Life on a Budget: How To Clean Your Brushes Using Olive Oil and Dish Soap!

The past couple of months I have discovered a new, budget friendly way to clean my dirty makeup brushes using items the majority of people are sure to have in their home! Using just cool water, olive oil, and dish soap, your makeup brushes can look good as new! Here's how:

In a bowl, put in one part olive oil and two parts dish soap.  The olive oil works great to break down your makeup built up on your brushes and the dish soap cleans the brush.  Get your brushes wet first and then dip them in the olive oil and swirl!

You'll see makeup product immediately start breaking down and coming off your brush! Swirl your brush toward the dish soap and then swirl your brush on the back of your hand which will release even more makeup.  Rinse your brush with cool water (not hot! It can make the glue holding your brush together melt or loosen!), and squeeze your bristles dry. The water coming off your bristles should be clean, otherwise dip your brushes back in the olive oil and soap. 

Set your brushes on a towel to dry overnight and make sure they are at a tilt, bristles side down.  This way water won't settle into the handle and loosen the glue up.  Your brushes should dry in 12 hours time.  If they feel or look oily, it means you need to rinse them once more with soap and water to get the oil off of the bristles.

Now your brushes are good as new! This method is gentle and highly effective which is perfect for prolonging the life of your potentially super expensive brushes. I love easy life hacks like this that just make everything a little easier.

xxSJ

MAC 239 Review: Save or Splurge?

Picking out brushes can be a daunting task. It can get quite overwhelming trying to figure out what brushes you need, what companies make the best type of brushes, what's worth spending on versus saving on....argh the questions are endless! I'm currently in the middle of all this as I'm trying to rebuild my brush collection.
I recently went to MAC and picked up the 239 flat shader brush.

Okay....seriously guys? This brush is UH-MAZING!!!! This brush is many people's favorite brush from the MAC collection and I was unsure if I would just end up being disappointed after it being hyped up so much but let me tell you, this brush is so wonderful.  The densely packed bristles do an incredible job at packing color onto your lids.  It does all of the work for you and now that I have discovered this, I'm never putting it down! This will for sure be an everyday brush for me.
The price for this brush is $24.50 which sounds like a bum-load for one little brush. However, if you take care of your brushes they should last you for years and years and years on end.
My final verdict on this brush is SPLURGE SPLURGE SPLURGE! You will not regret it :)
Here is where you can check out the 239 online: 
http://www.maccosmetics.com/product/145/383/Products/Brushes/Eye/239-Eye-Shader-Brush/index.tmpl


What is your favorite brush from MAC?