Brush organization and ideas 2012

At some point, my collection grew out of control and I am not very proud of that, but that’s another story…

I had to find a way to make it faster and easier in the morning rush… and also to use everything and not only the same products over and over again. If I see them I will use them, if I don’t, I will forget about them.
I started putting labels on my palettes, then the blushes, then nearly everything else… and that helped, a lot, today I can spend more time enjoying the application and less looking for the items.

I also don’t have a lot of space or a place to sit to apply my make up, today I have a nice Ikea Malm dresser with a mirror and my boyfriend added some nice little lights on the sides,  I also have 3 more drawers in another bigger dresser and everything has to fit in there.

The brushes

My brushes are stored in drawers, Sigma cups or acrylic holders.

In the Ikea dresser, the top drawer is for eyeshadow brushes, the middle drawer is for Rae Morris and other flat kabukis, the bottom drawer is for foundation brushes, my big Louise Young powder brush or other longer brushes that don’t fit in the top one.

The white plates are in fact cheese plates… I know… but actually it’s very hygienic, when I clean my brushes I also clean the plates with alcohol.  I found them in a shop called “Casa”, they never made it into the kitchen…  🙂

I keep the rebel Rae Morris set in a pencil roll since they are magnetic, otherwise they would stick to each other. I have tried to put a metal plate inside the drawer but that did not work, the brushes were strongly drawn to each other and I still needed both hands to separate the brushes, in this pencil roll they don’t move and I can remove a brush with one hand if I am holding a palette with the other hand for example 🙂

I bought some Muji acrylic containers in Selfridges, they are not expensive at all, they had a photo frame like this, that I have transformed into a shelf since they were selling additional little metal feet, I just replaced the screws with the same feet.

Eyeshadow palettes and Mac Msf’s

I am a serial depotter… these are my bigger palettes with many depotted blushes or eyeshadows

Blushes, highlighters, bronzers and Chanel quads

Round blushes and lip products

I don’t even need to take them out to check the name, their name is written on the label.

I put most of the lipsticks in small acrylic holders, it takes more space but it’s much easier to pick them up if they are not squeezed all together.

If I don’t put labels on them, I try to sort them from left to right, for example the YSL go from number 4 on the left to number 19 on the right…   I don’t always do that but I try if I can.

Maybe one trick I can also share is that I take pictures of my drawers with my phone, when I travel and I am not sure of the shades I already have, I zoom into the phone picture and it’s perfectly readable…  I admit when it comes to lipsticks I don’t always remember which ones I bought exactly…

Foundation, skincare, concealer and samples

This is the dirtiest drawer of all, I have too many products and it looks ugly and dirty.. sorry about that.

and another awful one for pencils…  I love Chanel, YSL, Rouge Bunny Rouge, Nars, I try to separate them in these little office supplies, this organization can be improved and has to be sorted !

Mac paintpots and other cream eyeshadows

I got these acrylic drawers in a local shop in Geneva, but I guess you can find them pretty much everywhere.

Some other ideas…..

I have nail polish racks but I use them mainly to keep other small blushes, the problem with these racks is the dust, but you’ll have the same problem with nail polish. I glued hooks for the scissors and the eyelash curlers.

I always keep a spray of alcohol near me for the brushes or to quickly sanitize other make up products.

These are the lights my boyfriend attached to the sides of the Ikea Malm, they are nice and you can point them towards the center or the sides, but they are not very bright, I am trying to convince him to add two more little thin racks on the sides of the mirror…

There is way too much acrylic … I am trying to tone it down, I put a beautiful thick bright pink coaster and I cut the corner so that it fits perfectly well.

Here is my little and cheap label machine, on the right the RBR eyeshadows, I don’t always put the full name on the label… as long as I know which one it is…

This is the other photo frame, I put the dirty brushes on this one when I am using them …   and it’s easy to clean !

I have a pink jewellery box on the left, with stackable trays, perfect for little charms,  you can find a picture here. This one comes from John Lewis in the UK.

Remember… make up is heavy.. you may want to do something about the drawers if you don’t want them to break due to the weight, I had to ask my boyfriend to think about something, he did that at the bottom of the drawer, it prevents it from bending :

I hope this little post gave you some ideas… if yes, please let me know ! Please also share your storage ideas in the comments below, or if you have a video or a blog post please link it here 🙂 I would be very happy to see them !