Do you have pressed powders, blushes, bronzers and eye shadows that have been sitting around for a while? Can you see the product's pan? Toss these. Once you can see the silver pan the product is in, bacteria is growing and using a product riddled with bacteria can cause your skin to breakout and that bacteria transfers to your brushes you apply them with. Do you have products that you haven't used in the past three to six months? Get rid of them too. Just like you would get rid of or donate clothes you don't wear anymore each season, you should do this with your makeup too. Chances are if you haven't used the product in a while, you won't be using it anytime soon anyway.
What do your makeup brushes and tools look like? If they look caked with makeup, have become coarse or disfigured, it's time to give them a good wash. When I wash my brushes, I wet them with warm water in my sink and then saturate them with Ulta Professional's brush and sponge cleaner. You can also use whatever you use to wash your face with to clean your brushes. I rub the brush in between my thumb and pointer finger and press and swirl it into my palm to lather it up and get the make up out. Depending on how long it's been since you've washed your brushes, you might have to repeat this a few times. You'll know your brush is clean when the water runs clear out of it. Once I have washed all of the makeup out of my brushes, I gently squeeze any excess water out of them with a soft cloth or paper towel. I lay them out to dry on a paper towels. I usually wash my brushes early Sunday afternoon since I don't usually wear makeup on Sundays -- this gives them plenty of time to dry before I use them Monday morning.
At this time of the year, I would even suggest investing in some new brushes, especially ones you use on a daily basis to apply foundation and concealers. My favorite brand of brushes is Real Techniques since they are high quality, but realitvely inexpensive. Ulta is having a sale on them right now, buy one get one 50 percent off. I have the Real Techniques Core Collection and Travel Essential kits and love every brush in them. I also like Eco Tools' brand of brushes.
What do you store your makeup collection in? A vanity drawer, makeup bag, plastic organizer? Now is a good time to completely empty out your makeup storage containers and clean them out. Powders and liquids leak and fall out into your containers, making a mess and promoting bacteria growth. Emptying these storage systems out will also help you figure out what old products you can get rid of. Once you empty out your storage container, use antibacterial wipes or surface cleaner and paper towels to clean them out. As you put your products back into the container, wipe them off with the cleaner so you're not putting dirty compacts back into your clean space. When cleaning out my makeup collection, I like using Method products since they don't contain harsh chemicals and they smell great.
When you're doing your makeup, do you have a hard time finding what you need? Now is a good time to come up with a new storage system that keeps everything organized and easy to find. I personally like having everything organized in a way that I can see everything. I have my vanity organized with a clear acrylic organizer I found at Target. I keep all of my brushes, small compacts, mascaras, loose pigments, eyeliners and tubes of liquid highlighters all in this tray. Not only does it make it easy to keep them organized and easy to find, it is also easy to clean. Since I have so many lip sticks, glosses and balms, I bought a small plastic three-drawer organizer from Target that sits on my vanity next to my organizer tray. I keep hair ties and clips in one drawer, and I use the other two drawers for my lip products. Since some of my eyeshadow palettes are too big to fit inside of these two storage containers, I just have them positioned around the organizing tray. I also keep my Real Technique brushes in their cases, those too are laying next to my organizing tray.
If you have a larger makeup collection than me, there are a few different styles of the organizer trays available at Target that you could place next to each other on your vanity, on or under your bathroom sink vanity if you have one. There are also larger plastic drawer containers that you could utilize. Another option is using the organizing tray for the products you use every day to speed up your morning routine and then keeping products you use for special occassions or weekend looks in a separate storage container, whether it's a set of plastic drawers or a kit that you can close up and put away. Target and Ulta both have a wide variety of options for organizing. If you use vanity drawers for makeup storage, a great way to keep them organized is by using utensil and cutlery trays, which you can find very cheap at Ikea. Bed, Bath & Beyond also has a variery of utensila nd cutlery trays you can use to organize your makeup and tools in.
While this might seem like a lot of work, it really doesn't take that long. I usually go through this process every other week and it takes about 10 minutes. And it won't cost you very much money, all of the organizers are well under $20.Your collection will be clean, organized and more effecient. Not to mention you will now have plenty of room for new spring and summer beauty products. Check back soon for my product picks that will make your look fresh and glowing for the new season.
Do you have any organization or spring cleaning tips for makeup collections? Weigh in in the comments section below.
xoxo Nic