How Dirty Makeup Brushes Can Affect Your Skin
Mar 06, 2024 By Madison Evans

We all love putting on makeup, but while the application part is fantastic, it is the cleaning aspect that many of us dread. We are sure you can relate to it, right? While many of us cannot live without our favorite makeup brushes, when the time comes to wash them clean, many of us tend to become lazy.

However, cleaning your makeup brushes should be a constant part of your makeup routine because dirty makeup brushes can impact your skin severely. Wondering to what extent it can affect your skin? Through this article, let us help you comprehend the impacts of dirty makeup brushes. Let's dive in!

What Happens When You Use Dirty Makeup?

Imagine you are putting on makeup and seeing a dirty makeup brush you cannot remember when you last washed. However, you still pick it up, thinking about what would even happen if you use it or how possibly bad the impacts of a dirty makeup brush can be. Well, if this is the case, then let us give you a breakdown of what happens if you use a dirty makeup brush:

Clogged Pores

Dirty makeup brushes are breeding grounds for bacteria, dirt, excessive oil, makeup residue, and other impurities. These impurities can then end up setting on your skin and also get into open pores over time, which can further cause pore-clogging. Pore-clogging can cause acne and other skin problems, which would further be bad for your skin.

Hence, if you have a lot of acne or are experiencing other skin problems but cannot figure out the cause of it, then maybe it is time to give your makeup brushes a second look.

Uneven Makeup Application

We all love the results and blend a new makeup brush gives, right? However, have you ever wondered why the application of the same brush gets ruined over time? The primary reason your makeup brush doesn't blend or help you apply makeup as flawlessly as before is because you aren't cleaning it well. Blending becomes difficult when your makeup brushes are dirty and the pigments deposit somewhat unevenly on your skin.

Can Cause Conjunctivitis

As mentioned above, dirty makeup brushes have many bacteria on them. Hence, using these bacteria-prone brushes on your skin and sharing them with other people can easily cause you to develop conjunctivitis. How so? Well, the bacteria on the skin can quickly get into the eye, leading to various other infections, including conjunctivitis.

Serious Skin Irritation

Dirty makeup brushes can also cause your skin to become sensitive and prone to irritation. This is because dirty brushes, clogged with residual oil and dirt, slow down the cell turnover process, ultimately increasing your skin's sensitivity. This becomes a gateway for many skin problems like redness, itchiness, and other inflammatory disorders.

Affect the Lifespan of Brushes

High-quality makeup brushes aren't cheap, hence, in purchasing them, we consider them a long-term long-term long-term. However, do you know that brushes won't last as long as you want them if not cleaned?

Yes! You, if not cleaned properly, heard us right. The residual oil, dirt, and makeup on the dirty brushes tend to clump the bristles on your brush, loosen the glue, and deform the overall shape. Hence, to ensure that your long-term investment lasts for an acceptable period, wash your makeup tools at least twice a week, depending on how much you use them.

Early Signs of Ageing

No one wants to get wrinkles or other signs of aging early on their face, right? Well, what if we tell you that using dirty makeup brushes opens your door to that. While it may seem pretty unlikely when you first hear it, the oil, dirt, bacteria, and residual makeup on the brushes can distort the natural oil on it when transferred to your skin. This, in turn, can severely impact your collagen and elastin production, leading to you developing wrinkles, lines, and other signs of aging.

How to Properly Clean Your Makeup Brushes?

Now that you know of all the harmful impacts that dirty makeup brushes can cause to your face and skin, we are sure you'd be getting up this instance to clean all the brushes you have stranded in your drawer. Well, before you do this, we suggest you look into the right ways to clean your makeup brushes:

  • Rinse the tip of your makeup brushes under lukewarm running water to remove any residual makeup. Ensure that you only rinse the tip and not dip the entire brush because doing this would loosen the glue that connects your bristles to the head.
  • Now, fill a bowl with lukewarm water and pour in some shampoo. We suggest you use a gentle shampoo to do this. Using only soap and water can dry out your bristles and ruin your makeup brushes.
  • Start swirling your brushes in the bowl.
  • Take out the brush and rinse its tips under running water.
  • Continue shampooing and rinsing all your brushes until the water runs clear through the brush.
  • Squeeze out any excess moisture with a clean and dry paper towel.
  • Lastly, lay your brushes flat out on a dry towel with the tips of it hanging off from the edge. Never let your brushes stand upright on the counter to dry them.

Wrapping Up!

If you have dirty makeup brushes on your makeup table, take this article as a sign to clean them. We hope this article was helpful for you to understand why using dirty makeup brushes is a no-go for your skin and how you can clean your makeup brushes easily.