Quick tip on cleaning facial brush heads

If you use a cleansing brush to wash your face with, you'll enjoy the deeper cleansing that they provide, being able to remove dirt, grime and makeup residue better than manual hand wash can.

But after a period of time, the brush heads themselves gets quite dirty with the makeup residue (even after removing makeup before using the brush) and becomes grimy. Like makeup brushes, it's important to keep the brush heads cleans so that you don't have bacteria sitting on it and introducing it onto your skin when you go to use it.

You can clean your makeup brushes using the face wash itself but I find that wasteful and not the most effective as these cleansers are made to be gentle on skin. Instead I find foaming hand washes and makeup removers are the most effective brush cleansers.

dirty face brush heads getting a foamy wash

Here are my two favourite cleansers to revive the those worse for wear looking brush heads:

Dove Foaming Makeup Remover 155ml - RRP A$11.57

This makeup remover is great to use only only on your face but also if the bristles of your facial brush are starting to look more brown than white. Makeup removers have the ability to take away the residues of waterproof makeup and this  foam based one makes its easier to disperse and work into the bristles to quickly remove the grease and makeup build-up so the brushes look clean and white again.

Dettol Touch of Foam antibacterial handwash* 250ml - RRP A$3.49

This handy softening foam hand wash is strong at killing nasties but gentle on hands and with a sweet cherry blossom scent. Use this on your brush heads for clean, fresh bacteria-free bristles, eliminating the chance of spreading any germs back onto your face. The large pump means it's easy to dispense the right amount of airy foam for use as a hand wash or a brush cleanser and I've used it to wash a few of my eye makeup brushes as well.

The other things I always do is remove the brush from the body of the cleansing device and allow it to air dry properly. I find this is more effective that drying the brushes attached to its body unit, and means I can wash the unit of any soap scum

With proper care, you an pro-long your brush heads and not have to change them as frequently. The recommended time frame to change the brush head is after 3 months of daily use, but I find that I can get away with an extra month or so before I have to change brush head when I look after

Clarisonic (right) and Panasonic Visa Pure brush head after cleansing. Looking new again

Dove Foaming Makeup Remover and Dettol Touch of Foam handwash are available at supermarkets, leading pharmacies and Priceline.

* Product provided for editorial consideration

Review: Dove Foaming Makeup Remover

Removing makeup at the end of the day is the first step of my evening skincare routine to prep it for the active skincare products I put onto my face. Being a year older (and wiser), this routine is more important than ever.

My favourite makeup removers are the 2 phase types (eg. Clinique Take of the Day, Lancome Bi-Facil or Face of Australia Gentle Makeup Remover) where you have to shake the product to emulsify them before use as I find them more effective at removing stubborn eye makeup - especially the waterproof varieties.

So when I heard there is a new type of makeup remover in the market, I just had to check it out to find out more about it.

Dove Foaming Makeup Remover

• Liquid in bottle, the unique formula turns to foam upon pumping it out of the bottle. 
• Can be applied to dry or wet face to remove makeup by massaging the foam onto skin to break the makeup down and then rinsing it off with water. 
• I find that 2 pumps is adequate to cover my whole face and I use 1 more pump for the eye area as the heavy makeup there needs more foam to remove the eye products. 
• Foaming remover feels like cotton wools carressing face and is pleasant to use with a nice fresh fragrance. 
• Does a great job with removing grime and makeup from face with ease of use depending on makeup formula (with more foam required for waterproof or emulsifying lip products) 
• The foam is not tear-proof - this means if you do get it into your eye, it does cause mild irritation so be careful when taking off that waterproof mascara. 
• Can almost double up as a cleanser as well as it leaves skin cleansed and soft and non-tight feeling. However, it is slightly greasy  after washing face and as I like to double cleanse, I follow up it with a quick cleanse with normal cleanser afterwards (I do use less cleanser though).

A pleasure to use and if you like the feeling of soft cottony foam removing makeup from your face, then this is something you should look into.  It isn't as effective as the 2 phase emulsion type removers but it is certainly more enjoyable to use and I like the fact that it is a cleanser as well.

What is your favourite makeup remover? 

RRP 150ml A$10.99 at Priceline, Supermarkets and selected Pharmacies.
This product was provided for review.