Hygiene is more important than ever in 2020, and rightly so! This is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart, so I’m very excited to share the proper sanitary practices on cleaning your tools both easily and effectively. It may seem like a small thing, but ensuring that the tools you use are properly cleaned makes a huge difference in both healthy skin and a healthy body. After all, when your tools are clean, you’re more likely to have better skin and less likely to give yourself any type of infection. In this article, we’re also going to bust some myths and give you all the facts when it comes to certain products and techniques. Let’s get right to it!

MYTH: The higher the isopropyl alcohol content, the better.

FACT: Higher alcohol content in isopropyl alcohol isn’t always better. The reason for this is that anything above 70% evaporates too quickly to sanitize properly, and it only ends up sanitizing the surface. So always use 70% when cleaning your beauty tools.

MYTH: Dish soap or shampoo works just fine in cleaning your makeup brushes.

FACT: Dish soap or shampoo may clean one’s brushes to the naked eye, but it doesn’t disinfect them, so the bacteria that’s harmful to you and your skin is still in there...and multiplying! For proper disinfectant, you’d need something like Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap or Sonia Roselli’s Tiger’s Eye Brush Soap.

MYTH: You don’t need to clean your pencil sharpener.

FACT: Considering that we use pencils directly on orifices like our eyes and lips, it is an absolute must that pencil sharpeners need to be disinfected thoroughly and regularly. This is harder to do with plastic sharpeners, which is why I always recommend a steel one that can be fully submerged in alcohol. Not only do you need to do it this way, this should be done after every use. Yup, you read that right: after every use! Staedtler Mars Metal Sharpener $2.55 is available at www.theonlinepencompany.com

Now that we’ve got some great information and debunked some common beauty myths, lets get onto the proper cleaning methods you should practice when cleaning your tools!

Tool: Makeup Brushes

• Product You Should Be Using To Clean: Tiger’s Eye Brush Soap & Isopropyl Alcohol
• Method: Dirty brushes cause breakouts as well as a myriad of skin issues, so it’s always good to make sure your brushes are as clean as can be. Start with wetting the soap and then your brush. Then, rub the bristles of the brush onto the soap until some suds form. Third, you want to work the product through the brush hairs. To finish, just lather and rinse, and then lay flat to dry. You can follow with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton pad to disinfect the handles if they are wood. If they are plastic, metal, or aluminum handles, I would submerge the handle in isopropyl alcohol for 30 seconds, wipe with a clean paper towel, submerge again for 30 seconds and then let dry. Tiger’s Eye Brush Soap $22 is available at www.soniaroselli.com

Tool: Eyelash Curler/Pencil Sharpener/Tweezers/Scissors/Nail Cutters

• Product You Should Be Using To Clean: Isopropyl Alcohol & Dr. Bronner’s Soap
• Method: I usually scrub these tools with a toothbrush that I use only for this purpose. Generally I will scrub with soap first to get off any residue, usually Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap, and then I will fully submerge the tool in 70% isopropyl alcohol for an hour, then take it out and lay it out to dry on a clean paper towel. Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap $3.19-$18.49 is available at www.drbronner.com

Tool: Ultrasonic Facial Brush Devices

• Product You Should Be Using To Clean: Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap
• Method: Disconnect the brush head from the device, wet the bristles, then take a separate toothbrush(just like we did with our metal tools) and scrub with some soap through all the bristles of the brush head. Rinse well with warm water and lay out to dry. Then clean the handle with soap and water on a soft cloth or cotton pad, and follow with alcohol.