10 Beauty Tools You Don’t Clean But Definitely SHOULD!

If you aren’t already doing so, girls, you should understand the importance of hygiene in make-up and regularly clean your brushes and dispose off products that are past their expiry date. Your beauty tools go beyond the standard make-up brushes though: There are tools like tweezers, nail clippers, loofahs and even your hairstyling tools. How often do you clean those? Surprisingly, most of us aren’t aware that even tools like these need to be cleaned on the regular.

So here’s a handy list of tools that need regular cleaning and instructions on how to get them spic and span. Get to work ladies. Chop chop!

 

Colorbar Wow Brows Tweezer (Rs 225)

1. Tweezers

Besides plucking stray eyebrow hairs, tweezers are also used to apply false lashes, which means they tend to get coated with lash glue and the oils from your skin. When you don’t clean your tweezers, you are transferring the oil from your skin into freshly plucked hair follicles and increasing the risk of folliculitis. Wonder why you breakout now?

How To Clean: Soak some cotton in hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alcohol and rub the tweezers with it after every use.

 

Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler (Rs 1,116)

2. Eyelash Curler

Although it isn’t advisable to apply mascara and then curl lashes, some people like it better that way. If you do this too, it’s highly likely your eyelash curler has leftover mascara. And no matter what order you use your mascara and curler in, the eyelash curler must be cleaned since it is in such close proximity to your eyes.

How To Clean: Give your lash curler a rubdown with alcohol once a week if you use it every day and change the rubber strip on it every three to six months.

 

Plum Posh Pencil Sharpener (Rs 125)

3. Pencil Sharpeners

When you sharpen your eye pencils, a lot of product gets shaved off and sticks to the blades. The waxes and emollients in the pencil are a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. If you don’t clean it, you will be transferring this bacteria to the pencil when you sharpen it the next time.

How To Clean: Dip a cotton bud in rubbing alcohol and clean the gunky shavings off the blade.

 

Sally Hansen Travel Cuticle Nipper (Rs 735)

4. Nail & Cuticle Clippers

We constantly hear how getting a manicure and/or pedicure in a dubious salon can give you infections (eww!), which is precisely why you need to clean any tool you use to groom and maintain your nails. This includes nail and cuticle clippers, filers, et al.

How To Clean: The best way to clean nail instruments is to sterilise them. Soak them in boiling water for about 15 minutes.

 

Basicare Pedicure Brush With Pumice Stone (Rs 356)

5. Pumice Stone

Nothing feels better than soaking your tired, aching feet in a tub of hot water after a long day and giving them a good scrub with pumice stone. Pumice stone effectively sloughs away dead skin as well as grime. Do you honestly think that just dousing it under running water is going to get it clean enough for use again?

How To Clean: Use an old toothbrush and soap solution to scrub the pumice stone and wash it clean with hot water.

 

The Body Shop Ultra Fine Bath (Rs 203)

6. Loofah

So you’re telling me that you use the same loofah everyday without ever cleaning it? Loofahs are soaked with soapy suds, dead skin cells and dirt from your body plus they are almost always soaking wet AND stored in damp bathrooms; that sounds like the perfect place for bacteria to thrive!

How To Clean: Mix equal parts of hot water and vinegar and soak your loofah in it for an hour, then rinse. Hang it up to dip dry.

 

Remington S9500 Ceramic Hair Straightener (Rs 2,910)

7. Flat Irons & Curling Tongs

All the products we use on our hair — leave-in conditioners, serums, heat protectants — tend to get deposited on the metal plates of hot styling tools. Product build-up can hamper the efficient functioning of these tools.

How To Clean: When your flat iron or curling tongs are cooling, wipe the surface clean with a damp cloth. Do this when the surface is warm and not when it’s hot. You don’t want nasty burns!

 

Tangle Teezer Detangling Hair Brush (Rs 999)

8. Hairbrushes

Grooming in local transportation is quite a common sight. What makes me cringe though is when women take out combs and brushes that look like relics excavated from ancient Indian ruins. They’re often discoloured and full of icky, gunky stuff. It makes me wonder how it’s possible to collect so much scalp lint on a single product!

How To Clean: Use the tail end of a tail comb to remove hair that’s stuck in a hairbrush. Next, dilute some shampoo in warm water and soak your brush or comb in it until the gunk on the bristles loosens up. Wash under cool water and air dry upside down.

 

Teadrop Makeup Blender Sponge (Rs 754)

9. Make-up Sponges

Make-up sponges are in direct contact with skin and make-up, much like brushes. If brushes need to be cleaned regularly, so do sponges.

How To Clean: Soak the sponge in warm water to loosen product build-up, then wash it with baby shampoo. Brush cleansers work efficiently too.

 

Forever 21 Panda Print Makeup Bag (Rs 469)

10. Make-up Bag

Sometimes the top of an errant eyeliner pencil or lipstick can come undone, making the inside of my make-up bag look like a murder scene. At other times I forget to remove broken strands of hair out of my comb and dump it in my make-up bag as is. Happens to the best of us. You know now why your make-up bag needs a good scrubbing too, no?

How To Clean: Empty the contents of your make-up bag every few weeks and clean the products inside with a dry tissue. Dust off your bag to ensure there are no remnants of spilt make-up, hair and other gross stuff. Clean the inside of your bag with a damp cloth and let it air before throwing all your stuff inside again.