Makeup Organization: Hygiene Station and Makeup Brushes

Despite appearances to the contrary, I'm actually not a naturally neat person. It's a running joke both at work and at home that I leave a trail of chaos behind me, and I can be found by following the detritus of a dozen or so half-finished projects (and ice cream bowls) scattered about. One of my dogs has wolfed down more than one errant sock I've forgotten to put away (even though somehow its mate managed to find its way to the hamper).

My brain is Pisces-typical: non-linear, unmoored and tangential.

And yet, somehow, I'm also an organization freak. I get a dopamine rush from the sorting process. I get excited about storage boxes the way some people get excited about Disneyland. I'm always looking for a better way to store and display the things I love.

And then that just goes up to eleven when the Spring Cleaning bug hits. Last week that meant tweaking part of my vanity, specifically my hygiene and brush organization and storage.

With the way I've set up my Alex units to form my vanity, I ended up with a blank wall to one side. It looked a little bit awkward, and struck me as a waste of space, but I couldn't figure out what to put there considering the space restraints created by the dimensions of the units and the space taken up by open drawers. I then came across some storage boxes (see?) and a cute little metal rack at Homesense, and inspiration struck. Up until now I had my extra makeup brushes and hygiene supplies in a cabinet on the other side of the room, and I figured having everything set up closer to the actual vanity would be more practical. And now I finally had a way of making that set up aesthetically pleasing as well.

I asked Androo to shimmy the vanity over to the right by a couple of inches to create enough clearance for the drawers, and then he kindly put the rack up for me (god, I love that man). I then stacked the two storage boxes below (again, with enough clearance for the drawers of the Alex unit to open), and also added old tea set and perfume set boxes for extra storage.

(The big glass mason jars on the Alex unit to the left are where I keep q-tips and cotton pads.)

The top shelf of the rack is where I now keep my "cleaning" supplies: alcohol in a glass spray bottle, various makeup removers, spot brush cleaner, makeup wipes, hand cream (because alcohol is drying).

The bottom shelf contains little bins for makeup brushes and sponges that need to be washed. Instead of putting dirty brushes back into the jars on my vanity (to take up space and fester their bacteria on the clean brushes), they get popped in these bins, and then I can just grab one and go to the sink with it. This way I also don't get overwhelmed with the amount of brushes that need washing, as I can do a bin at a time and rotate them back in.

(The little gold pouch contains my travel set of Shu brushes, simply because it wedges neatly in that little space behind the bin.)

In one of the new storage boxes I have backups of wipes, sponges, cotton pads, paper towel and makeup remover. (The other box on the bottom contains PR info sheets and such, since it's something I like to keep for archival/reference purposes but don't need constant access to.)

And then it was on to the brushes. As I was pulling them out of the cabinet, I realized that I really needed to do a sort and purge before organizing them, otherwise I would be doing unnecessary work. (I debated filming a video, but it was honestly too boring and fast of a process to merit it.)

These are the ones I decided to keep, grouped together roughly by function. These passed the test because they are backups of brushes I rotate regularly (eyeliner brushes, powder brushes), or brushes I use less frequently but still like to have on hand (the Smashbox bronzer brush - that red lacquer handle is everything - the Glamcor finish brush). 

Before putting each brush back into my collection, I asked myself whether 1) it was good quality and 2) a truly useful brush and 3) a brush that would rotate to my vanity regularly.

These are the brushes I parted with. Some where just cracked and otherwise broken (on the floor on the left) and went into the trash. The rest were brushes that didn't pass the criteria. This was especially the case for brushes where I had better quality options.

I found that I almost all of my Sigma brushes failed by that measure. Aside from the paint peeling from some of them, the bristles felt a lot rougher than I remembered, particularly in contrast to the brushes I'd recently invested in. I don't think they're good quality brushes, honestly, and they don't hold up well over the years. Thanks, youtube, for suckering me. *fistshake*

I also passed on the majority of my Coastal Scents and Crown brushes, and some Sonia Kashuk ones from a set that didn't pass muster or where just not ones I see myself using.

All of these have been cleaned and re-homed with the the daughter of a friend.

I didn't do any major re-organizing of my vanity, but I figured an overview of how I have it set up might be nice?

This is where I keep my skin prep. The cake stand (from Chapters) has some of the moisturizers and toners I currently use (minus the Embryolisse, which I had just used). The little teal bowl (from Anthropologie) has some samples I'm trying out. The two white bird bowls (also Chapters) have my clean beautyblenders and assorted bits.

