How do you organize your single eyeshadows?
Same as the rest of my products — first by brand, and then by formula! When there are quite a few, I try to alphabetize them.
Same as the rest of my products — first by brand, and then by formula! When there are quite a few, I try to alphabetize them.
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
I have an acrylic tray with slots so my MAC singles sit on end in two rows. One row is matte, the other row is shimmer/satin. I have very few UD and Colourpop singles, which I keep in a little drawer.
I paired down all of my single shadows to a single magnetic palette, and those are organized by color. The rest of my singles i.e. Colourpop, L’oreal pigments, etc. I have in a Sterilite organizer that I can easily browse. I went through a purge last fall and got rid of a lot of my singles because I don’t reach for them as much as I do my palettes. But I’m pretty happy with the ones that I kept, though I could probably purge even further.
I depot any that I can, or even better, just buy refills. I organize them in magnetic palettes. If I have a lot of singles by a brand, then they go together. So I have an Urban Decay singles palette, a MAC palette, a Coastal Scents palette, etc. The rest are organized by color in similarly-colored Z-Palettes so I can easily find what I want in the stacks.
Anything I can’t depot safely (ColourPop SSS, Milani Bella Eyes, etc.) are grouped by brand in marked boxes and stored on a shelf. Now that I have drawer units, I’ll probably reorganized those singles into drawers.
Most of my single shadows are standard round tins, and they live in a large MUFE palette. I have slightly too many to fit at this point though, so I always keep nine in a small z-palette. I use that to build my own palettes, sometimes in color stories of my own creation, sometimes in imitation of new palettes that I like the look of. Right now I’m mimicking the theme of Natasha Denona’s Gold palette.
The other singles I have that don’t fit/can’t be depotted (like ColourPop Super Shocks) are in an acrylic drawer.
I depotted all into a Z palette and they are kind of grouped together by color family.
Most are stored in drawer divider rectangular bins in my large Sterlite container. However, there are also quite a few mini “towers” sitting on top of my makeshift vanity. Many of which I keep there to incentify myself into using them? Hmm….doesn’t seem to be working anyway, time to put them with the rest, I suppose.
I really need to reorganize my singles. They’re all depotted and in magnetic palettes (except the Jaclyn Hill x Morphe ones because I don’t have enough room) but they don’t have any sort of organization going on. I’m definitely going to be reading responses for organization inspo.
I don’t have a lot of single eyeshadows, although I have ordered a few from City Colour that have yet to arrive. But they live in a makeup bag and they are easy to find.
My depotted-from-palette singles and the ones sold without packaging to be used in a magnetic palette are all i magnetic palettes; these are broken down by finish (matte palette, non-matte palette), then by color within each palette.
All the rest (and the vast majority) of my singles are from indie brands — loose powders in little pots. These are kept in a 10-drawer tall “crafter’s” tower that I think is designed to hold bits and bobs (very small footprint — about 5″ x 5″ — but 18″ tall), as well as a rectangular, flat-ish Tupperware container. The container is for matte powders, the tower is all non-mattes.
I don’t like this storage “solution” and reeeeally need to come up with something better, but I have no ideas right now.
Forgot to mention that my pots are arranged by name; this works for me because I have a spreadsheet with color descriptions to reference when I need ideas, though I’m familiar enough with most of them to know what they’re like before I pick them put, and will go straight for a particular name when I think “coppery orange with a green shift would be nice.”
I only have plenty of super shocks/Colourpop eyeshadows I place them on top of each other in the very front of my cabinets. Easy to seeand reach as I had forgotten to use some Estée Lauder I’ve had for years. Those Apple clean sturdy white boxes are useful too in organizing small items. I taken from my family at home.