Looks Good. Works great, but…
How on earth are you meant to clean Kabuki brushes? I can remember to the day, when I first asked myself this very question. Talk about one of those cosmetic conundrums. These confounded cuties seem to present even the most makeup brush savvy with a wee predicament. If you dry it on it’s cute little chubby bottom, which seems the most obvious way, the water used to clean your brushes will run down into the ferruled end (the bit that holds the glued hairs to the handle of the brush) and entices mold and all sorts of unmentionables to congregate in the presence of the excessive moisture. Silly gravity. (Yes, I know gravity is very useful, but at times like these, it’s a darn nuisance no matter which side you part your hair on.) Kabuki brushes sat on their end to dry also have a tendency to smell a bit too. Did you wonder what that smell was? They often get stinky because when popping a squat, they just take too long to dry and end up much like clothes left in the washer too long. Pew.
All temptation must be resisted when it comes to blow drying kabuki brushes or even just spritzing them with many of the alcohol based spray cleaners sold on the market. Both blow drying and alcohol sprays can irreparably damage your precious Kabuki over time. We all know what blow drying can do to our hair, if not protected, well multiply that by a bazillion and that’s what you get when a blow dryer is used on your poor defenseless kabuki brush. As for the alcohol spays, non-synthetic kabukis are made up of hair, hairs although not human, are much like our own. I am sure even the most deranged individual would pull up at spraying pure alcohol onto their hair. Talk about a sure fire way to fry your hair. Why are those sprays sold then, you ask? They are largely available as a quick way to sanitize brushes when they are being used between different individuals. Brushes should always be cleaned with gentle baby soap or shampoo, rinsed well and left to dry after their final use for the day when they have been deployed for use on more than one person, but this is not a practical solution between clients. Hence the need for the alcohol based spray.
Beauty Marked! has a couple of ways which will effectively dry your beloved Kabuki and prolong the life of this darling brush. My first suggestion is to take a 15 centimeter or so long piece of sticky tape and place the kabuki brush’s on it’s side with the bristles over hanging the edge of a table ( I use my desk) and sticky tape the side laying kabuki’s handle to the edge of the desk. Most kabuki brushes secured to the edge of a table at night will most certainly be dry by morning.
My second favourite way to dry kabuki brushes is to grab an elastic or rubber band and wind it a few times along the handle of the brush, keeping away from the hairs. I then grab a bit of string (or prettier still, a length of the many spare StrawberryNet ribbons I have laying around) and secure one end to the band placed on the brushes handle and tie the other end of the string in a bow to a door knob. I leave the brush to dry there, dangling bristle end down until dry. If you have lots of kabukis to dry, I’d hang them off the end of a wire hanger after you have secured one end with a bow (a bit arts and crafty, I know, but never pass up an opportunity to beautify). Viola! a gorgy mobile of cute kabukis elegantly suspended to dry.
Hopefully these methods of effectively drying your kabuki brushes will not only prolong their life of loyal service to you, but will woo you to use these useful and gorgeous creatures. Be warned though, kabukis, tend to multiply before you know it. They are a bit like tattoos, actually, once you get one…
One Comment
- Fiona replied:
Great tip have had them roll of the table.
April 30th, 2007 at 8:34 pm. Permalink.
