Hygiene is the most important factor to consider when cleaning your makeup brushes. Whether you use the lower priced nylon brushes or the more expensive animal hair types, if your brushes are not rid of bacteria, skin oils, pollution, old minerals, clogged powder and pigment, your finish will not be flawless.

Hygiene

Imagine having just washed your face and applying your favorite day moisturizer and then picking up an oily rag full of brightly colored moldy blotches and wiping your face with it. Is there something wrong with this picture? That oily rag is what your brushes would look like soap brows you extracted every bit of dirt from them after a month of use. Your brushes need to be sanitized. Shop for a bottle of anti-bacterial face soap. Wet your brush under warm running water. Squeeze a small amount of soap onto a wet hand and cup your hand. Hold the shaft of the brush and place the bristles into the cup of your wet hand and swirl the brush to pick up all the soap. You can be relatively vigorous. You will see the dirt and color in the soap suds as you do this. Run warm water over the bristles and massage them until the water runs clear. Repeat from the beginning once more to ensure all residue is gone.

Skin Problems

Brushes should be cleaned as often as you have time for. Ideally, a clean after every application would be perfect however, a woman's schedule in today's world may not allow for this. Set some time aside at least every week to clean your most used brushes and those you use over large surfaces of your face like your foundation, blush and powder brushes. Eye shadow brushes can skip a week if you always use the same colors and brow brushes can last up to a month, depending on the condition of your skin. If you have problem skin and buff your skin every day with a powder brush, that powder brush picks up the bacteria from problem areas and houses the bacteria until your next brush cleaning routine. Every other day, the housed bacteria grows and deposits more bacteria onto your clean skin the next time you use it. With most problem skins, a good wash can sometimes open pores leaving a fresh invitation for brush bacteria to deposit itself. Also, a good wash can sometimes open inflamed pores leaving a little pot of liquid open for your brush to pick up and smear across your face and deposit further bacteria into it, worsening the problem.

In the case of free radicals and pollution which ages your skin and can contribute to a myriad of fatal diseases, it is imperative that your brushes remain as clean and free radical and pollution free as you can make them.

Conditioning

If you are using nylon brushes, you may not have to condition your brushes. If you are using natural brushes and would like to keep them in excellent condition, shop for an organic and natural, chemical free hair conditioner. Once you have washed and sterilized your brushes, add a small amount of natural conditioner through the bristles and leave for a few minutes. Rinse clean of any trace of conditioner so as not to deposit hair conditioner onto your face during makeup application. Squeeze water out of the bristles and leave to dry. If you would like a fluffy effect for your bristles, blow a shot of air from your hairdryer to your bristles, pointing the dryer directly to the center of your bristles.

Remember that whatever you clean your brushes with will end up on your face. Choose your products carefully.