do this. I read a post about somebody getting an eye infection and that's why started looking for information. Thank you for stopping by :)
ElegantAgelessBeauty says:
February 5, 2014
Fab post, and very useful info too thank you for sharing with us. I shall be doing a clean up asap! x
Maria B says:
February 5, 2014
You're welcome! I'm glad so many people are finding it useful!
The Posh Blog says:
February 5, 2014
Haha so I won't die? What a relief. I ruined a shadow spraying directly onto it so I'm fearful. Thanks for sharing, I wash my brushes and go through and keep my makeup clean but I don't sanitize. I will start. xx
Maria B says:
February 5, 2014
I'm just curious, was your shadow ruined by the alcohol?
Cause if it was, I don't recommended using alcohol on those eyeshadows again. lol
idyllwilddesigns says:
February 4, 2014
This is excellent! If you don't mind I think I'll re-blog it on our Beauty Buzz this week.
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
Thank you! And no, I don't mind at all. :)
lenahedges says:
February 4, 2014
Such a good idea for a post! I bet most people don't know how to or just don't!
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
Yup, I didn't know about this until recently actually… :P
Pamper Queen says:
February 4, 2014
This is so important – more people need to be made aware of cleaning and sanitising of beauty products and tools! Great blog!
amuletabeauty says:
February 4, 2014
Babe this is awesome! So helpful AB x
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
You're welcome gorgeous. :)
Lubka Christova says:
February 4, 2014
Just one question – doesn't the spraying spoil the powder items such as eye shwdows and bronzes? I'm just thinking that adding liquid to the surface would spoil it. Lu.
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
Hi Lubka :) Don't put any other liquid on your makeup because it will ruin it. But alcohol actually evaporates so it does leave the makeup intact after if you let it sit. There's a lot of information and demo online of people using alcohol to fix broken makeup.
pagebypaigebeauty says:
February 4, 2014
Great post! I need to get on that and clean out my makeup collection.
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
Thanks! Glad I could help remind you! :)
thegraceissue says:
February 4, 2014
I love this post! so handy to know little tricks and tips about cleaning makeup itself not just brushes! usually I just clean my brushes and I'm done but now I'll b adding this to my routine! x
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
Thank you! It's weird how little info there is about it but there's a TON regarding cleaning brushes.
natziwang says:
February 4, 2014
o.o Disinfecting makeup isn't something I'd ever considered doing. I guess I should go try that now.
Maria B says:
February 4, 2014
I know right? It's like we clean our brushes but we dip them in the same makeup that we used our dirty brushes on afterwards. It's nice to do every few months or so to lower the risk.
nhieubeauty says:
February 3, 2014
I like to use my BeautySoClean to sanitise my makeup. But I suppose alcohol will do the job just fine
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
I did some reading on BeautySoClean to see what the ingredients are. It wasn't listed on the site but someone on a message board who got it listed the ingredients. It's basically alcohol and other emollients. It is way overpriced in my opinion for the ingredients that they used.
Alcohol is cheap alternative for now :)
Even though there's speculation that it will dry out or change the consistency of your makeup overtime, I think that is just a sign that you've had that makeup long enough and it's time to toss it.
nhieubeauty says:
February 3, 2014
Oh really… that's cool. I never checked the ingredients. Maybe I should just start using alcohol then… It's nice to have some alternatives
jomakeupobsessive says:
February 3, 2014
Brilliant advice! I need to get me some rubbing alcohol! X
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
It's a cheap alternative :) If you want to go way beyond this, you can DIY by adding emollient to it if you're afraid of it drying out your makeup.. (Which really shouldn't be an issue if used once in awhile)
Jae says:
February 3, 2014
Whoa. I didn't it was okay to spritz some alcohol on make-up. I might do this one of these days. Thanks for the tips, Maria!
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
I first found out about the alcohol when I came across a tutorial in pressing loose eyeshadows. Oh, and you're welcome!
Jae says:
February 3, 2014
[Ha. I didn't *know*...] You are awesome. Keep posting tips as such!
mochalovegoddess says:
February 3, 2014
What method do you used to clean your brushes? Thanks. Great tips!
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
Hi :) I use one of those antibacterial dish soap, then rinse. Sometimes I do a second go with conditioner to keep the brush soft then rinse. Then dry them hanging brush side down so the water doesn't go up towards the handle and ruin the glue. :)
Paige says:
February 3, 2014
This is a great post! I didn't know you could sanitize the makeup itself, thanks for sharing this info.
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
Thank you for stopping by Paige. Glad you liked it.
Luvly-RichlyBroke says:
February 3, 2014
Great and informative, I just cleaned my brushes last night. I never really though of cleaning my makeup – as you stated what good to have clean brushes and dip it right back in germy makeup.
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
It's something that I realized recently too. It's nice to do this once in awhile to, at least, lower the risks of infection. :)
tarahsaint says:
February 3, 2014
Wow, this is literally amazing…I never knew I had to clean my makeup…I knew cleaning brushes was a must, though. Yet, I haven't done it! Smh thanks for the reminder! I will def be referring to this post.
Maria B says:
February 3, 2014
I'm so glad to hear that! I didn't know either so I had to look up information and make my own post to spread the word. Thanks again! :D