Not too long ago I wrote this post all about my newfound and supposedly perfect solution to storing and organizing my obscenely massive makeup stash. Well, that system was nice...until I got tired of having the bulk of my stash stowed away in an entirely separate room from where I actually DO my makeup every morning. So last week, I changed it--again.
Got me some cheap closet-organizer shelves, stuck them on top of the Melmers that live on either side of my vanity (otherwise known as the Polish Projects) and ended up with an entirely changed and much easier to work with doozying-up station.
Here is the whole she-bang all together.
Here's a closer look at my vanity table itself. It's one of those two-tiered glass deals. I use bins on the lower level to organize cotton balls, sponges, q-tips and hair-restraining devices (bobby pins, clips, pony-tail holders and whatnot). Notice the black stack to the right of my mirror? Those are all my Sleek shadow palettes, my pweeeechiouuuus of the moment. Oh and that cow print thing is my Udderly Smooth lotion (the BEST lotion on the planet).
Zooming in on my brushes. Notice the prevalence of Ecotools, by far my favorite brush brand evaaaar. (I've been meaning to do a brush post forever. One fine day, I'll get to it). All my brushes live in a desk-top organizer thing I found at TJ Maxx. You can just barely see it, but the whole thing has patent black croc on the outside and snow leopard print on the inside. It's divided into 3 compartments, which I use to organize face brushes, shorty eyebrushes and longer handled eyebrushes (I hate when the short brushes get lost because all the tall ones are towering over them. Hey, I'm barely 5' 4" so I'm sensitive to height issues). The brushes that don't fit into the holder stand proudly in front of it. I love my Ecotools kabukis! I use them every frickin day.
To the right of my brush thingy, I have a clear acrylic Caboodles organizer I use to keep my every day things in. It's got lots of different small divided compartments in the back, 2 big ones in the front and one compartment that comes with a lid and I lurve it. Look at how pretty everything looks--with the liners all standing at attention and the compacts maxin and relaxin in the bigger front compartment. I even stow tweezers on the edges of the compartment walls--I just stradle them on there& they're ready to be grabbed whenever I spot an unwanted hair.
Now onto the shelves themselves.
Here's what lives on top of the shelf unit on the right side--all my eye pencils are in the pink thingy (it's a mini metal bucket I found in the dollar store). The green thing holds single non-Wet N Wild eyeshadows (in my world, there are Wet N Wild shadows and then there's everything ELSE) and there's also my beloved Hoofer's Choice cuticle cream and also some foundation & primer that I am retiring for the summer.
The top right shelf is dedicated solely to my Wet N Wild shadows. I have my trios in the long black bin and they fit perfectly, I can flip through them like file folders when I'm searching for a certain trio. The pink bin in back holds my 8 pan palettes and my Coloricon singles. The blue bin in front holds some more 8 pans, my 6 pan palettes and my older Mega-Eyes trios (long discontinued, I was lucky enough to stumble upon them one day at my NEX)...
The middle right shelf holds all my OTHER eyeshadows (ELF, Revlon & whatnot. Also my L'Oreal Infallible shadows, my Maybelline Color Tattoos, my ELF cream shadows and some fat shadow pencils.--all organized into their own bins that I just stack on top of each other because, well, there's no other way to fit them all.
The bottom right shelf holds all my loose shadows. Glamour Doll Eyes and Sugarpill share the green bin because, like my Wet N Wilds, they get preferential treatment and the other brands are all randomly stashed into other bins together.
The top of the left shelf unit. I used a little plastic crate thingy from the Dollar store to hold all my hair junk and lotion and the only perfumes I ever wear (Victoria's Secret Pink and the Pink body sprays). The gaggle of polishes hiding to the right of the crate are a bunch of Indie polishes that I'm planning on trying soon--also one random H & M red, blue and silver glitter that I'm gonna bust out for 4th of July nails.
Top left shelf is dedicated to lip stuff. They are all organized by brand and product. All lipsticks live together and all glosses have their own bin. The balms also have their own little black bin up front and I keep my pencils and NYC stains (which I store upside down to keep the product in the felt tip) in that yellow bucket.
Middle left shelf is all about the face junk. Blushes have their own bin, as do bronzers and shimmer-making products. My NYC blushable creme sticks and my ELF blushes get their own bins cuz they're special.
Bottom left shelf is the big honkin palette shelf. It may not look like it, but I have 2 BH Cosmetics 120 palettes, several Coastal Scents 88 palettes, a big, thick Sephora palette, a big blush palette, a lip palette and my NYX Nude on Nude palette all stashed on their side together in that one little crate (like a BOSS!!)
And I couldn't end this post without showing off my favorite part of my makeup station: the Skull rug at the foot of it. I found it last year at Target during halloween and originally got it for my kitchen (my kitchen has a bit of a bones motif going on--i got skull salt and pepper shakers with a matching skull cookie jar, skeleton dish towels, and an apron with a screen print of a skeleton positioned so its anatomically appropriate & all x-ray looking for the wearer.....but I digress) but then I got paranoid that the white would become hopelessly stained by food shrapnel, so I moved it to the bedroom cuz, really, there's no room in my house where a skull would not be appropriate.
So now I have everything fairly organized and all of it at my fingertips so I'm content with the whole situation...for now...
Got any storage tips of your own to share?
