How do you organize your eyeshadows? By color? Finish/texture? Brand?
.
I organize by brand, and then I organize by color, typically. For all my MAC eyeshadows, I have it organized by color EXCEPT mattes, which I do keep separate. In the interest of saving time, I’m probably going to also organize my permanent shades separately from limited edition shades as well.
Thanks to Cherie for today’s question!
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!
With samples, I keep them in my sample binder and organise by colour, light to dark. Jars go in drawers by brand, then colour. Solid eyeshadow singles go in UNII palettes :]
Well I don’t have enough to organize it by brand b/c it’s 95% MAC.
My LE eyeshadows are in pots. My permanent are all in my propalette (only have one full). Within they go in columns of their Hue (colour family – blue, green, pink, etc)
I only have 4 matte colours in all of my collection (2 bobbi browns and 2 MAC – typographic and clarity). lol!
I keep them separated by brand. But not palettes. Palettes are in a separated area, since I usually use them when I am travelling for having a good chance in changing my make up without having to carry with me tons of boxes!
I organize mine my brand. I have the 3 drawer storage containers and each drawer is a brand of makeup. I have a Urban Decay brand, I have one with all my Kat Von D palettes.
i organize mine by size first (those in pots/palettes) then by color family.
I have mainly and many MAC e/s. I like to buy ‘a collection look’ – a set of eyeshadows, a blush, a lippie, etc. So, I have also depotted the e/s from a collection to a MAC Pro Palette x4 (except special ones like Neo Sci Fi). I also have 3 Pro Palettes x15. One is mainly greens&teals, one yellow-orange-neutrals and one Starflashes and some random ‘loners’.
1 Mac palette for neutrals, 1 for brights. Then other brands are in a stackable drawer thing – 1 drawer eyeliners, 1 drawer cream shadows, 1 drawer pigments and loose shadows, 1 drawer neutral eyeshadows, 1 drawer dark colours, 1 drawer bright colours. That sounds a lot but the drawers are quite small!
And all my pigment samples are in muji stackable pots – arranged in the colours of the rainbow! I love pigment samples – you still get plenty…
I organize them by colours, finish and packaging. For example, all the pink single e/s are together from the lightest to the darkest, all the pigments are divided from the single e/s and from all the glitters… I’m an engineer!!!
I really need to reorganise my whole collection, because at the moment they’re not organised by brand or type of make up (except for a small amount), just put away where I could find space for them, lol. I do have a 5 drawer chest where I keep mostly Mac products and they are sort of organised by type of make up, but the eyeshadows and pigments are all just in two drawers. I have another drawer full of Dior eyeshadow quints, but there’s other stuff in there and some of my Dior quints don’t fit in there anymore, so they’re elsewhere. I need to find time to do it though, because it’s a big job and I can’t do it with my children and husband around, so I will have to wait until they go to his parents for the weekend, lol.
They’re in order of how often I use them most of the time.
Right now there is no order in my eyeshadow drawer. Just all tossed in there.
i orginazie my shadows by clours in my paletts from MAC!
Except for a few LE palettes and NARS eyeshadows all my shadows are MAC ones that I bought in pan form or depotted. I don’t depot LE shadows in special packaging (eg, the upcoming Liberty of London ones). But all the others are then organised by colour in MAC 15 pan palettes. I don’t take the finish of the shadow into consideration when I organise them.
I organize by brand and then color and keep them in a palette but for loosies I keep in rubbermaid boxes or baskets.
I put all my MAC shadows in quads by shade.
I put all my eyeshadows, singles and palettes into a train case (medium-sized), and yet there isn’t enough room for all of them. Before, there were everywhere, in every drawers, lying around on my dressers, in my little girl’s little vanity case, her closet drawers…yes, she likes beauty stuff a lot too!!! Looks like I need another train case…..
I don’t have a whole lot of individual eyeshadows, so they are in the top drawer of my 3-tier organizer (and there is one for lipsticks/glosses, and for cheek/face products). I keep the smaller palettes I pick up at Sephora in another drawer, and my 88 Palette sits to the side.
