Real Techniques Brush Cleansing Palette

Great makeup application starts with a clean brush. We all know cleaning your makeup brushes is such an important thing to do but it can be a really time-consuming and boring chore to get done. A few weeks ago I talked about cleaning my brushes with a product from Makeup Revolution, but not to be out-done, the popular brush brand Real Techniques have created this hand-held brush cleansing palette designed to improve the performance of your makeup brushes by 'helping to sweep away makeup, oil and impurities from your bristles for a more truer and consistent colour application'.

The brush pad retails for £12.99 and contains two free trials of the brush cleansing gel (7ml in each sachet) from Real Techniques, which can also be purchased on its own as a full size bottle. The cleansing pad is made of a lightweight, performance-grade silicone with multi textured surfaces to work between bristles for deep cleaning.

In comparison to the size of my hand, the brush cleansing palette is roughly the same size so it is big enough to fit all types of makeup brushes, from the smallest precise eye brushes to the larger powder brushes. There is a handle underneath so you can comfortably fit it onto your hand. The shape of this and the design of the placement of the handle reminds me a lot of a brush to groom horses; I used to have horses so I can see a huge similarity between the shape of each of them - even the way you hold it is almost similar!

There are three different textures across the palette. The first one is tiny little bumps for small brushes such as lip and fine liner brushes. In the middle are slightly larger crosses for medium shaped brushes, for example eye brushes and the third texture is larger bumps for big brushes such as face brushes.

I have some different sized brushes that need cleaning (not sponsored by Real Techniques, I happen to love their brushes and have a few face ones that are in need of a bit of a clean) so these are what they look like before I washed them. They're not too dirty but I have been a bit slack with sorting out my face brushes for a few weeks.

Step One is to slip your hand into the palette and squeeze a small amount of the cleansing gel, or any other brush shampoo you have, and add a tiny bit of warm water.

Swirl the makeup brush into the gel and water across the different surface textures until you can see when it is clean. I found that I could clean about three brushes with that small amount of gel so a little goes a long way. Just put the brush to one side and work on some other ones until you see that the gel needs to be changed.

Then just rinse out the shampoo from the bristles under running water. You can use the cleansing pad to help remove any excess shampoo from the bristles for a more effective cleanse. Then squeeze out the excess water and rest them with the bristles pointing down to let the water drain out to avoid it damaging the glue inside. You can rest them on the cleansing pad or use one of the panoramic cases from Real Techniques to hold them upside down. I did that and I found that the elastic actually helps to reshape the bristles to their original shape!

I was so impressed with the results, I felt like these were brand new brushes after using this cleansing palette. The bristles were left feeling soft and I noticed that the performance of the brushes were, in fact, improved. This eliminates the massive chore of brush cleaning and this gets the job done so quickly. I still love the cleansing tool from Makeup Revolution, but this one from Real Techniques works well for all sized bristles. I'll do a comparison between the two products later this month so if you are unsure which one to get, check back to see that post to help you decide.

 

What is your favourite way to clean your brushes? Would you consider trying out this cleansing palette from Real Techniques?

 

Beth x