These are the same jars I've had for a while, which are technically coffee mugs and flower pots, again from Chapters. I swapped out the dry rice for polyfill from Michael's, because I got paranoid about bugs. :P

I have them sorted by function, best as possible:

Concealer and lip brushes, eyeliner and detail brushes, laydown and buffing brushes, cheek and blending brushes...

Natural hair powder brushes, synthetic powder brushes, foundation brushes, highlighter/contour and precision powder brushes. And then all the Real Techniques in a mug without polypill, because their chubbier bases kept scattering all the beads when I pulled them out, which was making me INSANE.

I would say the majority of my brushes in rotation right now are MAC, Zoeva, Glamcor, and Real Techniques, with some scattered in from Sonia Kashuk, Senna, Hakuhodo, Marc Jacobs, Chikuhodo, London Brush Company, Inglot, Wayne Goss and Cover FX.

I did just purchase a few from the Walmart brand synthetic line to try out, but since incorporating a few really high quality brushes recently, I think my future purchases are going to be investments. I hate being a douche-y snob, but there really is no comparison between a higher-end Japanese-made brush and the mid or lower end equivalent in terms of application and the feeling on the skin. Especially with natural hair brushes.

So that's it for now! Let me know if you want me to continue with these kind of posts. :)

Decluttering My Makeup: Part 1

In a long overdue fit of organizational frenzy, I've decided to systematically go through my stash and purge the things that I'm not using or otherwise enjoying. No worries, I'm still a hoarder collector at heart, but sometime in the last few months I actually reached that point of feeling overwhelmed by my collection. I'm not interested in downsizing specifically, and I have absolutely zero shame or embarrassment about my collection, but I do the beauty thing for the joy of it, and when pleasure is replaced by anxiety, it's a good sign that some reassessment is required.

I wanted to be really thorough in my process, so I'm literally going drawer by drawer. I've opted to put this to film, and to hold myself accountable - literally - by putting numbers down for everything I own and am passing on. If you're interested, the first three parts are now up on my youtube channel.

(I will be giving a first run at things to my family and friends - including a care package to Poland -  and then I'll be doing a blog sale/pass-along post, which I will update as I go through further portions of my collection.)

(If you do watch, let me know if you prefer music or no music over the title at the beginning of the video. I'm still undecided.)

It feels like there's a wave of decluttering happening on youtube right now. Are any of you guys doing this? I know Latoya from Beauty Obsessed is in the middle of something similar on her blog, if you haven't seen her latest post it's here and definitely inspirational.

My Makeup Room

It's taken nearly two years since the initial planning stages, but my ultimate dream boudoir is now complete. YOU GUYS. I am so happy I could fall over! I literally spent half an hour last weekend just sitting on the couch, absorbing how much I love it. :D

Kudos, as always, go to my man. He built the room from scratch, painted it, assembled all the furniture, hung all the fixtures, made the jewelry board and the nail polish racks, and generally bore all my insane demands with tremendous patience and good humour. He is literally the best guy out there. *smooshes*

I'll do some breakdown posts of the actual makeup storage/organization in the coming months, as part of my collection series. (There is also a video linked at the end of this post that goes into more detail.) For now, this is a general overview of how the room itself is set up.

Coming into the room from the office next door...

The door between the rooms is a sliding French door, so when it's closed it still lets a nice amount of light in. The frames above the couch contain some prints from one of my favourite artists, Alphonse Mucha. I really wanted to have a little nook in here, a place to escape the world and rest in a little bubble of pretty.

Immediately to the left of the couch...

This is a little book nook - not my entire book collection, just those on the topics of religions, spirituality and mythology, as well as some fun, trashy mass markets. My lovely vintage sewing machine has a place of honour below the jewelry board (which is a repurposed cover to the electrical panel). The knobs are all from Anthropologie.

And then on the right of the couch...

This is where the makeup area begins. Most of the storage furniture in this room comes from the Besta and Alex collections from Ikea, as they are the least expensive and most customizable systems I've found for storing and organizing a collection like this.

The lamp on the drawer unit by the sofa is a custom-built item that my mother got for me for my birthday a couple of years ago. She knew we were building this room, and wanted to get me something unique, that would fit the theme. The design is a stylized peacock done in a Tiffany-style lampshade, and it is just the most beautiful thing I own. She surprised me completely, and I literally burst into tears when I opened the box. LOVE IT.

And then the rest of the makeup storage...

Drawers full of makeup! Like binders! I'll do posts later on about how I organize those. There would be too many pictures in one post, otherwise.

Also another bookcase, this one for my makeup, fashion and perfumery books. Both sides have these custom nail polish racks attached.

And if you're interested, this is the video:

And so yes. Much happiness. :D

This week on Instagram...

