My makeup collection is a little out of control. There are blushes on my desk, palettes in random bathroom drawers and lip liner in all the wrong places (I just found my Honey B. Cremestick liner, which was MIA for weeks, in my car the other day!). Makeup is quickly threatening to take over my existence.
For the past few months I’ve been storing stuff in Sterilite plastic craft drawers located in different rooms at home. I like that the drawers are cheap and easy to clean, but I’d still like to be able to keep it all in one central place. I was cruising Sears a few weeks ago, ’cause I had to buy some vacuum bags, and found a possible solution to the ever-increasing makeup madness: a Craftsman rolling tool chest! It’s tall, has several long, shallow drawers (perfect for eye shadow pans and palettes) and has enough storage room to hold everything.
Unfortunately, it’s a few hundred bucks, ugly, and really doesn’t match my bedroom furniture. Trust me, if I had a place to store this away, like a huge walk-in closet, I’d have this bad boy filled to the brim with makeup. The quest for more makeup storage continues, sigh.
How do you store your makeup? Help your girl out, please!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I♥M·A·C says
I have those huge Sterilite drawers…
This size: http://www.target.com/White-Sterilite-4-Drawer-Plastic-Wheels/dp/B0006O0EE2/qid=1196831994/ref=br_1_8/601-0727969-6516900?ie=UTF8&node=300282011&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1
Karen says
Girl, that cart is for some serious haul-age! 🙂
I like those drawers too, but I think I need to build upward! I have to think of something fast because everybody in my family is threatening to not get me any makeup for Christmas, boo hoo.
tricia says
go to http://www.folica.com so many different ones to pick from, large and and small. i am also looking for myself, i need new place to store my makeup too.
Kim says
You just made me giggle about makeup gone MIA! That toolbox looks like a wonderful idea! But true it doesn’t go with anything here either.
My youngest son moved out and I have taken over his bedroom.. not to sleep in..NO I am using it to store only a parts of my makeup collection! I so glad to know I am not alone! I have makeup probably in every room of this house! Got my other son hiding some in his closet for me.. don’t want my husband to know I been visit Chanel’s makeup counter at Macy’s again.. LOL
~ Kim
Thoughts of Beauty
Angela says
I store it all in wicker baskets on shelves that I hung in my bedroom. Before I got the wall shelves, I stored the baskets on the top shelf of my closet.
I like the Craftsman. 🙂 If you’re looking for an all-in-one you might want to look in Pier One Imports, I’m almost positive I saw something similar, in rattan.
Good luck!
nifty says
hi hi! I don’t have that much makeup – but this other blog i was looking at seemed to have pretty nice storage solutions.
http://musemedia.blogspot.com/search/label/Storage
hope this helps you!!!!!! and i love your blog!! =]
Glosslizard says
I’ve been eyeballing some of those standing jewelry amoires (I’ve seen them at J.C. Penney’s and some other places I can’t recall). They don’t have the best capacity, but lots of them do seem to have the shallow and deep drawers, and most of them are pretty enough to stand in the bedroom without undue embarrassment! 😉 Currently, I’ve packed a bunch of the stuff I use sometimes, but not regularly (the B list!) into a separate but easily accessible case so it’s not taking up the precious shelf space! It’s not perfect, but I’ll be watching here for the perfect solution to present itself!
Rowena says
They need to make a pink, Hello Kitty edition of this and I would definately go for it!
Mah Mendonça says
i’m so curious about all your make up!
post a picture part to part! and kill us! aheuhauehauehaue
love your blog!
kisses
ponikuta says
Hey Karen, I know what you can do. Donate all your makeup to the makeup deprived me !! Haha !! Great way to send them away and make space for new ones !! Woot!!
Karen says
Hi Tricia!
Thanks for the tip. There are lots of cute train cases on that site. I like the ones that with wheels, LOL. I don’t really travel with my stash but it would be nice to know that should there be some form of natural disaster I could just grab that and go! 🙂
Karen says
Hi Kim,
That’s cool that you have places for secret makeup stash! I love Chanel, too. Do you have a favorite product?
Karen says
Hi Angela,
I’m glad somebody feels me on the Craftsman! I think that thing is the shizz. This is kinda a weird question, but do you label your wicker baskets? Or do you just throw stuff in there are fish it out?
Thanks for the Pier One tip! I totally forget that they’ve got furniture. There’s one in the town next to mine so maybe I’ll pop by there on my day off 🙂
Karen says
Woot, thanks Nifty. Yeah, I love Muse’s blog. She’s a sweetie. Thanks for your lovely complement on the blog and for saying “Hi”! It’s nice to meet you and I hope ya come back soon.
Karen says
Hi Glosslizard,
I saw a bunch of really pretty jewelry armoires at Bombay Company (the store at the nearby mall is going out of business). I like the idea of them but so many of them are lined with velvet and felt, and I’m so messy. 🙁
Sweet jeebus, I just might have to suck it up and go to the Container Store (ugh).
