How I clean my make up brushes

The dread at the end of the week when you realise you've got to clean your makeup brushes, the week of makeup has taken its tole on the brushes and it is time for a fresh start for the week ahead, plus after a while the build up of foundation in the brush just means you end up basically rubbing foundation round your face without it actually setting.

Before

 It is important when drying them to lay them flat or with the bristles facing down to allow the water to drain out and for the brushes to dry, doing this on a towel makes it a lot less messier, when I had less brushes I used to lay it out on paper towel but a towel is more absorbent so they dry a lot quicker in my opinion.

After

The brushes in order 

Mac: 1, 22 buy me here

Japonesque: 2,3,4,6,15 buy me here

Real Techniques: 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18 ,19, 20, 23, 24, 25  buy me here

Bobbi Brown: 7,10,21 buy me here

Urban Decay: 11,13 buy me here

Excuse the foundation that is on this but, this is a cleaning glove from sigma and has made brush cleaning much more bearable, no wrinkled hands or burns from the water being to hot

The glove can be bought here

The glove comes with two sides the first side pictured below: It has larger textured circles on it to get in between the brushes and bring out the excess product.

I firstly like to place my brush under the faucet and get it wet, then on the textured area I use baby shampoo because it is gentle but is soapy enough to get out the product, I begin to buff the brush in circular motions and also soap up the sides of the brush to get any trapped product, I will do this for a while till I feel it is getting cleaner then I will add more water, buff it more then wash off the glove, then once again buff the brush onto the clean brush and then use the rinse part of the glove which is the grooved lines at the top, this helps to get water out of the brush, if the brush is proving troublesome I will use the small circles near the thumb of the glove to get makeup that is lodged near the bristles.

 Then when I think it is clean enough I will put it between where the thumb is and the glove join and squeeze pulling the brush up, reshaping it as I go

This side of the glove is for brushes used which are smaller like eyes and lip brushes, I follow a similar technique for these and with some I use the small area by the thumb especially for the brushes I use with gel eyeliner as they can be tougher to clean as the product is likely to dry into the brush.

Here is the glove in the original packaging 

After a while it becomes quite therapeutic to wash them and it has to be done so why not play some music and enjoy cleaning them by singing, admittedly I'm not Beyonce as I so often think I am.

Let me know how you clean your brushes, I would love to know your tips and tricks.