Health & Safety Key Points

Cleaning Hygiene (1)

Working hygienically and keeping your kit clean is essential when working in

makeup to prevent cross-contamination. Here are our favorite products we 

Good working practices and working hygienically can substantially reduce the risk of cross-infection, and help prevent the contamination of your makeup. Sadly, not everybody working in the makeup industries, from beauty counters and bridal to catwalk, film and TV, works to a high standard.

Dirty brushes, unwashed hands, double dipping and general lack of good working practices are rife. Infectious conditions like conjunctivitis and sties can be caused by poor makeup hygiene and contaminated makeup products. Providing an unsafe service puts your clients and your career at risk.

Common Non-infectious Conditions

Non-infectious conditions include dermatitis, psoriasis, vitiligo, acne and alopecia.

These conditions are not at all contagious; however, special care and discretion should be used when carrying out hair and makeup application to ensure the client’s comfort and dignity. And good working practices apply no matter what.

Preventing Cross-Infection in Makeup

There are a number of simple measures which can easily be taken to avoid the spread of infection, and to help prevent micro-organisms being passed from skin to brushes to makeup to skin.

Such measures should be regarded as good practice, irrespective of whether or not a person being made up is regarded as having an infectious condition.

Good Working Practices in Makeup Include:

Always wash your hands before and after a makeup

   Wash and dry your hands properly before you start a makeup, and again after you finish. Be seen to be washing your hands – it is good for clients to know you care about hygiene. Drying your hands is equally important – damp hands spread germs. Finish off with a quick dab of hand sanitiser in front of the client. Hand sanitiser is also great to have on set, especially as hand washing facilities may be scarce.

        Always ask a client if they have any allergies or known sensitivities before you start a makeup. Not 100% guaranteed they won’t react to something, but you can eliminate any triggers they do know about. Always do a test patch for substances that are known to cause issues with people, like latex or hair tint. Not a cross-infection prevention, but it is good practice to do this with clients.

         Do not blow on your brushes or makeup. This blows spit and germs all over them! How’d you like the waiter to blow on your food as he plonks it down in front of you?!

      Avoid sharing makeup. For one-off clients where you are using your makeup kit, use a clean implement (e.g. spatula or brush) to remove a tiny amount of product. For long-term clients (like on a TV series), use individual containers per person.

•   Don’t double dip. Double dipping means going from a product to a face then back in the product. It is easy to avoid, especially for cream and liquid products – just use disposable applicators or a spatula to remove a small amount of product, ideally to put on a palette. It amazes me how many makeup artists we see double dipping, like using the mascara wand in the tube on lots of people, or sticking fingers in a pot of Carmex, to the lips and back in the pot – and then offering it to all and sundry, who also have a go. Why not just get everyone to spit into a glass and take a sip? Gross! Use a cotton bud instead of your finger and don’t dip it in the pot after it’s been on your kissers. Ah, it’s not really that difficult is it!

•   Sharpen pencils after use. Once you’ve done a nice bit of liner, sharpen the pencil before putting the lid back on. This keeps the lid cleaner and also preps the pencil ready for use, so you don’t have to fiddle with sharpeners in the middle of a makeup.

•   Use makeup disinfectant sprays. There are several spray products available that are designed to kill most of the bacteria that may be lurking on your makeup. The sprays can be used on all makeup, including creams, powders, pencils and tools. Particularly great for pressed powder products like eye shadows and blushers. Read about our Makeup Kit Favourites: Cleaning and Hygiene for more information.

•   Use disposable sponges and clean/disposable powder puffs for each client. For crowd work, inexpensive bath sponges are great  – tear it into small pieces and use a fresh bit on each background artist. It is noticed and appreciated – we’ve had many comments from background artists on our makeup hygiene.

•   Do not share towels. Use clean/freshly washed individual towels or disposable towels. Imagine someone has wiped their shitty face (or worse!) on the towel – would you then want to put that on your face? Nope… and neither do your clients!

•   Don’t keep makeup beyond its shelf life. If it smells or looks funny, don’t use it – throw it away.

•   Sterilise all brushes and tools after use. For example, use Barbicide for hairdressing tools, clipper spray on clippers, and isopropyl alcohol to disinfect makeup brushes and metal tools (scissors, tweezers etc.). If something hasn’t been used for a while, it is prudent to give it a quick disinfect and wipe before using.

•   Be extra careful when a client has a skin, eye or mouth infection. Only use disposable (single use) makeup applicators that are immediately disposed of after use and don’t double dip. The makeup artist must wash their hands and use hand sanitiser after completing the makeup before moving on to another client, or touching their own face/skin/hair.

•   Sweep up hair cuttings and clean hair tools. Not only is hair on the floor super slippy, it is simply good practice to clean up after a hair cut. Clippers should be thoroughly dusted and cleaned of hair, then sterilised using a clipper spray product. Hair tools should also be sterilised.

•   Clean and sterilise anything dropped on the floor.

 I mean, this should be fairly obvious, but then nothing would surprise me! Don’t pick that brush up and carry on using it after picking out the hair you haven’t bothered to sweep up and wiping it on a towel you’ve just cleaned your manky feet with!

1.NON In-text: (Anon, 2014) Bibliography: Anon, (2014). [online] Available at: http://Good Working Practices and Preventing Cross-Infection in Makeup - HAIR AND MAKEUP ARTIST HANDBOOK [Accessed 30 Nov. 2014].,