Hi Friends!
Have you ever wondered what kind of nastiness is on and in your makeup brushes?
I don't know any normal person who cleans their brush after every use. In fact, I think most average people clean their brushes very rarely. I'm pretty lazy, and I use the same brushes every day, so my foundation brush is full of grossness and hasn't been washed for at least 3 months if not more.
Its recommended that you clean your brushes once a week, but who really has that time? If you're a makeup addict like me you've probably got about 50 brushes and all those brushes would take HOURS to clean. The only people who I would expect to clean brushes that frequently are makeup artists.
So, I'm taking microbiology this summer and we have a lovely experiment where we can bring in a personal item and see what kind of microbes are living on our items!
Here I am in my lab gear, pretty cute if I do say so myself.
Here I am in my lab gear, pretty cute if I do say so myself.
In microbio we have these things called plates. The plates are full of food for microorganisms, but they start out sterile -- meaning there's no bacteria on them -- and then we add bacteria or fungus to the plate and it will grow big enough so we can see it and identify it.
When we touch an item to the plate, whatever bacteria/fungus is on that item gets transferred to the plate. With enough time and the right conditions, the bacteria or fungus will grow and we can see what kinds of bacteria/fungus were on our item.
When we touch an item to the plate, whatever bacteria/fungus is on that item gets transferred to the plate. With enough time and the right conditions, the bacteria or fungus will grow and we can see what kinds of bacteria/fungus were on our item.
We had the opportunity to bring two personal items to plate them, so I brought my nasty foundation brush and my favorite lipstick which is probably a few years old. I want to know what kind of things are living on my makeup and I think everybody else does too!
Here's the process of plating our bacteria, it's pretty simple really. We just press our item into our nutrient plate gently. This plate starts out sterile, so the bacteria we see grow at the end of the experiment are ONLY from our items. I've plated my brush on the left side of the plate and my lipstick on the right side of the plate.
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| Reverse side of plate |
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| Lipstick plated to the right |
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| Brush plated to the left |
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| Brush plating |
We incubate our plates at a warm temperature because the bacteria/fungus like to grow in warmth. This takes 48 hours and then we will have enough bacteria to see and identify it!
After we get our results, we can try to identify what we have growing. Specific bacteria and fungi will have special characteristics on this kind of plate - for example, e. coli shows up as a green sheen.
So, after incubating out plate, here's what's been living on my makeup:
!! PREPARE YOURSELF, SHE'S A NASTY GIRL!!
So, after incubating out plate, here's what's been living on my makeup:
!! PREPARE YOURSELF, SHE'S A NASTY GIRL!!
Needless to say, it's fucking NASTY. It looks like someone had the grossest sneeze EVER on my plate!
So as you can tell, my lipstick had little to no bacteria on it, even after being 2 to 3 years old. It kind of makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with the Jacklyn Hill lipsticks considering they have fibers growing out of them. I wish I would've bought a JH lipstick so we could attempt to culture those fibers.
ANYWAY
I attempted to identify the bacteria on the plate, but it was really unusual to have this yellow blister exactly in the center, surrounded by this irregular branching out of green surrounded by white/gray.
Unfortunately, I am not a PhD and I am not an expert in microbiology -- but I have a professor who is! Doubly unfortunately, my professor could not identify the bacteria but she was really intrigued by my culture and wanted to make a subculture of that main yellow blister so we could attempt to identify the bacteria specifically because she's never seen anything like it!
My professor made the subculture and incubated it over the weekend. Here's what she got:
She cultured this bacteria on a different kind of plate to see if it would grow differently. This is the same bacteria as that main yellow blister in our first culture.
Interestingly, this plate that the subculture was grown on is mannitol salt, which means that the bacteria on my foundation brush grows very happily in a salty environment! I suppose that makes sense because skin is usually salty.
It took a couple months of my professor subculturing this bacteria to try to find out what it is. She never did figure it out.
She told me this bacteria looks like a combination of Staph Aureus bacteria and another bacteria which causes pneumonia.
I suppose it could be a new species because after so many weeks of research and consulting with other PhD's and medical professionals, nobody could identify the bacteria.
So as you can tell, my lipstick had little to no bacteria on it, even after being 2 to 3 years old. It kind of makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with the Jacklyn Hill lipsticks considering they have fibers growing out of them. I wish I would've bought a JH lipstick so we could attempt to culture those fibers.
ANYWAY
I attempted to identify the bacteria on the plate, but it was really unusual to have this yellow blister exactly in the center, surrounded by this irregular branching out of green surrounded by white/gray.
Unfortunately, I am not a PhD and I am not an expert in microbiology -- but I have a professor who is! Doubly unfortunately, my professor could not identify the bacteria but she was really intrigued by my culture and wanted to make a subculture of that main yellow blister so we could attempt to identify the bacteria specifically because she's never seen anything like it!
My professor made the subculture and incubated it over the weekend. Here's what she got:
She cultured this bacteria on a different kind of plate to see if it would grow differently. This is the same bacteria as that main yellow blister in our first culture.
Interestingly, this plate that the subculture was grown on is mannitol salt, which means that the bacteria on my foundation brush grows very happily in a salty environment! I suppose that makes sense because skin is usually salty.
It took a couple months of my professor subculturing this bacteria to try to find out what it is. She never did figure it out.
She told me this bacteria looks like a combination of Staph Aureus bacteria and another bacteria which causes pneumonia.
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| Staph Aureus |
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| Pneumonia Bacteria |
This is especially scary to me, because there are certain kinds of Staph Aureus which are resistant to antibiotics, and they can cause very deadly or disfiguring diseases. If you've never heard of MRSA look it up. Here's a page on MRSA from the CDC.
Also, I'm sure you know what pneumonia is but if not I'll fill you in. Pneumonia is a condition where your lungs fill with fluid, it can be difficult to treat and can be fatal. It's like drowning.
To think the bacteria on my makeup brush looks like a combo of two potentially fatal bacteria is actually terrifying.
If you are knowledgable in this area and can identify the bacteria, please help a girl out and comment below.
You better believe I'm washing my brushes much more frequently now. A good alcohol spray every once in a while will also help sanitize your brushes, just don't spray any really expensive or natural hair brushes with alcohol because it may dry your bristles and make them scratchy.
If I get any updates on the type of bacteria this is, I'll be sure to update this post. In the meantime, make sure you subscribe to my blog and follow me on socials for more!
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If I get any updates on the type of bacteria this is, I'll be sure to update this post. In the meantime, make sure you subscribe to my blog and follow me on socials for more!
Social Accounts:
Instagram: @SheIsAlreadyLegendary
Twitter: @She_Legendary_1
Pinterest: SheIsAlreadyLegendary
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