Spring Clean

And thanks to the season, it’s the perfect time to clear out the clutter. Here’s our expert guide to spring cleaning your make-up; get ready to clean, chuck and organise your beauty ‘life’…

Click here to see ELLE’s pick of the best beauty storage and travel solutions…

Wash Your Brushes

Think about the last time you washed your make-up brushes? If you can’t remember then you should do it today and if you’ve never washed them, it’s time to start; as Laura Mercier rightly told us, ‘If you wait until your brushes look dirty, then you've waited too long!’ Wise words.

‘Each time you use your make-up brushes, small pieces of dead skin and dirt transfer from your face and onto the brush. If you use that brush every day for a week, you have seven days worth of make-up, bacteria and face gunk on that brush being passed to and from your skin every day’ explains Hayley De Beers, Urban Retreat’s Head Make-up Artist. Whatever your skin type, keeping your brushes clean is important, but if you suffer from breakouts, cleaning your brushes regularly is a good place to start if you want to improve your complexion.

The experts all agree professional brush cleaners are best (MAC and Laura Mercier do great ones), but for a cheaper alternative they also recommend baby shampoo (with warm, never hot, water) which is gentle on the hair. Use a mild dishwashing detergent on gel liner and lipstick brushes, but try to avoid using detergent too often.

Drying Your Brushes

Fred Letailleur, Yves Saint Laurent European Make-up Artist suggests ‘after washing your brushes reshape them, and leave to dry with the tip hanging off the side of a table (to keep the natural shape intact) - make sure you don’t use an old towel to dry them off. Also, don’t be tempted to put the lid back on before they are fully dried. ‘

New Brushes

If you invest in good quality brushes they should last years. ‘It is normal for natural bristle to smell slightly musky when wet, but if you see the glue come through the bristles or the natural shape of the brush loosen, it is time for a change’ says Fred Letailleur.

Click here to find out which brushes to invest in…

Keeping Your Products Clean

Think you just need to clean your brushes? Think again. You should also keep your make-up fresh to ensure it lasts as long as it can. ‘For powder and cream compacts, eyeshadows or blush, it is a good habit to wipe them regularly with a dry tissue to avoid the build up of oil and dirt at the surface,’ explains Fred Letailleur.
Also, look to new brand Beauty So Clean at Harvey Nichols. The range includes anti-bacterial Sanitizer Wipes, £12 for creamy products like lipsticks, glosses and cream blushes; as well as a Sanitizer Mist, £11, for powder compacts. Genius.

Time to Chuck

First, look at your make-up, if you haven’t worn something in months (or years) then you never will, so get rid.
Next look at the packaging for the ‘sell by date’; all products should have a symbol on it that looks like an open pot with a number in, usually 3M, 6M, 12M or 24M, this tells you how many months you should keep the product after opening.

As a rule of thumb, mascara should be replaced every 3 months; creamy products (foundations, lipsticks and blushers) last 1 year and powders around 3 years, because powders unlike creams cannot carry bacteria. Also, smudge-proof and waterproof formulas tend to dry out faster – the product shouldn’t pull on your skin, if it does bin it.

Still not sure if there’s life in the old product yet, International, Celebrity Make-up Artist Rachel Wood on behalf of Benefit Cosmetics explains ‘makeup is like food. As soon as it changes colour or smells bad throw it out.’

Choosing Products

You shouldn’t choose a product by its packaging, instead of formula. But where you can, choose products without clear packaging – clear bottles let in sunlight which can shorten the life of the product. Look for products with a pump bottle or squeezy tube – especially moisturisers, foundations and creamy blushers, ‘they last longer, are easy to carry around, and will always be hygienic. Just wipe the nozzle from time-to-time to avoid build ups’, says Fred Letailleur, Yves Saint Laurent European Make-up Artist.

If you do choose products in jars, meaning you need to dip your fingers in on a daily basis, try to make sure your hands are clean first. There’s nothing worse than a dirty day cream.

Cool Things Down

The main evils for beauty products are heat and sunlight. Heat can cause products to melt, while sunlight can cause them to deteriorate so they either smell different or just don’t work.

First up, move all your products away from radiators and window sills (especially in bathrooms, where sunlight and steam causes problems). MAC Senior Artist, Pablo Rodriguez recommends that you ‘keep all your products in a drawer or container specially allocated for your makeup only. Clear plastic boxes make your life easier.’
If your boyfriend/flatmate/parents can bear it, make a small space for your creamy products and nail varnishes in the fridge. ‘I like to store crème blushers and lipsticks and any paint-like products in a little tuppawear box in the fridge. This will prevent your products from melting, making them unusable,’ says Make-up Artist Lucy Bridge.

Another top tip from Lucy is to ensure you secure the lids onto your products tightly, sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how many times a lid can be left loose, or off a product completely. ‘This will ensure products shelf life to last much longer,’ she says.

Boxed In

If you chuck the boxes of perfumes and products, then stop! Perfume and aromatherapy oils are best stored in their original boxes, says Geraldine Howard, President & Co-Founder Aromatherapy Associates, and perfumer Roja Dove. In fact, any products with clear containers are best stored in the boxes they come in.

Bag it Up

Instead of keeping brushes in a pot on your dressing table where they can gather dust or loose in your make-up bag where they can get dirty, Fred Letailleur recommends storing them in re-sealable bags. ‘Keep two sets - one for your morning application and another for touch-ups on-the-go’.
If you do keep your brushes in your make-up bag with the rest of your products, try to find a make-up bag you can pop in the washing machine every couple of weeks or one with a plastic lining that can be cleaned with antibacterial wipes. ‘Make-up bags are big culprits for breeding bacteria. Think of practicality before look’ he adds.

Perfume Protection

Perfumes are especially tricky; you’ve probably had a perfume that stops smelling right after a few months. ‘The perfect temperature for storing perfume is 6-10 C’ says Roja Dove. We’re not expecting you to head out and buy a thermometer for precise temperature calculations, but make sure you keep them in a cool, dark place.; anywhere too hot and the ‘heat will cause the alcohol to evaporate (especially if the seal is not good), and the integrity of the perfume will then be lost’ he adds.
Make sure you replace the lid on your perfume properly after each spritz, ‘like wine, a natural perfume will continue ageing in the bottle beautifully as long as it is airtight’. Who knew?