I'm going to share Everything You NEED TO Know about Makeup Hygiene Practices
Let me begin by saying, there is a HUGE difference in Hygiene and Sanitation Practices when working with clients, as oppose to yourself
The differences in the way products should be used and gathered for clients or anyone else other than yourself is like night and day……there really is no comparison
Understanding this will make all the difference in the makeup application of your clients, your overall health and safety, as well as the health and safety of your clients and potentially your skin and your clients’ skin.
All your products and tools need to be cleaned and maintained properly, not only for the health and safety of your clients but also yourself and your tools
Always remember, your tools and your products are the main ingredients for the success of your business and keeping them in clean, optimal condition are the keys to having great makeup application on clients or just yourself
*PLEASE KEEP THIS BLOG HANDY, AS I’LL BE DISCUSSING TOOLS IN A LATER BLOG
I’ll break this into two sections
The first section is for Freelance Makeup Artists with paying clients, or if you’re doing makeup on a friend or family member. Anyone other than yourself
The second section is just for YOU and applying makeup to yourself.
Equally as important but there are certainly differences with hygiene and tool cleaning
We’ll begin with Hygiene, Sanitation and clients
Tool and Product Hygiene and Sanitation Practices
A Freelance makeup artist SHOULD NEVER place a brush of any kind directly into their cream products……EVER!!!!!
Any and all cream products should be removed from their container with a clean, sterile spatula and placed on the back of the hand as a makeshift mixing palette, or onto an actual makeup mixing palette and used from there. This eliminates the possibility of cross contamination of client to product, by keeping your cream products germ and bacteria free. An absolute MUST in the beauty and makeup industry
All Freelance makeup Artists should stock their kits with the following items, specifically for hygiene purposes
💄 Antibacterial Hand Wash
💄 Hand Sanitiser
💄 A bottle of 70% Isopropyl Alcohol
💄 Disposable Spatulas or Stainless Steel Spatula
💄 Stainless Steel Mixing Palette
💄 Tissues
💄 Disposable spoolies (mascara wands)
💄 Disposable lip applicators
💄 Cosmetic Pencil Sharpener
💄 Makeup Sponges
💄 De-potted lipstick (Extremely Highly Recommended)
Now you have a list of all the essentials for cleaning and sanitising, I’ll explain why you need everything listed above and how often you use them
Antibacterial Hand Wash
Carrying your own means not having to ask anyone for handwash and you know yours is antibacterial, so you just need access to a sink and water
You should be washing your hands properly before touching a client, product, or tool
And your client should see you washing your hands prior to beginning any service or touching any of your products or tools
Why?
You could be doing anything prior to doing someone else’s makeup
Imagine you were eating beforehand then you go and touch someone else’s skin
Eeew. That’s like sharing dip with someone and double dipping your cracker 🤮 🤮
Hand Sanitiser
💄 Hand sanitiser is a must if/when you’re doing multiple makeup applications back to back
💄 A wedding a special occasion party of more than one person is a great example of this
💄 Hand sanitiser should be used between each and every client, before moving along to the next one because you’re touching a different person’s face with every makeup application you service
💄 If you sneeze, cough, scratch or do anything else during a makeup application, you need to sanitise your hands before you re-commence the service
Isopropyl Alcohol (70%)
💄 You’re going to be using this a lot with clients, so make sure you carry enough in your kit to service every single makeup application you do in a day. Be sure to carry some in a spray bottle of some description as well as having some in a bottle you can pour from
It’s going to become a best friend of yours when you’re working on clients because between every single client you’ll be:
💄 Spraying your dry products (Eyeshadow, blush etc)
💄 Wiping your brushes
💄 Wiping over your spatula and mixing palette
💄 Wiping over eyelash curlers
Stainless Steel or Disposable Spatulas
These are used to remove cream products from their pots as needed
For example: Gel Eyeliner or any other cream product
Stainless Steel Mixing Palette
These a flat, metal palettes designed to hold any product you’ve removed from it’s pot or to mix products on
They’re made of stainless steel metal because like that of a stainless steel kitchen bench, it isn’t porous so it doesn’t absorb germs or bacteria and is easy to clean and sanitise
The mixing palette is highly recommended, however many professional, feelance makeup artists use the back of their clean hands as their mixing palette which is also a perfectly acceptable practice
Tissues
Can be used for a multitude of things from cleaning up errors in the makeup application or using them with Isopropyl Alcohol to wipe over and sanitise your tools
It’s always more hygienic to use tissues for cleaning and sanitising as oppose to a cloth because a tissue is used once and thrown away. A cloth can hold germs and bacteria
Disposable Spoolies (Mascara Wands)
It’s absolutely paramount that a disposable spoolie is used to apply mascara to every single client you have because it stops cross contamination between clients and mascara tubes
You MUST also use a new spoolie if you have applied mascara to your clients lashes and feel they need more. You MUST NEVER insert a used spoolie into a mascara tube because that’s how cros contamination occurs
Disposable Lip Applicators