Karen says
Rowena, that’s a brilliant idea.
Oh, and it would have to be encrusted with some jewels or Swavorski crystals or something!
Karen says
Hi Mah Mendonca,
One of these days I’ll get around to it – if I find it all! I swear half of it is missing or in crevices or cars. 🙁
Karen says
LOL, Ponikuta! Like I need to feed your makeup fire 🙂
Angela says
Hi Karen. 🙂
About the wicker baskets, I don’t label them, I just group similar things together (eye shadows sorted by color, black/gray, purple/burgundy, nudes, each group in its own basket, same thing with lipsticks). Eye pencils and liners go in big purple glass candle holders I found somewhere (Target, I think). They look nice, and break up all that wicker, so it looks cool, instead of like a forest. 🙂
Anyway, good luck! Thanks so much too for this blog, it’s a lot of fun to read. 🙂
Karen says
Hi Angela,
Your system sounds pretty and efficient. I like to group stuff, too. I’ve been doing it by collection but I think I’ll try color grouping. I’ve been using office pencil holders for my liners but I like the idea of candle holders ’cause it sounds much prettier.
I’m glad you enjoy reading the blog! I’ll be trying to put up more stuff (been bustling about – why is there so much to do during the holidays? it’s nuts) as the week ends – more swatches, reviews and what not. I kinda wish my Christmas shopping would magically get itself done, lol.
Hope you are having a good one so far! Take care. 🙂
Glosslizard says
I love the Bombay Company! They always have such gorgeous things! ‘Spensive, though, and somehow I always feel like there’s a snooty butler trailing me through the place, waiting for me to knock something over! 🙂
A thought… you could buy shallow pans or trays at the container store and use them to line the drawers of the pretty armoire! It’ll look gorgeous on the outside and be mess-free on the inside! That’s it, next time I’m at the mall I’m hitting the B Co.!
Glosslizard says
Oh, and I totally want a Hello Kitty Craftsman too! 😀
Megan says
Karen,
Personally, I Have a big sterlite drawer for stuff i don’t use often. It stays under my bed. I also have a basket in the linen closet, two make up bags, as well as another basket in the bathroom. I also have random lipglosses etc. in purses and coat pockets… and a stash in my desk at work. LOL… I dont think this is healthy. One my friends used to have the coolest thing that she kept all her beauty products in. She was Indian, and I believe her parents brought it over from India. It was used as a vanity, but almost looked like a small desk with a lot of shallow drawers. It was a really pretty piece of furniture…and had lots of storage. I don’t know if you have room for something like that or not.
Karen says
Hi Glosslizard,
I love Bombay Company too. I think they are losing $ though because they are shutting down a bunch of stores and the online site is down.
If you go then make sure you set a budget. When I went *everything* was deeply discounted. I would’ve bought everything in the store but I had just finished working out and was starving and hungry!
If you go check out a very cute jewelry armoire that looks like a mini-hutch. It’s black and has mirrors in the front!
Karen says
and P.S. a Hello Kitty Craftsman would ROCK, hello!
Karen says
Megan,
I hear ya. I find lipglosses and stuff in the most unlikely places. In the jacket I’m wearing today I just found MAC Badaboom Lipgloss. I’ve been looking for it for TWO WEEKS. I swear there’s another dimension where all my makeup goes …
That desk/armoire thingy your friend has sounds PERFECT. I wish I had more room for another piece of furniture. *sobs*
michelle luna says
i use a sterilite tall chest that is just like the 3-drawer deals, but has extra drawers making it chest height. the bottom is 3 regular deep drawers, and the top is 4 shallower drawers. the bottom 3 hold hair accessories like headbands and extra goody elastics, and bandanas, and belts. the bottom 2 shallow drawers hold backup makeup in 1 and contact and dental care in the other, and the topmost 2 drawers hold makeup and mirrors and other things. on top along with my jewelry i hardly wear i have glass candle cups to hold med-large brushes, foundation/concealer with their brushes, small/mini brushes, and i still use my caboodles for the majority of my eye makeup, except for all my urban decay which go into separate lil boxes and makeup pouches, and then i use a shoebox shaped ziploc box for all my lipglosses. someday i hope to have a vanity-desk style set-up, but for the space i live in, ive got a pretty decent setup, the corner my makeup is in happens to have a half-width window so i always have indirect sunlight to work with.
michelle luna says
yo, i just noticed this craftsman has a stereo. hell yeah. we sell a kobalt one like that at lowes, but ill take silver over blue anyday
Teiva says
Actually..I store my makeup in a Craftsman tool chest! I had one when I had a jewelry making business so my then toddler could not get into my resin, chemicals, and sharp bits. Since I stopped make jewelry as a business I didn’t need all of the chemicals and moved my makeup into the tool chest! It works great! The only downside is that I can fit a LOT in it and I seem to be hell bent to fill it up!