I have it organized by brand 🙂
I place them all in a few plastic drawers. I keep MAC palettes and other palettes in one drawer, a drawer for loose pigments and pressed pigments in pan form and a drawer for eye shadows that can’t be depotted. The last drawer is also where I place eye liners I rarely use, eye shadow bases and backup eye shadows in the back of the drawer.
My organization situation is not good. Does anyone recommend depotting my MAC’s and putting into a palette? I’ve seen some youtube videos… Thanks!
YES!
I am considering depotting ALL of my MAC shadows and transfering them into palettes. Otherwise they are thrown in together in the bottom of my makeup kit. I am still dreaming of my very own vanity table with lots of drawers!
Multiple ways. I organize by shape(EG all of the square Urban Decay shades from the BoS’s go together, and all the MACS or round Urban Decays go together) because that way they fit like puzzle pieces. Within that, I organize by color tone, and depth. Lightest colors in the top row, darkest in teh bottom row, graduating in between. Horizontally, I try to line them up so that the shades are similar. The idea is that any shadow can be used with any other shadow “touching” it, if i’m burned out, uncreative, tired, etc… For the most part it works pretty well. I have three palettes, with the plastic divider removed so i can fit more shadow in, and other shadow brands/shapes. I have one thats neutrals and browns and golds, another thats blues, teals, greens, and the other is pinks, purples, oranges. I really need to take a picture to show though.
Please do!
I pretty much only have MAC eyeshadows and well they are all depotted and in pallettes. The pallettes are organized by colour. With the exception of matte eye shadows, they have their own palette!
I separate them by formula.
I have mostly only MAC eyeshadows, so I don’t organize by brand either. However, I have 4 palettes (Not all are completely full though):
1- Neutrals/Highlights/BlackTied&Carbon
2- Oranges/Reds/Browns
3- Pinks (lovvvve pinks!!)
4- Purples/Greens
I don’t have any blues, unless Aquavert counts lol.
I think it depends on how much you have of a color, in order to be able to organize them. EX: I don’t have many purples and greens, so they share a palette… but i have lots of pinks so they have their own palette!
PS: Christine, I love the idea of having your mattes seperate! When I have enough mattes, I’d defintely do that as well!
I recently re-organized mine. I separated them into 2 drawers, mineral/loose and pressed/pan shadows. I realized I own a lot of mineral shadows and pigments (LOVE ‘EM!) and so they needed their own drawer. In each drawer I put the low-end in the back and high-end near the front. Then I have a 3rd drawer for palettes! 😀
The vast majority of my eyeshadows are MAC in 8 palettes organized by color: highlighters, warm neutrals, cool neutrals, greens, pinks, purples, yellows, oranges. I have one palette of MUFE, a few NARS duos, a few Urban Decay palettes all stored together in a train case.
Organizing my makeup is a neverending project as I keep adding more every month. My non MAC shadows are separated by brand, except for my Lancome shadows which fit in my palettes.
Current pro palettes of shadows are
White-Grey-Black
Blue
Yellow-Green
Aqua-Teal
Fuchsia-Purple
Pink
Red Violet
Orange-Coral
Cool Neutral Matte
Warm Neutral Matte
Neutral Shimmer
Highlight
(I’m overdue to rearrange but I’m waiting until after Feb 11th since I’ll be adding so many new colors but I have enough extra colors right now to add at least 3 more palettes)
I try to organize by colours, but I have way more neutral colours than anything else, so they often make it into my other coloured palettes.
MAC pans: By color
I still have not purchased a palette for all my MUFE shadows yet but when I finally do it will be by color as well.
Pigments are just all together randomly.
By brand, then by color, then finish/texture. So in a row of oranges, I’ll have the most matte orange first, ending with the most sheer orange. I mix my LE shadows with regular ones because – for the work that I do – it is just more handy if they are all together.
I also keep an Excell spreadsheet (as an invetory database) listing all of my make-up (shadows included). I like to know what I have and in what quantities (I often buy back-ups of LE items that I like, or things I use often).
