Beauty: Makeup brush cleaning

I know...I'm actually getting back to blogging about beauty. Gasp!

After my bathroom redo and cleaning, I realized I have neglected my makeup brushes. I know, bad Ashley. Luckily I just bought a brush shampoo from Sephora. I usually use shampoo for major cleaning and then a spray from Smashbox to daily touch ups. I actually like the Smashbox cleaner a lot. It pulls a lot of stuff out of the brushes even for just a quick clean up.


So far I am actually really happy with the Sephora brush shampoo. It's my first time actually using something that is specifically made for brushes, so all I have to compare it to is hair shampoo. It creates a wonderful lather and pulled A LOT of stuff out of the brushes. Plus is has this really nice scent. It's not over powering by any means, I can't quite explain it (trust me, I'm sniffing my hand right now trying to place the scent).

*Note to self, wash your brushes more.*


Clean, happy brushes. So far they look really good and seem to be drying fairly quickly. I try to rotate the brushes so that they dry evenly and as they are drying I reshape them. Oh and yeah...I have a lot of brushes. This is what happens when I buy those special edition makeup packages.


You may have noticed this pink guy, I know I sure do every time I see it. It's from Sephora's double-ended color dipped brush line. I got it thinking that it would be great for travel (less brushes, less hassle). It's not as small as I would like (read, it barely fits in my makeup travel case), but overall it has been a good brush. Though cleaning it has me a bit worried...the water was running hot pink. I'm hoping that because this was the first wash it got, that the color will stop running. Here's hoping.

With the organized bathroom I am trying to figure out how to store my brushes. *I saw on a blog somewhere (I can't find it for the life of me, so if you know who it is, let me know), that someone took a square container (vase perhaps) and filled it with those PVC beads (like at Sephora) and had their brushes sitting upright in the container. I like that look, but would need to find a place to put it (maybe on the ledge if I move my perfume).

* I figured out who's blog it is! I saw the wonderful idea over at Life with Lulu (specifically this entry). Seeing the pictures again, I still think it's an awesome way to store your brushes!

How often do you shampoo your brushes? What do you use? How do you store your brushes? Any ideas for what I should do for mine?