Are required in the same way and for the same reasons as disposable spoolies and are recommended for lipsticks (bullets or de-potted – see suggestions in kit listed above), lip glosses and liquid lipsticks alike
They are the preferred application method for any lip products as to avoid cross contamination
Many artists do, however, just use a lip brush to apply lip products to clients and just clean it after every use
Cosmetic Pencil Sharpener
Are designed to be used to sharpen lip liner pencils, lipstick pencils and eyeliner pencils
They should be used to sharpen all pencils before and after every use as that sharpening removes the section of the pencil that was previously used and placed on a pervious clients’ skin or eyes
Sharpening pencils is how a pencil is cleaned and sanitised for every client. This is because removing the top layer, produces a clean layer underneath, like that of using a brand new pencil every time
Makeup Sponges (Disposable and Beauty Blenders)
Disposable makeup sponges must be placed in the bin after using on a single client
Makeup sponges, such as Beauty Blenders can be used to apply a liquid or cream product to a client but that sponge must then be gifted to that client after use, so be sure you have the number of Makeup Sponges as you do clients at any given time
Disposable Eyeliner Applicators
They are recommended but many makeup artists prefer to use their own makeup tools for eyeliner application because their tools are more precise
Lipstick Bullets, Liquid lipsticks and Lip Gloss
Lipstick bullets can be used in two ways. You can apply lipstick to a client my picking the product up, straight from the bullet, with a clean, sterile lipstick brush. You can do the same with a disposable lip brush.
Option 2 is, you can melt the lipstick down and place it, along with other shades into plastic travel containers (pill boxes work amazingly well for this purpose to allow many shades of lipstick to all be stored together hygienically). Using a clean spatula, you can remove the amount of lipstick you need for your client and place it on the back of your clean hand or onto your mixing palette and use the product from there
Liquid lipsticks and Glosses: Using the product applicator, YOU MUST disperse the amount of product needed onto the back of your hand or mixing palette and take the product from there.
From there you can apply it to your clients’ lips with either a disposable lip wand or your won, clean, sterile lip brush
You must NEVER use the applicator from the lipstick or lip gloss on any clients, then place the applicator back in the tube because that’s cross contaminating and ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING as well as completely unhygienic
Many (most) makeup artists will also choose a gel eyeliner over a liquid liner because if the above procedures are followed accurately, it is the more hygienic option
If a liquid eyeliner is used on clients (not recommended), the entire tip of the liquid eyeliner needs to be wiped clean and sanitised with Isopropyl Alcohol after each use. This actually causes the product to dry out a lot quicker due to the alcohol used for sanitisation purposes
Oooook. That’s the professional aspect of Makeup Hygiene sorted. Now let’s discuss Hygiene associated with personal use
Although you only use makeup on yourself, you still need to practice good hygiene for your tools and products
WHY?
Because makeup and brushes are for the most part, porous and tend to collect germs and bacteria…..
Eeeew 🤮 🤮
And although you are only using your products and tools on yourself, they do still need to be cleaned and maintained for their longevity as well as hygiene
These are MY recommendations for cleaning and sanitising your personal products and tools and good personal hygiene practices:
💄 Make sure your hands are clean prior to your makeup application
💄 Spot clean your makeup brushes after every use by pouring some Isopropyl Alcohol onto a microfiber cloth and wiping off your brushes
This will remove most remaining powder products from your brushes, in turn, helping to keep them clean for next use and sanitising them at the same time
💄 Thoroughly clean your makeup sponges (Beauty Blenders) before or after every use with a cleaning agent and water
💄 Spray all powder palettes with Isopropyl Alcohol once a week as to kill germs and any bacteria that may be present on the product
💄 Deep clean all brushes once a week/fortnight, depending on regularity of use and heaviness of products used. This will remove all traces of product and keep brushes in optimal condition. It will also help with longevity of them
💄 Wipe over eyelash curlers as needed
These are all the guidelines for keeping your tools Clean and Hygienic
** UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES MUST YOU EVER MIX YOUR PERSONAL PRODUCTS WITH YOUR PROFESSIONAL KIT because although you are cleaning and sanitising your personal products regularly, you won’t be as vigilant with your personal products and they will end up cross-contaminated
Exmples:
💄 You won’t using a disposable spoolie to apply your personal mascara and therefore the tube of mascara will be contaminated by you
💄 You will most likely apply your lipstick to yourself straight from the bullet or the lipstick or gloss wand and therefore, your personal lip products are now contaminated by you
If you ever have a cold sore or conjunctivitis or any other skin infection, DO NOT use your makeup on those areas as you will contaminate them and will continue to re-infect yourself with future use of the products
You should now thoroughly understand the importance of Makeup Tool and Product Cleanliness and Hygiene and that a working (freelance) makeup works in extremely sterile and hygienic conditions
I hope you found this subject helpful
Much Love
Corinne 💋
Comments