Organization. I haz it.
In keeping with my New Year’s Beauty Resolution to purge unused, used-up, and expired beauty products more regularly, I recently did a cleanup and re-organization of what I own. Since the last time I did this, my makeup collection has bred like rabbits grown slightly. So not only did I need to get rid of some things, but I also needed an organizational system that better suited what I have.
Before you buy any products to organize your stuff, think about how you use it and what your organizational “rules” are. For instance: my rules state that I must have separate compartments for various eyeshadows: all the neutral-eye ones go together, all the purple-eye ones go together, all the green-eye ones go together, and then there’s a miscellaneous category for things I don’t use often and that don’t belong to one of the above categories. I must be able to see most or all of the colors most or all of the time. I must also be able to accommodate both palettes and single shadows. Pencil eyeliners, on the other hand, can all happily live together in a box or cup and I’m perfectly happy to root through there until I find what I want. Lipsticks must be sorted by color and preferably arranged in some sort of order (light to dark, glossy to matte, sheer to opaque, etc.). Concealer brushes must be stored with concealers. Other brushes can hang out in jars or cups according to the length of the handle. Some like brushes need to be grouped together (mostly powder brushes).
In the best of all possible worlds, the system would permit the products to be arranged in order of use, from left to right and back to front. So, primers in the far back left corner, then foundations to the right, and concealers to the right of that, and setting powder. Then eye stuff. Then cheek stuff. Then lip stuff.
(Unrealistic expectations. I haz those too.)
So, after wrestling with what to keep and what to let go of, and some shopping to boot, here’s how I have things at the moment.
The whole shebang. Cosmetics are on the top shelf and in the black-and-pink thing on the middle shelf. The white stacked items on the middle shelf are where I keep my samples (skincare on the top, makeup on the bottom), and you can also see the roll of paper towels I’m currently using to dry my face (yes, I’m trying the paper towel method!). Bottom row contains skincare and makeup products that are not currently in use but that I want to be accessible.
Primers, foundations, and eyeliners. Primers and foundations in the back. Pencil eyeliners in the box on the front left, gel eyeliners and eyeshadow bases in the section on the front right.
Eyeshadows. Greens at the back left, purples at the back right, neutrals at the front. I hate that my MUFE HD powder is in there with the green eyeshadow, but it was the only free space for it. Please don’t assume I love LORAC eyeshadows from how many you see here. I don’t. I’m looking for replacements as we speak.
Eyeshadow palettes and infrequently used colors. This runs up the left side of the bamboo container.
Concealers, brushes, and lash products. As you can see, I’m not super-particular about what I store things in, so long as they’re the right size/shape. The containers that hold brushes here are, from left to right: a glazed cup I got at Target; the bottom of the box my CO Bigelow Winter Lemon eau de toilette came in, which I sliced in half not very neatly with a kitchen knife; an infuser cup from a single-serving tea set I got at Pier 1 (a mug, an infuser cup, and a lid); and an empty, washed-out spice jar from Penzey’s. The two sets of packaged brushes are new (Essence of Beauty, on sale at CVS) and I haven’t decided where they’re going to go yet.
Blushes. Left: cheek stains, gels, cream blushes (most of them). Then powder blushes, plus one Stila convertible color cream blush. On the right, finishing powders and bronzers.
Lipstick and glosses — contained in a cute jewelry box I got at TJMaxx. The top section, which flips up and has a mirror, is for glosses and balms and other things that have virtually no color when applied.
Each of the four drawers is for a different color: pinks, corals, reds, and miscellaneous. I put white grippy drawer liner stuff on the bottom of each drawer for two reasons: a) so the lippies wouldn’t move around too much in the box, and 2) so that I could more accurately see the color of items in clear packaging and wasn’t looking at them against a hot pink background.
So, that’s the state of the stash at present. I’m really hoping that the new lipstick organization system will work. Meanwhile, the rest of my house is a disaster, but hey, my lipsticks are sorted by color. 
Sales!
HauteLook has StriVectin skincare on Tuesday 3/30, starting at 11 am Eastern/8 am Pacific.
Gilt has Mally Beauty also on Tuesday 3/30, starting at 12 noon Eastern.
Ladies (and gentlemen),
It is the eternal question.
Hey everyone,
You may feel free to flog me with a wet noodle, but I refuse to start talking about fall makeup collections when I have just submitted grades for the spring term and have finally (as of 30 minutes ago; yes, that is at 2:30 am) embarked on summer “vacation.” (Those of you who are academics are laughing bitterly at those quotation marks, aren’t you? Yes. I know.)
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