Cleaning brushes

I am not a big make-up wearer. I have my normal routine of powder, blush and eye shadow... And that's about it. No fuss, no look-at-me bold colors, nothing dramatic.

 Half the time I don't spend a lot of time on my make up because I'm too tired/feeling frumpy to bother with it and the other half because I don't really know what I'm doing.

I have seen, on Pinterest, many easy looking ways to clean make-up brushes and since my face has been breaking out a lot more lately I thought I'd wash them and see what happened.

I can't find the original pin that I used, so I'll show you what I did.

Step 1:

add water (about 1/4 c) to a small bowl

add equal parts dish soap and olive oil (I used about a tablespoon each)

Step 2:

swirl brush in mixture until a froth appears and make-up comes off the brush

Now I wasn't expecting much to come off of my brushes because I don't use them everyday, but HOLY COW! Now I can see why my face has been breaking out!

This was what came out of my powder brush.

Almost immediately the water turned color and I was pretty shocked with how dark the water was.

This  what came out of my blush brush!

And this is what came out of my three eye shadow brushes.

I changed the water/soap/oil mix after each brush and let them dry (bristles down) on a paper towel. The brushes I use are all from Target and are pretty inexpensive and I was surprised at how much softer they felt after washing them.

I also cleaned out my make-up. I have a mish-mash of MAC/drugstore/random make-up and it felt good to purge and organize and see what products I really have. I even decided to wear some red lipstick while out running errands.

Wearing red lipstick definitely made me more aware of myself and I found myself checking my teeth in the mirror often to make sure I didn't have it anywhere other than my lips. I also realized I was acting more confident and smiling more {when I was sure my teeth were not marred by red}.

It's amazing how one little change from the norm can make a big difference in your day. So go out here friends {after your clean brushes have added a bit more sparkle to your already beautiful faces}, swipe on a bit of bold color and make the world a prettier place by being out in it!

Happy day!