I like having my own personal “stock room” (that’s really just a seperate make-up case) filled with back-ups of what I already have. It makes me feel professional and prepared 🙂
I’m a Virgo 😛
OMG, I would die to see, hahahaha. Love it!
(in Janice voice from FRIENDS) Oh my gawd! I also have an excel spreadsheet of my makeup items! I have a tab for my MAC collection, a tab for Depotted MAC shadows (b/c I put numbers on the back of them to indentify), a tab for Wanted items, a tab for other makeup items and a tab for nail polishes!
Annnd to top it off…. I’m a Virgo too!
LOL! Awesome 🙂
I also keep Moleskine watercolor notebooks that I use as swatch books so I can keep swatches of lipsticks that I want/like/have etc. and view them (or compare them) at a glance. I stopped by MAC yesterday to swatch some of the lipsticks from recent LE collections and one of the girls there actually asked, “Are you a Virgo?” HAHAH 🙂
I’m very detail oriented. Don’t ask me to clean a whole house – It’s too big and I get overwhelmed. But I can organize a drawer like nobodies business!!! (So what if it takes me all weekend?) Hahah!
Dusty, you make my heart flutter, I swear. I love it. You’re so organized and make me want to be more organized! I think I’ll have to look into those watercolor notebooks… I totally need a permanent swatch reference guide at my desk!
Haha! Organization gets me pretty excited 🙂 The notebooks I use you can find here: http://www.moleskines.com/moleskine-watercolor.html
Personally I like the 5.5″x3.5″ one (this website has them for $10.00. I like Moleskine notebooks because they are very durable and have a soft leather cover. They look and feel very “classic.” I use their day planners and music notebooks for jotting down melodies if I’m doodling at the piano, etc. You can find them just about anywhere though – Borders sells them (but I find they are more expensive than even small, local shops in my town).
Thanks, Dusty! I got the twelve-month planner dealie of Moleskines as a gift over the holidays, but I love the idea of the watercolor paper for SWATCHES. That I love… haha.
No problem! I really like their yearly planners too. But yes, the watercolor notebooks are pretty sweet 🙂 I have them labled and call them “Lipzines.” Hah.
LOVE IT!
I’m slightly giddy at the thought of having these mini-sized swatch books on hand… it’s like sexy!
Brilliant!!! I need to do this 🙂
Could you possibly post pictures of how you keep your makeup organized sometime? I’m sure we could all use tips!
I organize them by size. I have a big three drawer…thing. The bottom drawer holds large palettes. The middle drawer holds small palettes, compacts and quads. The top drawer holds individual colors.
I’ve had a hard time figuring out storage, but I like what I have set up for this. At least for now anyway.
Half of mine, like pots and things are just randomly in a draw on my vanity.
but my mac palette is like my favorites, its organized with lightest colours on the top (not going into anything light brown)
Middle row has all my light to mid browns, and at the moment, it has some pinks and mac’s bitter in there too.
the bottom row is all my dark colours.
but I use the columns as like little ‘looks’ so if I’m in a rush one morning I can just do like a lid colour, highlight and crease, when if I have more time, ill spend more time blending and using a few different shadows, but its great to just have some like ‘pre-set’ looks!
i put singles in 1 drawer and small palletes in another
Most of my frequently used make up is MAC anyway and all my MAC e/s are in 8 full palettes- I have a nude one, silver/black/smokey, browns (and reddy browns), browns and golds, blues, greens, pinks, purples.
The e/s finish to me doesnt matter, it’s purely just the colour that I arrange by, so I’ve co-ordinated the 3 rows in each palette- for example, my green palette goes like this: Top row: dark or smokey greens, middle row: primary greens, and bottom row: yellowy greens. And then along each row from left to right, the colours go from dark to light.
I’ve also got a drawer of paint pots and chromalines, another drawer for all my pigments (seperated into matte, reflects, glitter and permanent) and another drawer for the mineralized eyeshadows which also houses my cream colour bases and limited edited e/s in the same sized containers ie: Metal X.
