My Major Brush Cleaning Hacks {Here’s & There’s}

Today I decided to share my brush cleaning hacks. When I first started Make It Rayne, I uploaded an embarrassingly mediocre post on how I clean my brushes. I am not even going to link back to the post because it is way too cringey now! You can easily find it in the search bar if you really want to though..

So that post was super basic and consisted of me showing off my little brush collection and letting the world know that I use the Clicks home brand baby shampoo to clean my brushes. Fast forward 18 months later and I still use the Clicks baby shampoo. That thing is a winner! Leaves your brushes super soft and smelling delish. Like who doesn’t love the small of babies?

Anyhoo, as my collection has grown I have added quite a few denser brushes into my collection. Brushes such as the Sigma F05, Inglot 27TG, Real Techniques Stippling Brush, Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. These bristles and heads are a lot denser and tougher. Baby Shampoo just does not work properly. It gets a lot of product out, but there is still a lot of gunk left over.

I am not a squeamish person, but just the thought of never cleaning your brushes and applying foundation with the same brush without washing them makes me gag. Blusher and brow brushes, maybe. Foundation brushes have to be cleaned now and again!

I was asking Snapchat for some solutions as an entire mini bottle of the shampoo wasn’t making much difference after three washes. Cara suggested coconut oil and it worked like a DREAM! I had a tester tub of the Coconut Connection oil left and it worked like a dream. You can either scratch some out (it was Winter, this stuff is SOLID) or you can melt it in a pot and swirl your brushes in it. It makes a WORLD of difference and your brushes smell divine! I adore the smell of coconut.

Of course – like most people – I was lusting over the Real Techniques brush cleaning mat which unfortunately is 1) not available here and 2) expensive. After staring at it for ages online I noticed how the ridges in the mat are not unlike those of a hot water bottle. You know, the old school ones? If you lie on it it leaves ridges on your body/face? That one.

The difference is that the RT one actually goes on your hand like a mitt. If you use a hot water bottle, poor little you cannot put that onto your hand. Shame. The RT brush cleaner also has three different style of bumps and ridges when a hot water bottle only has one. Again, shame.

Nevertheless, it gets the job done damn well! The Real Techniques website states that theirs cleans brushes 55% better whilst my trick probably cleans brushes only 40% better.

So there you go! Try my brush cleaning hacks for yourself and let me know if it helped you at all? My awesome purple hot water bottle was bought for R79,95 for Checkers two months ago!

Rayne XX