How to Organize Your Makeup

I don't wear a lot of makeup.  Usually nothing more than a three minute routine of base, blush and mascara.  Often not even that. 

Your makeup organization solution has a few goals.  You don't want to smear bacteria laden stuff across your face.  Eew.  So, let's get rid of the stuff that is bad and make sure the good stuff stays good as long as possible.

Get Prepped

1. Get rid of makeup that has expired.
• Mascara and Liquid Eyeliners - 3 months
• Liquid Base and Foundation - 6 months
• Nail polish - 1-2 years
• Powdered Base and Foundation - 2 years
• Lipsticks - 2 years
• Eye Shadows - 2 years
• Eyeliner pencils - 2+ years (if they can be sharpened)
2. Get rid of bad makeup.  If the makeup smells bad or is seperating, toss it.  If you used a lip applicator on your mouth while you were sick, toss it.  If you used an eye product on your eye while you had an infection, toss it. 
3. Keep dry.  I know that the bathroom is the most logical place to store makeup, but that's not the driest place in the house.  Humidity breeds bacteria. 
4. Keep away from heat and light.
5. Toss stuff you don't use.  It's Organization 101.  If there is less stuff, it's easier to organize.
6. Sort into categories.  Put all your lipsticks, eye products, brushes, etc into their own sections.  Below I have some ideas on how to keep the sorted stuff sorted.

Storage Solutions

Freestyle Pallets.  Eye shadows junkies know that all those individual eye shadows take up a ton of space.  You can get freestyle pallets that can hold a bunch of colors. from companies like Yaby Cosmetics or Z Palettes.You basically pull out the eye shadow compartments from the eye shadow containers, slap a little magnetic sticker on the bottom and put into the pallet.

IKEA Magnet board.  What doesn't IKEA make?  This great site explains how to set up this little gem.

Think outside the makeup box.  Anything marked "makeup" is marked up more than it needs to be.  Target and IKEA sell small sliding drawers. 

Go specialized.  Container store is always a fun option.  They've got tons of very specialized products that aren't too much more than those sliding drawers.

What did I do?

 

I wanted an actual place to do my makeup.  So I decided to get a vanity with a storage drawer.  I have it in the mudroom which is right off our primary bathroom.

The drawer came with three divisions.  I put three boxes that I got from the Container Store in the largest division to make five.

1. Furthest to the left is my face and hand cremes
2. Next is my bases, powders and concealers
3. The middle has my blushes towards the mirror and my lip colors towards the seat.
4. The fourth container has my eye products.  Eye shadows towards the mirror and the liners and mascaras are towards the seat.
5. The right most compartment is cut off a little bit, but it has hair ties and hair rollers.

The seat has storage too.  This is where I keep my hair products and strightener/curler/blow dryer.

This set up has worked really well for me.  It's easier to find my makeup when I want to experiment or have a special occasion.  Unfortunately, the actual vanity that I purchased at target is no longer available, but there are several similar ones on the market. 


The next one is not mine, but I think it's amazing.

I thought about making one.  Info on how to make that can be found at that link.


Sources:

• http://hopelesslydevotedtomakeup.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-long-is-makeup-good-for.html
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/22/organize-makeup_n_1372362.html#s804073&title=Condense_