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A Step-by-Step Guide to Complete Makeup Organization

Is your makeup collection a big mess? Do you have brushes, palettes, bottles, and tubes flung across your dresser or shoved into a drawer that you have to dig through each morning? You’re definitely not alone. Makeup organization is what you need.  We love makeup, but keeping it all organized can be a real pain. Many people resort to tossing bottles and tubes into plastic sandwich bags to at least keep it portable, but that can lead to big messes when caps are loose and bags get tossed around.

One big benefit of having an organized beauty supply stash is that you save more money, in several ways. First, you aren’t replacing things that you already have just because you couldn’t find them. Second, you’ll realize much faster which products are actually worth your dollars. If you use a more expensive product religiously and rely on it for your go-to look, it’s worth it to buy this product more, rather than to buy yet another cheap eye shadow palette for a single look that you’ll never touch again. It’s much easier to see how your beauty dollars are being spent when you are organized.

Instead of simply dealing with the unorganized mess day in and day out, why not take a few minutes to get your makeup in order? In this article, we’ve put together everything you need to know about makeup organization, how often to purge and replace all your products, and a ton of tips on how to make your makeup organization both useful and attractive. Even if you don’t have a lot of space for your collection, you can still make it easier to get to what you need and keep your various products safe from accidental disasters.

Where Should I Begin?

The place to start your makeup organization is with a good purge. Get out all of your makeup, even the spares, backups, and “special occasion only” products that you have, and lay it all out in one place. Also get out all of your brushes, sponges, and other tools, and lay those out as well. To do a total organizational overhaul, go ahead and lay out all of your skin care products and tools with your makeup (you might as well while you’re at it).

Now, the only things that you should immediately exempt from the purge process are the everyday essentials that you keep on the counter, like hand soap and dental care products. Next step in makeup organization, time to sort your products into categories.

Special occasion only: There are some products that you keep around for special occasions but don’t want to eliminate. Think of these as your “little black dress” of makeup – you don’t wear them every day, but you do reach for them when you need an extra boost of confidence. Things that often end up in this pile are liquid liners and bold lip colors.

 

Every day items: Whatever you use without fail every day goes in this pile. These are the things that you use as a base to build your special occasion looks as well. Foundations, primers, your go-to blush and lip color, and whatever else you may use to make it through a standard weekday goes here.

 

Toss pile: There are two things that should go in the toss pile – products that are expired and things you have never used. Stop holding on to products that you got as gifts or bought on a whim and have never touched again. No matter how expensive they were, they are just taking up space. Go ahead and give yourself permission to free up the clutter!

 

Maybe pile: Create a pile of things that you think you might use more often if you could find them easier, or if you’ve been meaning to get to them. Also in this pile goes anything that you would use more if there was something changed about it – for example, if you need to give a brush a good clean before you’d start using it again.

 

Duplicates pile: Create a pile of all the things you have duplicates of. If you are like many people, you probably have several lip products in similar colors, multiple neutral eye shadow palettes, more than one tube of mascara, and so on.

 

Now that you’ve got these piles created, it’s time to consider what to do with each pile. Obviously, you’ll keep your everyday items and those items that you reach for as your go-to for special occasions. Get rid of anything in the toss pile. Examine the “Maybe” pile very closely and ask yourself honestly if you’ll really ever use the items. Try to narrow that pile down as much as you can. Finally, store anything in the duplicates pile or toss anything that is close to its expiration date.

Related: The BB Creams Basics

How Long Does It Last?

One thing to know as you are going through this makeup organization is how long products usually last. If you can’t find an expiration date listed on a product, you can get a good idea of how long its life is based on when you bought it.

Foundation: Good for one to two years in a pump-action bottle; in a pot, it is only good for six months

 

Mascara: Only good for three to six months

 

Lipstick: Good for about two years

 

Skin cream: Good for one year

 

Sunscreen: Good for one year

 

Powders, including blush, eye shadow, and finishing powders: Good for one to two years

 

Makeup Brushes: Replace every one to five years, depending on the quality

 

Makeup Sponges: Good for about four to seven weeks

 

Perfumes: Good for two years

 

Gel Eyeliner: Only good for six to eight months

 

Pencil Eyeliner: Usually good for a year

 

Nail Polish: Good for one to two years

 

Anything natural: All-natural products should only be used for three to six months before being replaced.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About Makeup Sponges

How to Say Goodbye

We know that getting rid of things can be tough. You’ve narrowed down your “maybe” pile, and now you’re looking at the toss pile and the duplicates that you know you’ll never get to before they expire. These are things that need to go, but how can you justify throwing them out, especially if they were pricey items? Here are some things to remember in makeup organization:

• Putting expired makeup on your face is similar to eating expired food. The ingredients have gone bad, which means you can’t be sure they are safe for human use. There are many documented cases of severe reactions and breakouts after using expired makeup products.
• Old makeup harbors bacteria from your hands, your brushes, and time. Bacteria gets inside the packaging and begins to grow. Putting that on your skin can lead to infections and irritation.
• Expired products that have protective purposes, like sunscreen, do not work. The products lose effectiveness, so you are not really using sun screen at all! The same goes for anti-aging products and anything that is designed to deliver a specific result via a chemical agent, such as acne-fighting products.
• Your old brushes harbor bacteria too!

