Before Christmas, I indulged in a little make-up brush buying frenzy and ended up with 3 different sets of Real Techniques brushes. They’re AMAZING and I absolutely love them. However, if you use them every day, they do tend to get dirty. Very dirty. Foundation is a sticky business, and especially if you’ve got bad skin, you want to clean the lot at least once a week otherwise you’re essentially just reapplying dirt day in, day out.

I quickly found that brushes are really annoying to clean. You’re using a lot of water since you need to leave it running, and I’m always afraid of ripping out the bristles if I’m manhandling it to much in a desperate attempt to get rid of caked in foundation. I tried shampoo, hand soap, washing up liquid and eventually a mix of washing up liquid and oil, but I never found them to be satisfyingly clean.

Desperate, I turned to Amazon for help. Turns out when you type “make up brush cleaner”, you find a lot of things. Sprays, lotions, plastic gloves with grooves and something called a Sigma mat. It looked cute so I clicked on it. And even though it’s pink (which I don’t like), I was sold on it straight away. I ordered one and it arrived a few days ago, all cute and squishy.

I just used it for the first time (and forgot to take pictures, I’ll do that next week and then add them), and I must say it’s the answer to every girl’s prayers! I stuck it in our kitchen sink using the suction cups, prepared my kitchen towel on the side and had a last look at the instructions. They come in the pack and have pictures to clearly show what you have to do.

The Sigma mat has 7 different textures, 3 for eyes, 3 for face and one for all. I squished some washing up liquid on the “wash” texture for face brushes, and left the water running a little to rinse. Immediately, the make-up came off as I swirled it about. I then proceeded to rinse, refine and refine plus, and my brush was squeaky clean in less than a minute. I added some more soap and did the 3 other brushes I needed to clean, and they were even easier (I always do the foundation brush first).

Next time I’ll try doing them in twos so I’ll save even more water, but this has already made the job sooo much easier and much more fun! I have the small mat, so I can see myself taking it on holiday with me (though they have a glove as well, which could be even more practical). Sigma doesn’t have a patent yet, but I certainly hope they get one as this is just miraculous.

If you have a lot of brushes, use them every day and hate cleaning them all the time, this will become your new best friend. Pinky promise!

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Pictures from: blogspot.com, mozu.com