It took me a while, but I've succumbed to the lure of Instagram. It's the filters. I blame the filters, and their soft-focus magic. I wish my actual life was half as pretty as the pictures purport it to be. (Note: If you follow me there, this post may be somewhat redundant.) 

This week has been a strange one, mostly focused on nesting activities, for lack of a better word. We acquired a new carpet, new curtains and a new coffee table, which spurred a frenzy of organizing and house styling. Or maybe a vacation from work left my merchandising muscles feeling underused? Either way, I ended up re-doing all my bookcases, including this one - which is where some select crockery and keep-worthy home decorating magazines now reside.

Speaking of crockery, I picked up these little gems at Home Sense. (The one near me is newly opened, and NO ONE goes there. Seriously, the week before Christmas, there may have been five people in the store at any given time. Which means you can actually find cool stuff without having to body-check the lady shopping next to you.)

I also felt compelled to give my bathroom a boost, to distract from the unfinished state (i.e.: the walls sadly in need of fresh paint, and the mirror that is still propped up on the wall after the old one abruptly - and alarmingly - fell off and crashed into a jillion pieces).

Of course,  I did have to work in some beauty-related organizing. I've mostly finished re-doing my vanity and beauty storage, and will be re-filming my collection video soon. (I've already posted pictures of some of the drawers. Let me know if you want a detailed pictorial on the blog to go along with the new video.) This is a quick look at the vanity.

And since one can never have enough storage, I pressed upon the kindness of my darling hubby to build me a second nail polish rack. And voila! A little wall of OPI.

So that's been my week. How was yours?

Nail Polish Storage - Video

I don't know about you, but I haaaaaate those acrylic nail polish racks. You know, the ones that are wall-mounted, and look like they belong in a nail salon? They're practical, but not exactly the aesthetic I tend to go for.

Up until now I've been storing my polishes in my Alex units, but I really wanted to have some kind of storage that allowed me to see at least part of my collection in a way that was both functional (thus encouraging me to use more things more frequently) and more visually appealing.

When I was in New York this past weekend, A. built it. And it is AWESOME.

A rack holds less than a drawer does, unfortunately, so the majority of my polishes still need to be stored in the Alex unit - but I like that I can see them more easily this way.

Makeup Storage and Organization - Video

A quick look at my Girl Cave/Boudoir. Let me know if you want to see something in more detail - I can do a picture post, or more specific videos if you prefer.

A Study in Seafoam

The Girl Cave is almost completed! It seems like this project has taken months to complete - no wait, it HAS taken months to complete. With the end nearly in sight, and the makeup portion of the room pretty much set-up, I thought I might share a quick picture (though if you follow me on twitter you've seen it already).

I'm a sucker for teal/aqua/seafoam shades, both in makeup and otherwise. Inspired by the room color, I tried to find something similar in my nail polish stash, and the closest I could come was Orly's Ancient Jade. It leans a little too green compared to the wall color (which actually looks bluer than it is in these pictures), but it captured the mood and was perfectly appropriate for the awesome Summer weather we had this weekend.

I'd like to eventually do a storage video, but I can't decide whether to wait until the rest of the room is done as well. Any preferences?

Girl Cave

I've been struggling to get some posts up, but this honestly wasn't the best week for it. A heavy workload accounts for part of it, but my time was also largely eaten up by the basement reno. The hubby has been building it over the past few weeks, and just recently it got the point where I can contribute - namely, moving all my crap down, organizing, moving furniture around and thinking about decor. Since the Girl Cave will be largely devoted to makeup (and books!), I thought I would post a little look into how it came along.

As you can see, this was an unfinished basement. The picture on the left was after the reno had already started - the subfloor and partition was not there originally.

On the right, you can see my lovely man, wielding some sort of power tool. RaaaaAAAwwwr.

This is the other room, which will be a guest room and a place to keep our elliptical. (Perhaps we will now use it!) The empty space there is a closet.

The way the Girl Cave looked a couple of weeks ago. The paint is this gorgeous mix of blue and seafoam, Palladian Blue from Benjamin Moore. (The paint in the other room is darker and more gray-toned, called Piedmont Gray.) They both change colors dramatically depending on the lighting. The basement actually gets a lot of light for a room of that sort, so I'm pretty happy. Though figuring out the placement for the makeup vanity was a struggle. 

And then it was done! 

The floors are commercial-grade floating floors, called Mocha Teak. Since we plan on getting dogs soon, they needed to be pretty indestructible, as well as pretty to look at.

A few different placement options. One side will be a little reading/napping nook, with the vanity in the middle, and the bookcases will be built-in on the other side. Just had to decide on where to put the couch.

And now....the organizing! Where's a Virgo when you need one? :P