Dear Ty: Makeup Storage and Organisation

As I mentioned in my last Triple S post, I said I will be responding to Jenny's "Dear Ty" request. I'm finally posting it up! I really hope it is what Jenny's after and lives up to her expectations. Fingers crossed! Before I begin, have a read of her "request letter".

"Dear Ty,

Jenny has been diagnosed with a severe case of Organised-Makeup-Phobia. As a result, her cosmetic collection is absolutely chaos, causing her to be late to work each morning, as she conducts fruitless searches into her drawers of makeup for the right product. This has also means that she only has about 5 products on regular rotation, leaving many makeup items sad and unloved.

As a result, the doctor has prescribed her with a ‘Makeup Collection, Storage and Vanity’ post on Ty’s Blog of Epiphanies. She would particularly love to see how Ty stores her larger eyeshadow palettes, particularly her Urban Decay and Bobbi Brown. Jenny also enjoys salivating over picture-heavy posts with neatly organized make-up sitting comfortably in their trays. And, seeing the amount of covetable products Ty owns, this would be Ty-Dy-For!

Can’t wait to see your post, after all, it’s just what the Doctor prescribed!

Love,

Jenny’s Fingers (currently tapping away on keyboard)."

Thanks to Jenny, I've finally cleaned up my drawer to fulfil her request. Before the clean-up, this is what my makeup drawer looked like:

Yes, very unsightly, I know... Here's a fun fact about me: I am a product box hoarder. Wait, huh? What does that mean? It means that instead of throwing out the boxes my makeup items come in, I keep them. But why? Because they are either too pretty for me to chuck out or because I had this notion that I would one day need to read the ingredients list or some information on the box would come in handy.

 I've finally forced myself to clear all of the boxes out of my drawer and thrown them into the recycling bin. I mean really, most products have their ingredients listed on the product anyway. Plus, it's not like I'm going to research every little ingredient or be copying all of them down. I have too little time for that. So, I decided to let these boxes go, even the pretty ones. It's sad but liberating at the same time.

I then proceeded to reorganising my makeup items.

As you can see, I store most of my makeup in plastic trays/containers. I found them at Big W and each one is around the $15 mark, depending on the size of the container. I have divided my makeup more or less into "sections". I grouped all of my eyeshadows, mascaras and eye pencils, lip products and face products into different compartments/sections.

In the upper most compartment of my tray, I have my Naked palette and three other small eyeshadow palettes. The next horizontal strip of compartment below it holds my Bobbi Brown palette (its the only item with a box that I am keeping), a couple of Bourjois single eyeshadows, my Bobbi Brown blush and concealer, a Benefit Eye Bright Pencil and a Revlon Smoky Shadow Stick.

The compartment below that holds all of my eye pencils and mascaras. And in the compartment below that, I have all of my lipsticks, lip glosses and lip liners. On the left hand side, in the vertical compartment, is my miscellaneous section. It contains items such as the Urban Decay Primer Potion, a couple of eye pencil sharperners and Lucas' Papaw Ointment. So you can say that this is my prep and prime section. I find that by grouping products based on their categories, it is easier and faster to find the items. For example, there's no way your MAC lipstick will be in the mascara section. This cuts down the searching time. And if you are in a hurry in the morning, you know that you can randomly grab something off each compartment and you know it will contain a product each from a different category, to make up your whole face.

Moving on to the next set of containers... In the large square container at the top, I've got all of my eyelashes buried at the bottom because I know that I only use it occasionally. My eyelash curler is of course at the top, where it is easily accessible. I also have my bronzer and tinted moisturiser at the surface. The small square container on the bottom left holds most of my sample sized products (that I hardly use, oops!). The one of the right keeps my transculent powder and a couple of hair bands snug. Lastly, the vertical tray on the right houses all of my makeup brushes.

Beyond that last tray, I store all of the bulky items that I don't or rarely use. The gold bag at the top contains the Estee Lauder lipglosses that I ruined (they are still useable but I seldom reach for them). Jenny also mentioned that she only uses a handful of products over and over. From what she said, I've deduced that she does not have a lot of time in the morning to put on her makeup before she goes to work. I could be wrong but here are my tips (because I too am in a hurry in the morning).

- Plan your makeup the night before just like how you would plan your outfit. I know it sounds vain but you will always have time to think about stuff like that before you drift off to sleep. So plan your makeup look in your head. That way you're already geared for certains items and will not waste time pondering what products to use and how to use them. This also means that you will get to use all of your makeup products.

- If you take the bus to work, pop a couple of your makeup items into your bag to apply on the way. I've seen ladies do full face makeup on the bus before. It's no easy feat but you make use of the travelling time. My advice is, take lip (like lipstick and lipgloss) and pressed powder products (like blush and bronzer) with you. I get motion sickness when I apply eye products because it requires a lot of careful application and takes a lot of time, staring into a mirror. Plus, you don't want anything near your eye in a moving vehicle, you might poke your own eye out!

- If you drive to work, apply your lip and cheek products when you get to work. You can pop into the bathroom and do it quickly. I've dashed into the bathroom to apply my makeup before I started work, on the a number of occasions. Or do it quickly at your desk before you start working (only if you are allowed to do so).

What do you think of this post? Is it of any help? Do you have any makeup storage tips? Do share!