How do you organize your eye products?
I organize most of my makeup by brand, and for most palettes, they’re also organized by brand. For smaller palettes, like duos and quads, they’re with the rest of the brand’s products and then usually alphabetized. For larger palettes, I keep them in my closet (instead of drawers, as they don’t fit as well there!), and then I have palette-heavy brands (like Natasha Denona) organized by limited edition and permanent palettes. I have larger bins filled with more “miscellaneous” palettes and do by type of brand, so indie/niche (like Melt), more affordable, and mid-end to high-end (like Too Faced). Single eyeshadows (in compacts) are kept in the brand’s respective drawer(s) and organized by formula. Single eyeshadows (in pans) are in various freestyle palette systems (whatever I have available), and then they’re typically stored together; if I had the energy, they might be organized by color inside the palettes. I keep these custom palettes in my closet with all the pre-made palettes.
I have an acrylic organizer that has 8 shelves that hold palettes sitting flat. This is where I keep all my current favorites. They’re in order according to size, with the largest palettes on the bottom shelf and the smallest on the top, sometimes two to a shelf. I also have a rectangular basket where I keep all the rest of my palettes. They aren’t organized in any particular way other than size and shape. I have an acrylic organizer that has side-by-side slots for single shades, where I keep my MAC and UD singles. They’re not in any order right now. I keep eye pencils, brow pencils, and mascara in another acrylic organizer that has several sections.
I was tempted by a palette holder I saw at Container Store, but I can’t bear to store my palettes sitting up on their side (like your photo shows). I keep them all flat in a couple drawers.
Kitty, I have a similar acrylic palette organizer to the one in the picture, but it is not staggered and sits upright so the palettes slide in horizontally. I got it on Amazon. You can find several different ones there for $18 to $25.
I have five pre-made palettes and two palettes of singles (one is a small z-palette, the other is one of those large tin MUFE palettes that have been discontinued for some reason). I keep all of them together in a drawer in my vanity, organized only by size. None of my palettes is super huge so they all fit in the drawer fine. I rearrange my singles all the time to swap up the color schemes and provide new inspiration.
On the top of my vanity I have a little acrylic caddy with shelves, one of which is for singles that can’t be depotted, like ColourPop SSS.
All my larger palettes, plus many medium and small ones, as well, have completely taken over what used to be my sock drawer. This is a wide, deep dresser drawer, not a small one. I also keep many more in the middle drawer of a Sterlite container, with my UD GoT and Mac Natural Vice palettes on my “vanity” like 2 books. 90% of my self-made or premade MAC quads and 9 pans are in a MAC holiday Lipglass packaging that has a Heirloom figure on the lid.
Nancy T, you got my attention with self-made MAC quads. I can’t remember if I’ve asked this on Temptalia in the past, but if you have any tips on how to depot a MAC single to make your own palette, I’d love to know. I have so many I rarely use; I’d probably reach for them more often if they were in a palette.
This is the one I’ve used, and I find getting the glue off to be the toughest part https://www.bforbunbun.com/tutorial-how-to-depot-mac-single-eyeshadow-using-flat-iron/
Thanks, Cassie. I’ll read this tonight.
Just in case Nancy doesn’t see your question I thought I’d add my two cents. I depotted many Mac singles using a flat iron. I had an old one I wasn’t using for my hair any longer but I needed have worried, no harm came to it at all. One thing I did do was search on YouTube for depotting videos. There are many ways to do it. I chose the flat iron because I had one on hand. I know I didn’t lose a single eyeshadow and after the first one is was very easy and kind of fun.
Thank you, Karen Johnston. I’m glad to find out that it can be done!
All my larger palettes, plus many medium and small ones, as well, have completely taken over what used to be my sock drawer. This is a wide, deep dresser drawer, not a small one. I also keep many more in the middle drawer of a Sterlite container, with my UD GoT and Mac Natural Vice palettes on my “vanity” like 2 books. 90% of my self-made or premade MAC quads and 9 pans are in a MAC holiday Lipglass packaging that has a Heirloom figure on the lid.
