How to Organize Your Makeup Collection

Raise your hand if you love makeup! Raise your other hand if your growing makeup collection is slowly taking over your life!

It looks like you’re under arrest and makeup is to blame.

Makeup is one of the simple pleasures in life. With the flick of a brush and the swipe of a wand, you can transform your already beautiful face into a work of art. A different lipstick for each mood. A different eyeshadow for each whim. Makeup doesn’t just transform your outsides, it also ignites your inner creativity.

Makeup is intended to bring you good vibes. However, when your makeup collection is disorganized and scattered all over the place, it can become a source of frustration. Does any of this sound familiar:

• You spend minutes every day rummaging through your pile of makeup to find what you’re looking for
• You find yourself purchasing the same item over and over again because you keep losing it
• Your cosmetics products expire because you’ve stuffed them back into a dark cabinet and you don’t see them on a daily basis
• You have a ton of makeup products that you bought on a whim but now have no use for
• You’re still holding on to products that you’ve since found out that you are allergic to just because of nostalgia (and also because you remember how much you paid for it)

If you’ve struggled with any of the above, rest assured that you’re not alone. I can certainly relate to you, as can most makeup lovers.

How can something that produces so much beauty cause so much pain?

Fret not. In this post, we’ll help you finally tackle and tame your makeup collection so that you can get the most use out of it. Let’s get started.

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The Benefits of Organizing Your Makeup Collection

Let’s start off by discussing the benefits of organizing your makeup collection. What will you gain from taking a few minutes (okay, a couple of hours) to sort your makeup

1. More Time for Living

When your makeup collection is in a state of disarray, a five-minute face can take up to 20 minutes. Never underestimate the amount of time you spend foraging your makeup collection for that one rouge lipstick. It definitely adds up. By organizing your collection, you’ll know exactly where everything is and you won’t waste time.

2. Adopt a Healthier Lifestyle

Makeup doesn’t last forever, especially if you’re using a high-quality brand that’s not packed full of harmful preservatives. If your collection is disorganized, you won’t be able to take inventory of what you have and what you don’t. Even worse, you’ll forget when you’ve purchased a product and lose track of its expiration date. That means that you’re more apt to wear expired makeup simply because you can’t remember how long you’ve had it. (Ewww!)

3. Look Forward to Applying Your Makeup

When it’s hard to find your products, applying makeup can be a chore. Just sitting down to your makeup vanity can feel like an overwhelming prospect because you know what’s coming next: Five minutes of hunting for that dang eyeliner.

However, when you organize your makeup collection, you’ll enjoy the beauty process a lot more.

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In fact, you’ll look forward to those few minutes of zen every day as you apply your makeup.

Sort Makeup into Piles

The first step to organizing your collection is to take inventory of your makeup.

If you’re anything like me, you have several lip liners that you haven’t worn in months— scratch that— years.

It’s time to take an honest look at your makeup collection. You’ll need to get rid of products that you no longer use. You’ll also need to prioritize your makeup based on how often you use it.

Start by gathering up all of your makeup into one central location.

Next, sort your makeup into the following piles:

• Keep (Products that you long and want to keep using)
• Give Away (Unopened and unexpired products)
• Throw Away (Expired products, opened products you no longer want, or products that you’ve used before but cannot continue due to an allergy)

Choose the Right Location

Once you’ve figured out which products you’re keeping, it’s time to store them away. I recommend sorting the keep pile into two distinct groups: Products you wear everyday, and products you wear for special occasions.

The products that you wear everyday should be displayed prominently so that they’re accessible. The old proverb, out of sight, out of mind definitely applies to makeup. Speaking from personal experience, if you don’t see your makeup, you’re less likely to wear it.

For the makeup that you don’t use on a daily basis, you can neatly organize those products in a drawer, case, or cabinet. Be sure to download our list of makeup storage tools at the end of this post.

When displaying your makeup, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• If you have a large makeup collection, consider purchasing a vanity for your bedroom
• Store like items together (i.e. lipsticks, brushes, perfumes)
• Only display your most-used items to reduce the appearance of clutter
• Choose acrylic makeup organizers for a clean look
• Add boxes to your vanity drawers to keep your makeup separated and grouped by product type

Store Items Based on Type

If you’re longing for even more organization, you can take the extra step of organizing your makeup by type. Here’s a quick guide:

Skin Care Products

Cleansers, moisturizers, age-defying serums, creams, and gels.

Face/ Foundation

Powders, foundations, primers, BB creams, tinted moisturizers, powders, bronzers, blushes, highlighters, and concealers.

Lips

Lipsticks, glosses, plumpers, primers, and liners.

Eyes

Shadows, liners, mascaras, and brow gels.

Brushes

Applicator brushes, lash curlers, lash combs, and sponges.

Next, Sort By Color

After you’ve sorted the products by destination, it’s time to further your organization by color. The idea here is to go as simply as possible and remove as much rummaging through products as you can. When you see blues and yellows and brown shimmer in each place, it’s a lot easier to pick what you need.

Group like colors next to each other and then put them in the same bin or container for easy access.

Organize Your Signature Look Collection

Every woman has a go-to makeup look with tried and tested products that they can rely on. For ease of use, gather all of these products together (mascara, necessary brushes, lipstick, etc.) and place in their own “signature look” container.

Be very selective here. Choose only one type of each product, or else you’ll be in danger of having multiple products and an overflowing everyday compartment (which defeats the purpose of separating these items from the rest).

What to Do Next

Organizing your makeup collection brings order to chaos and makes it a lot easier for you to quickly apply your makeup. Now that your makeup is all organized, it’s time to start shopping! We know just the product. Check out the Lash Project. This mascara will give you healthier, stronger, and fuller-looking lashes within 60 days.

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