Almost every day we’re being reminded of how important it is to clean, disinfect, and sanitize everything around us in order to stay healthy and safe from the risk of spreading germs. We’ve gotten used to regularly sanitizing our homes and repeatedly washing our hands to keep our families and friends safe. But, have you ever considered the importance of sanitizing your beauty products?
For makeup artists who work in such close proximity to our clients, if we’re not careful, there’s the possibility of passing along harmful bacteria and germs that could lead to pink eye, cold sores, and even mites. Eww! With the COVID-19 pandemic in front of us, we’re reminded how important it is to keep our products and the working environment extremely clean and sanitary. Looking ahead for the beauty industry, this will be a top priority.
It’s not a question whether we should be sanitizing our beauty products for professional or personal use, the question is, what is the right way to sanitize? In this post, I’ll share some of my best practices and tips on how to sanitize your beauty products. Let’s start!
Makeup Sponges & Beautyblenders
To sanitize Beautyblenders or other makeup sponges, fill a bowl with hot water and add liquid cleanser—this helps to break up the product in the blenders. Let them soak in the bowl for 15 minutes, then squeeze the excess water out and clean with the solid soap from Beautyblender or Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap on a cleansing mat until clean. Spray with a sanitizing spray when finished and lay them out to air dry.
I recently discovered you can disinfect your blenders and sponges in the microwave! While giving them a deep clean works wonders, there still could be lingering bacteria. So to effectively kill 99% of the bacteria in your blenders and sponges, deep clean them first, then place one at a time in a bowl of soapy water and microwave for 2 minutes. Let them air dry before handling.
Makeup Brushes
With makeup brushes, you want to gently massage an eye makeup remover into the bristles to help loosen dried products like foundation, cream liner, and eyeshadow. Then use a gentle brush shampoo or solid cleanser to easily remove the rest of the makeup product in your brushes. Finally, wipe the brush handles with sanitizing wipes and lay flat to dry.
Liners & Lipsticks
Sharpen your eyeliner and lip liner pencils with a sanitized pencil sharpener. Spritz the sharpened pencils with 70% isopropyl alcohol, wipe down with a cotton pad, and let dry. Don’t forget to sanitize the pencil cap with alcohol as well!
To sanitize lipsticks, lightly scrape off the top layer of the product, then spray the lipstick tube with a makeup sanitizing spray. Clean the case with alcohol and cotton. Before applying lipstick on a client or letting a friend use your lipstick, make sure to take a bit of lipstick out of the tube with a sanitized spatula and swipe onto a clean palette. This will ensure germs and bacteria will not make their way onto the lipstick tube.
Powder & Cream Products
Gently scrape the top layer of your powder or cream product off with a sanitized spatula. Next, spray your product with 70% isopropyl alcohol or sanitizing spray and allow it to air dry. Spritz a Q-tip and cotton pad with alcohol and clean around the inside of the product as well as the top and bottom of the case.
Liquids
All liquid products should be transferred onto and used directly from a makeup palette with a clean foundation brush or makeup sponge. The easiest way to sanitize your bottles of liquid products is with sanitizer wipes. Wipe down the entire bottle from top to bottom including the rim, pump, and cap.
Makeup Tools
Last but certainly not least are tools like brush holders, eyelash curlers, tweezers, scissors, and pencil sharpeners, etc. These tools are often overlooked or forgotten about because they’re not used as often as makeup sponges and brushes. But let’s not forget these! Wash with a gentle cleanser and let them air dry. Spray with 70% isopropyl alcohol and wipe them with cotton. I like to use alcohol-soaked Q-tips to clean hard to reach areas on the eyelash curler, and please replace the eyelash curler pads often!
Not only should we continue to stay healthy by sanitizing our homes, but we also shouldn’t neglect to sanitize our beauty products thoroughly and consistently to keep bacteria and germs at bay.
I’d love to hear if you learned something new from this post or have any additional tips. Let me know the comments below!
Leave a Reply