Single e/s’s are mostly in the top drawer of the same Sterlite container along with all my potted gel eye liners and lash curler, plus some are on top of my vanity if I use them often enough. Special MAC LE e/s singles are in two drawers of an acrylic cosmetic storage unit on my “vanity”. Eye pencils are mostly in a metal mesh pen holder or next to my mirror. Brow products, tightline pencil, tweezers are on the other side of my mirror. Mascaras are in a tumbler.
In a drawer ?
Seriously, I have two drawers for e/‘s and 98% of my collection is now in palettes. I have top drawer palettes and second drawer palettes. From second drawer they go out the door; binned or cleaned and donated.
How do you motivate yourself to send palettes out the door? I can’t part with any of them, even if I haven’t used them in a long time.
1. Strict 2 drawer policy. If the drawer is full, or I am trying to open the drawer and palettes are getting caught at the back of the drawer…
2. I have a good friend with a University student daughter and her friends are happy to take whatever I have neglected off my hands. Watching them get excited makes it easy.
I have a total of 23 eye palettes (including two singles in pans, a duo, four quads, a custom palette and larger palettes), and I keep them in acrylic holders like in the photo, organized by size. This number is more than enough for my needs, and it allows me to easily rotate between the palettes during the week.
Hi Christine, would you be willing to share the name of the organizer with all the palettes on the top of this post.
It’s from ByAlegory.
My larger palettes are organized in a drawer of my armoire. It is very deep and roughly 4 feet wide so there is plenty of room for palettes. I group them by brand and usually recognize the side of the palette so finding a specific palette is pretty easy.
I have a lot of Dior, Chanel and some Tom Ford quint/quads and they are all stored standing up in the original packages which have been cut in half and glued together. I haven’t had any issues storing them this way and I have had many of them for more than 8-10 years. I never know what to do with the black velvet bags and have a pile of them. If you store them in the bag you can’t see anything and you have to remove the palette to see which one you have. Seems like such a waste. Does anyone store their palettes in the bags? If not, what do you do with them? Throw them out?
Single e/s are a mess! They are organized by brand but it is still a pain trying to find a specific shade. I need to find a better system for the singles. I really appreciate that a lot of brands are making their shadows magnetized and easy to get out of the holder. Some day when I am rich and want to organize my singles, I will buy pan only shades of all my MAC shadows. That would help a little.
I’m so confused by ‘original package cut in half and glued together’. Can you elaborate or show pics? I have a lot of DIOR quints. One CHANEL, one Aucoin. I trash the velvet bags, they’re just wasteful. I store them face down so the name of the color on the back of the compact shows facing me. Easy to find what I want.
Hi Moi,
I will try and explain better but it is really pretty easy. When I purchase a Dior 5 pan eye shadow palette it comes in a box that is just slightly bigger than the palette. When I get home I remove the product from the box and with scissors I cut the box in half. I keep one of the halves for items that maybe don’t come in a box. I take the half that I am going to use and I tape it to other 1/2 boxes in my drawer. Then the product goes back into the 1/2 of the box. I can see the product because half of it is exposed. I do this for small palettes like Chanel and Dior quads/quints. I also do it for pressed powders and lipsticks.
Ahhh, now i *see*. I couldn’t figure out why you would cut it only to glue it but that makes sense. Basically making your own holder for them. My more specific answer is I bought a little storage unit from family dollar, one of those flat packed build your own things for $20. I needed two though! haha! So all makeup is in drawers and DIOR has its own drawer. They are laying face down in trays from the container store so the color is facing up for easy reading. The trays are stacked by color too, so hyper organized. My Charlotte Tilbury ones go standing up in an acrylic organizer inside a drawer. Palettes go standing in the drawers. I abhor clutter so it all has to fit AND look nice.