I depot all my mac shadows (except for quads and holiday pallets). I have 6 mac palettes that I keep in a ssmall cd rack and they are organised as follows: highlight colours
browns
greens, teals and blues
purples
yellows, oranges and pinks
greys, blacks, whites and weird non descript colours like hypnotizing, pincurl,
silver thorn, style snob, vex, copperplate, mothbrown etc
I also keep all my mufe in a palette, but i only have 5 shadows so they arent organised in any order. I keep all my mac mineralised eyeshadows their own box, and i keep all my mac holiday and quads together in another box, but i find my self hardly reaching for those. I keep all my mac paintpots, paints, ccb and my metal x’ together. I keep my nars eyeshadows in a empty q-tip carton, all my single urban decay in their own box and then I have another box for the rest such as gosh, sephora, bobbi brown and benefit as I only have 3-4 of each of them. I then keep all my mac pigments in the same box, and all my other pigments barry m, mufe, kyrolan in their own wee box.
I have over 500 shadows. They are organized by brand, then alphabetically. I named colors and styles in a former job, so its easy for me to remember what the color looks like when I see the name. Sounds weird but, it works for me. I started keeping an inventory of them (August ’09) to make sure I use each color. My inventory is on paper. Someday, I’d love to have it on my computer with swatch photos, and FOTD photos. Maybe someday I’ll find the time.
What a great question… 😉
I organize my MAC shadows by colour. I also popped out the divider to fit more in the palettes (OCD in my hates it but time saver in me loves it). I carry them in the morning from one room to the bathroom and find it’s easier if the colour families are together.
I’m so interested to see what everyone else does. Thanks Christine!
wajajajaja… I don’t, everything is in the same bag, small one, don’t have lots of makeup
Mostly by color grouping and most used for the singles & duos (ie: Browns/Neutrals, Highlighters, Plums). The palettes I have separate. The ones I’m not crazy about but are OK but might play around with yet are stuck underneath in a cabinet. (yes, I am trying to purge them little by little). I try to have things arranged so if I know I’m in the mood for a certain look, most the colors I would use are together to save time and frustration (same with my lipsticks).
I organize them by brand and then color. I store my MAC ones in my one and only palette.
they’re all 99% MAC:)
I keep mine organized by brand somewhat..with certain brands grouped together. As far as MAC goes. I really like neutral/earthy tones so they are a large part of my collection. I have 3 palettes (browns, neutrals, colours) and I do not depot LE shadows.
I have almost 200 MAC e/s. I have 10 15x pallets. I have 8 of them organized by color: neutrals& Highlights, Blues, Greens & Aquas, browns, warm colors, Pinks, purples, and a pallet I call “sunset style”. I got that idea from a quad that Christine posted on temptalia one time. My remaining 2 quads contain some colors that I found I wasn’t using as much – I keep these two pallets in my gym bag for when I work out before work & have to get ready there. I have the rest in quads, mostly by collection, but a few also by color. All my makeup is stored in a train case. I will try and upload pics soon!
Lovely <3
Nearly all of mine are in palettes, I have a pro palette for MAC neutrals and another for MAC and Urban Decay colours together as I don’t have many single eyeshadows that aren’t neutral. At the moment these live standing up on the long edge in a Really Useful pencil box along with my Urban Decay and Sleek palettes.
My MAC quads and an elf quad with the middle ripped out for my Boots 17 eyeshadows (which are a nightmare to depot!) are slotted into a chocolate box that is just the right width and I don’t over fill it so I can flip through them like records.
I have a drawer where all my loose shadows and pigments live and any other single shadows or gift with purchase palettes live in another drawer.
I have mostly depotted M.A.C. shadows. I store those in palettes from Coastal scents. They are organized by color scheme; neautrals, pinks and purples, greens and blues, black/silve/grey, and so on. I have a couple of quads for go-to looks. I have maybe 5 singles, from various brands, and I just keep them in a baggie. My collection size has gone down drastically, so everything fits in my train case. I have to stay organized so I can fit it all.
Most of my shadows are MAC. I keep them seperated by color family in the 15 palette for my pinks, browns, neutrals amd purples. But I rotate 3 or 4 everyday looks throughout the week in the 4 palette quad as a real time saver in the morning.