If you have products that aren’t expired, you haven’t used, and you just don’t want to toss them, consider giving them to a friend who you know will use them – but only if you haven’t used the product. If you’ve opened it, touched it, or put a brush into it at all, just toss it. The risk of spreading bacteria is too great.

Here’s one more tip for that “maybe” pile – if you are struggling to get rid of things, give yourself a due date, such as a month from now. If you haven’t used an item from the pile in a month, out it goes.

How to Organize What’s Left

Now that you’ve narrowed your piles down completely, it’s time to organize! First, store your duplicates away in a cool, dark place where they won’t get wet. Don’t forget to check there first when you run out of something in the future.

Next, it’s time to organize your daily products and your special occasion products. There are hundreds of cute ways for makeup organization all over the Internet. Depending on how much space you have, and what your style is, you may love the idea of creating a beauty spot on your dresser or vanity; or you may need to create an extremely well-organized drawer to keep things out of the way in a small space. Here are some of our favorite ideas from around the web.

For makeup stashes when you have a bit more space:

• Break out any type of container that makes you happy. From mason jars to clear makeup display stands to pretty vases to upcycled bottles, anything you want can be makeup storage. To keep brushes upright, put some pretty glass beads in the bottom of a vase or jar and “plant” their handles.
• If you have multiple drawers to dedicate, organize your makeup by what you use the most. Keep the special occasion stuff in the harder-to-reach areas, and keep your everyday go-to products front and center.
• Go for unique storage solutions. Use a free-standing spice rack, a tiered cake stand, a desk organizer, an adorable mug, a beautiful serving tray, or whatever catches your fancy to keep your makeup in one place.
• If you aren’t so concerned about keeping your makeup organized by how often you use it, try arranging it by color, season, or even just display your favorites in more visible ways. Put things that aren’t so attractive, like Q-tips or blending sponges in chic containers to make them part of a pretty makeup set up.

For makeup stashes when you need to save space:

Utilize the walls! Hang baskets on the walls, or hang a cute magnet board and glue small magnets to the backs of your palettes and pots. If your brushes have a metal ferrule, they’ll hang right there as well. If you want to minimize the holes in your wall, create a rope ladder with buckets or baskets hung by a single fixture at the top of the rope. Another great idea is to keep your makeup organized in an over-the-door shoe organizer – you can simply hang it against the wall if your door isn’t available. Getting your makeup off your counters and out of the drawers saves tons of space, and keeps everything right where you can reach it.

Play a game of Tetris with plastic storage containers in your makeup drawer. Start by organizing the drawer with the containers before you fill them with makeup. Once you see how many containers you can fit and where they’ll all go, you can then decide where to put certain products. Here’s a tip: Keep anything that you would travel with in a specific container so that when you need to, you can grab it, pop a lid on it, and go.

Use a silverware organizer in a drawer to keep brushes, tubes, and pencils organized. You may find that this is all you need to keep a semblance of order in your drawer with your other products stacked neatly nearby.

Think about the spaces you aren’t currently using. For example, can you add shelves over the toilet? Is there space on the inside of your closet door for a slim hanging spice rack? If you have a pedestal sink, can you add a curtain around the bottom to hide storage bins underneath? Consider if slim magnetic or stick-on organizers will fit inside the door of your medicine cabinet. Try installing a picture ledge, like those from IKEA, just above your sink for just enough room to place some organizing jars or containers. These spaces can easily be used to organize your makeup collection.

Makeup Organization – How Often Should I Do This?

Depending on how often you buy makeup, and your organizational habits, you could do this as often as you like. We recommend at least once per year to check for expired products and keep things tidy, but you may find that every six months, or even every month, is better for your habits.

Other Great Makeup Organization Resources:

Best 25+ Makeup organization ideas on Pinterest

14 DIY Makeup Organizer Ideas That Are So Much Prettier Than Those Stacks Of Plastic Boxes

22 Photos Of Makeup Organization Any Beauty Lover Will Appreciate