Deborah S., I don’t have any Dior or Chanel eye palettes, but I do keep my Dior, Chanel, and Estée Lauder cheek products in their little velvet bags. But I have so few of them that it’s pretty easy to find what I want. And I keep anything that lives in a little velvet bag—plus Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks that are too bulky to fit in my lipstick organizers—in a Chanel box that I received when I ordered something last year.
How do I store eyeshadows and e/s palettes? With great difficulty.
I have some singles organized by brand (MAC, Nars, LGeller, Stila, NYX, etc), and some others by color (violets, blues), which are all in a hardware organizer with 24 (4 across x 6 down) trays that I got from Orchard Supply years ago. Then some of the most-used for the current season are jumbled in a box by themselves for quick use.
Palettes are either laid flat in 3-tray organizers (7″x8″x6.5″) I got at CVS, or in a box standing on their sides.
I really have too much makeup.
I have all my palettes in drawers stacked on top of each other not in any specific order. Singles are not in any order they are in a separate deep drawer.
ByAlegory (Amazon) palette, quad, single and cream color organizers and then I’ve sorted them by brand. I have a tall wooden swivel mirror that has shelving in the back and I’ve dedicated the top 2 shelves for eye products. Anything I haven’t used in a while (eye products or otherwise) goes into a dresser drawer that I go through about every 3 months, sometimes monthly. I’ll either pull something back out to display/put back in rotation or I’ll put it into the donation bin.
I have two large makeup bags – one for larger palettes and another for quad/quints. Singles live in my staples bag.
NARS x Erdem palette is in its original box inside my NARS shipping box.
Disney x ColourPop Designer singles are in their original boxes inside my drawstring pouch dedicated to Disney x ColourPop Designer.
BH Cosmetics Zodiac palette, Too Faced 20th Anniversary Then & Now palette, Fenty Slush Money eye crayons, and Pur Cosmetics x The Grinch Good Enough to Steal face palette are all in their original boxes.
I have an LA Colors sextet from the FYX: Bronze gift set from a few years ago inside Magenta, my large zippered pouch where I keep a lot of frequently-used products (the LA Colors sextet is very versatile).
2 singles (Sephora Vampire Lovers and UD Midnight Cowboy) and some of my liners (UD 24/7-Lucky and Love Drug and NRFB KVD x Billie Joe Armstrong Basket Case Insomniac Black) and mascaras (UD Double Team Deep End, CoverGirl Katy Kat Eye Perry Blue, Hard Candy Ginormous Lash) are in my KVD train case’s left tray, along with UDPP Original.
The rest of my palettes are in the bottom compartment of the train case.
The rest of my liners (the Basket Case I use and an Estee Lauder Blackened Cocoa sample) are in Magenta with the LA Colors sextet.
The rest of my mascaras (Tom Ford Extreme 22-magenta and 24-copper, YSL The Shock Rough Burgundy, YSL Vinyl Couture I’m the Fire-gold) are in their original boxes, inside the big Star Wars decorative box I use for some of my makeup.
The Fenty crayons are called Frost Money, not Slush Money.
I organize my eye products first by type: all regular and large palettes, all smaller (6 or few pans) palettes, all single powder eyeshadows in their original pans, all cream eyeshadows, all liquid eyeshadows and, finally, stick eyeshadows. All these are stored by brand.
My pencil liners are stored in an art book by color. Mascaras I am using are in one little bin, backup mascaras in another. Eye primers the same way, I usually have two open and then a few backups in a container behind what I’m actively using for both mascara and eye primer.
The large and medium eyeshadow palettes have their own alex drawer. The smaller palettes share a drawer with some face palettes. Powder singles, mascara, and my liner book are together in a drawer along with my eyelash curler, and a couple mascara combs. Cream shadows, liquids and stick eyeshadows are in a drawer with my double ended brushes that cannot be stood up in my brush holder. Finally, my eyeshadow primers share a drawer with my face primers.