Decluttering Make up and toiletries and how to clean make up brushes

I use to wear make up every day when I worked in an office, now it is high days and holidays.  So I am very guilty of keeping it open longer than I should.  So I decided to tackle my make up drawer and toiletries as part of my January Declutter.

• I threw away anything that was open and older than 12 months, apart from the lipstick I wore to my wedding nearly 18 years ago!
• I washed my make up brushes - it looks like a have a lot but the truth is I only use three, the others are given to the boys to pretend to add make up when I do mine! 
• I did an inventory of toiletries (more on that in a later post).

How to clean make up brushes

Apparently you should clean your make up brushes once a week - eek, who has time for that!  Mine are used only on high days and holidays  so they are lucky if they get an annual clean, but this year I am going to endeavor to clean them once a month, so I feel less of a dirty slattern.

I clean mine with a paraben and SLS (sodium laureth sulphate) free shampoo.  This is because it is all I use as I have a reaction to SLS and SLA's and Maxi also suffer's with eczema.

I did them by adding a small amount of shampoo to the bristles  but trying to avoid that shaft.  I then cleaned them and rinsed until the water ran clean.

I then place them on a dry clean cloth to dry for a day.  By not putting them in a cup upright as below it stops the water going in to the ferrule (the technical term for the glue/grip/metal bit and prevents this becoming lose.

Then I air them upright in a cup for a further day.