My new make up storage!

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you'll know that I've been working on turning the box room into my beauty room/office.  It's getting there and when I've all the little accessories bought, I'll do a little post showing it to you.  Right now I want to get some pictures up and maybe a mirror, but the main focus over the past couple of weeks has been getting a new make up storage system working.

Well, it's finally done!  Kind of.  When I was taking photos of each drawer in my new make up storage system, I started thinking about a couple of changes and tweaks I might make.  I know, very annoying already, but here it is in all it's glory!

Sunflowers courtesy of Ms. CherrySue and reed diffuser from Rituals

This is actually two units stacked on top of each other.  I bought two of the Alex Drawer unit on castors from Ikea after seeing Makeup by Tiffany D's makeup storage video on YouTube and knew they'd be perfect.  I'd originally been using this Malm unit from Ikea but over the past two years, found that the larger drawers were too deep and I ended up having to stack products on top of each other.  Then I couldn't see everything and it annoyed me lots.  We don't like to be annoyed around the make up.  

So I took it upon myself to head to Ikea to see the Alex drawer units in person and once laying eyeballs on them, decided to bite the make up storage bullet.  At €100 each, they're not cheap, but they're perfect for moi.  I wanted something where everything was hidden, drawers were shallow and it looked sleek.  Each unit has six drawers, all the same depth, but the front of three drawers are smaller than the other three.  They took about an hour each to assemble and are bloody heavy, but despite that, I still had to stick a bit of blue tac between them to stop the top unit from moving.

After putting a few photos of the unit up on Instagram and on Twitter, I'd lots of requests to show how I have everything organised and for a little nose at my stash!  I'll be doing a video showing everything in more detail soon so stay tuned for that.  

Drawer 1

Drawer 1 contains my primers, concealers and brow products.  I keep that empty plastic container handy so I can pick out what products I'm using that day and bring it downstairs where I do my make up.  I might put my brushes in this drawer at some point so I don't have to have them on display.

Drawer 2

Drawer 2 houses all of my foundations, BB creams and face powders.  Laying them all out like that gave me heart failure, but in all honesty, I could throw out a good few of them because I've had them for years, so by the time the video comes around, this will probably be a bit lighter on the foundation front!  Having them all laid out flat like this is so handy and the same goes for the powders.

Drawer 3

I keep all of my high end eyeshadows in Drawer 3.  I'm hopefully going to depot my MAC shadows soon and that'll free up more space.  As we can see, I love me some Chanel!  And I love the mini sized pigments from MAC and have been collecting them over the years.

Drawer 4

I love blush a lot.  So Drawer 4 has my blush collection with my bronzers on the little plastic container on the right.  I think I'm going to move the bronzers to the drawer below and dedicate this entire drawer to my cheeks!

Drawer 5

I keep my mascaras, eyeliners and highlighter products in Drawer 5.  I only have so many mascaras because a lot are sent to me.  Usually I'd only have a couple on the go but it's been a busy couple of months on the mascara front!

Drawer 6

Drawer 6 is the lip drawer!  On the left I have all of my glosses and liquid lipsticks and love having them laid all flat like that.  It's much easier to see what I'm looking for.  In the middle I have my lipsticks stacked upside down so I can see the shades easily.  I have my high end lippies in a container of their own and then have lip liners and my NYC lippies on the far right.  This drawer makes me happy.  

Drawer 7

I keep my higher end palettes in Drawer 7 and spent ages trying to get them to fit around each other so they'd be easy to see!  I have my beloved Stila palettes on one side and on the other have Urban Decay, Inglot, Smashbox, MAC etc.  Again, this is much better for my brain than having them all stacked on their side and not being able see what I want.

Drawer 8

I have my more affordable palettes in Drawer 8.  If you see the palette in the top right corner of the drawer, that's the first palette I ever stole from my mam years and years ago, which started my obsession with make up!  I don't use it as I'd like to keep my eyes in tact thanks very much, but I will never ever throw it out.  I'm strangely sentimental like that and as you can see from my stash, I'm a collector.  Ahem...

Drawer 9

I keep my more affordable single eyeshadows in Drawer 9.  All of my MUA shadows are in the long container on the left and the rest are a mix of everything and anything.  Hmm... This drawer looks a little empty wouldn't you say?  Any excuse to go shopping!

Drawer 10

I just have the sets I bought in New York in Drawer 10.  I could take the products out of the packaging, but I don't need to right now and they remind me of a great trip!

Drawer 11

Drawer 11 is very uninteresting altogether, having just make up bags and the bottom of a gift box in case I need it to organise something.

Drawer 12

Drawer 12 is the tanning drawer.  I didn't realise I'd so many tanning products and have made it my mission to try and review them all over the coming months.  Where to begin!

I got the majority of my acrylic organisers in Homestore and more.  They've four sizes and prices are €2.50, €2.99, €4.99 and €6.99.  They're brilliant and have little rubber feet on the bottom so they won't move around in the drawers or scratch the bottom.

I'm over the moon with my new storage system and have found myself being inspired again to try different looks and have been rediscovering some products I forgot I had!  For example.  Remember a couple of weeks ago when I did my post on the Bobbi Brown Calypso Coral Pot Rouge?  I told you this was the first one I bought?  Not true.  I totally found one I forgot I bought in the CCO in Belfast last year and hadn't even swatched?!  So I'll be shopping my stash a lot and wearing all the make up.  All of it.  I'll set the make up gun to drag queen!

I hope you enjoyed this wee post and if you've any make up storage tips, please let me know!