Why clean your makeup brushes? There are three big reasons for doing so.

• Cleaning your makeup brushes improves performance.
• Cleaning your makeup brushes prevents bacteria, oil buildup and transfer.
• Cleaning them will extend the life of your makeup brushes.Brushes are a big investment, so we should be doing our best to protect them.

Optimally, we should wash our brushes once a week; I think I speak for most of us when I say that usually doesn’t happen. A realistic goal is to wash your brushes at least once a month. Here are the steps of how to clean your makeup brushes.

How to Clean Your Brushes

• Use warm water to saturate the brush hairs only. Be sure not to soak your brush as this will ruin it.
• Place a pea-sized amount of any mild shampoo, into the palm of your hand and massage the cleanser into the hair. Do this until the cleanser has been completely dispersed among the brush hairs.
• Rinse the brush thoroughly until the water runs clear.
• Repeat as necessary.
• Create a ring with your index finger and thumb and pull the brush through the fingers while applying gentle pressure to remove excess water and maintain the brushes shape.
• Place on a towel and lay flat to dry. Never dry your brush in an upright position as this will loosen the glue that binds the brushes and lead to hair loss.

Never place your brushes in a sterilizer because it will permanently damage them.

How to Hide Allergy Symptoms with Makeup

Many people are affected by seasonal allergies and symptoms vary from person to person. Some of us sneeze more often, while others end up with more severe symptoms like red, itchy eyes; nasal congestion; a runny nose; and so much more. Two of the most common side effects as a result of our allergy symptoms are redness and inflammation. So, we’re going to share a few tips on how to conceal those without much effort.

Hiding Redness

• Choose a gold-toned base: Yellow is the best shade to color correct redness in the skin, so when disguising a red under-eye area or a red nose, we recommend choosing a foundation with more yellow/gold pigment like BB6 Glow Time Full Coverage Mineral BB Cream or Warm Sienna PurePressed Base Mineral Foundation.

• Try blue eye makeup: When the whites of our eyes start to appear red, we like to trade our black or brown eyeliners for our Midnight Blue Eye Pencil. Wearing blue eye makeup is similar to wearing lipstick with blue undertones, the sapphire shade helps counteract the red and whiten the area near it. We know blue eye makeup may seem a little scary, so read these tips on how real women wear blue on their eyes.

• Dazzle and distract: If you have a little redness around your nose, distract from the affected area by wearing a shimmery PureGloss Lip Gloss on your lips. May we suggest a vibrant pink shade like Blossom?
• Switch to a gentle cleanser: If your skin is red, there’s a good chance it also feels sensitive, so replace your cleanser with something that is gentler, like a micellar water. BeautyPrep Face Cleanser is a micellar water formula that also includes Cucumber Extract for added soothing properties.

• Use products that soothe: When our skin is both red and irritated, we use Golden Powder-Me SPF Dry Sunscreen. This feeds two birds with one scone by counteracting the redness with a golden powder and soothing our skin with ingredients like Montmorillonite. It also has a third benefit of SPF 30 sun protection!