Storage Solutions: How I Organized My Eyeliners
My Current Eyeliner Storage
I love peeking into others’ storage solutions for their makeup, because I am always on the hunt for new ways to organize my own stash.
I would love to feature YOUR storage solutions and ideas here on Temptalia. If you’re interested in sharing photos and a brief description of your storage solution, send a few high quality images and the details to me. It could be your entire vanity set-up, how you store palettes, where your lipsticks are, or how you arrange your perfumes.
I’ll start if off with a recent reorganization project I did! A couple of weekends ago, I reorganized my go-to eyeliners, which I keep separated out from all my other eyeliners. I keep them out so I can easily reach for a particular shade on occasions when I’m not testing any eyeliner. In the past, I had them organized by color, but I found that I would often think of a specific shade and brand, so I decided to instead organize by brand. I have four favorites for eyeliners: Sephora Contour Eye Pencils, Tarina Tarantino Hyperliners, Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliners, and Marc Jacobs Beauty Highliners. I also have a fifth glass that I store some Stila Smudgesticks a few one-off shades in.
I was thinking of glasses, because they’re clean, affordable, and can always be used as drinkware if I change my solution (yet again). I originally considered blue-tinted Ball Mason Jars, but I felt like it didn’t suit my personal style (I like the aesthetic, but nothing I have in my own home really matches it). I picked up glass tumblers from Target (similar options here and here) that are just under six inches tall and three inches in diameter. I bought mine in-store, and I couldn’t find them online, but if you love the exact ones I have, I recommend checking out your local store, because they were $3 for 4 glasses (no joke!). Otherwise, any discount home stores (Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Ross, etc.) are good places to check out for options. You might also check the office supplies section for actual pencil cups/holders. If you only need one or two, vintage glassware can be incredibly stylish and useful, and it’s not difficult to find two that coordinate/complement each other.
I ended up liking the way these looked on the counter that I ended up buying eight more glasses and storing my brushes in them, too! You could also use shorter glasses for storing things like lipsticks, lipgloss, and mascara.
Eyeliner Storage
This is all so clean and organised! Most of my makeup is in a jumble in a shoebox, except for one very specific example which I might share with you if you’re asking for submissions! All my UD liners are held together with a hairtie except for Demolition, which I use pretty much daily 😛 Stay classy, Syl, stay classy 😉
I think this is a really cool idea for a feature! Interested to see what else pops up! 🙂
I want to see! 🙂
I use hair ties in my drawers to hold eyeliners together!
Two words: Muji organizers.
I like storing my eyeliner in shallow storage containers because then I wouldn’t have to stack them. This enables me to see exactly what’s in there and it saves me time looking and digging for the one eyeliner I need (that somehow always ends up at the bottom of the pile).
How many of the Mujis do you have?
At the moment I have one of the clear drawers with flip top for my everyday essentials, which I love to bits because I can see everything easily. Other than that, I have about a dozen smaller organizers that fit in their make-up cases, although I also use them in my train case. I imagine they’d work well in drawers as well, I really love that they stack! Always nice not to have to play jenga with your make-up, lol. 😉
LOL! This is very true. It’s like Tetris in my dresser drawers!
For this reason, I try to stick to smaller organizers rather than large, because I really hate it when my entire stack collapses because I take a single product out. Cue me yelling “TIMBER!” lol. With smaller organizers at least the damage can be contained somewhat. 😛
Love it. Organized, easy to see, and inexpensive. Genius.
SOOO cheap!! I couldn’t believe they were $3 for 4 glasses. I wanted to get more, just for the deal!
My storage is a combination of lab beakers and vintage mugs 🙂
Oooh, how cool! You should send in pics! 🙂
I will do – my collection isn’t that big, but it’s well stored. Palettes are in a vintage (1960s?) France Atomic Energy Commission storage box 🙂
Size doesn’t matter 😀 It’s how you organize that does! Can’t wait to see.
As a Science geek, I would love to see that!
That is a great idea!!! I don’t have enough eyeliners for several glasses, but maybe I could use that idea with one glass for eyeliners and the rest for my brushes, which I do have more of.
And here you are, asking for ideas, and I’m working on getting storage just like yours! I still want those Linus drawer organizers from the Container store! I’m working now on paring down and organizing my stash, and I hope to be able to get the organizers soon.
I always like to refine! I am 80% committed to the system I have now, particularly for “long-term” or “archival” storage, but I tend to switch things around for my day-to-day stuff (foundations, brushes, etc.).
I use the Linus drawers for my eyeliner overflow still, and they’re still the best for keeping a massive quantity neat, lol! Even if I had a more normal stash, I would keep it that way and just pull out maybe 10-15 every couple of weeks to keep out so I could rotate through.
And yes! One glass for eyeliners works, too. I ended up doing 5 for eyeliner, 7 for brushes — originally I only bought four glasses, and I was like… hey… this is cool.
I keep mine sorted into (clear) smaller Ball Mason jars: 1 for brown/neutral pencils (all brands), one for color pencils (all brands, mostly greens, some purple and blue), and one for MAC Greasepaint sticks and similar wide cream twist-ups. Then I have another for brow pencils and another for my mascaras and my curler.
Are they the pint size? I love the look of the Mason jars! I was sooo close to going that route and getting chalkboard labels.
I’m definitely gonna love this series! I’m in the process of getting my vanity together and this will definitely help! I would love to see you makeup room tour as well. Maybe via YouTube. 🙂
I’ve already posted a video on YouTube 🙂
Christine-
Can you add the link, I can’t seem to find it.
http://www.temptalia.com/temptalias-beauty-closet-storage-organization-tips-tricks
Just skip past the 10 minute long disclosure 😉
I definitely think it’s time for an updated video. 🙂
All the stuff is the same – I haven’t changed my system 🙂
I actually just photographed my entire collection the other day – only the lose it when my iPhone broke! Grr.
I actually like tea tins as storage containers. I buy the Giant Eagle ones sometimes, and I find they make good carriers because you peel off the label fairly easily and can paint over the tin.
Oh no!! Sorry about your phone and the loss of photos 🙁
I think I can swallow the loss of the makeup collection. 😛 It’s the photos I lost of my sister’s wedding that really burn me! (Who knew a $400 phone couldn’t survive a two foot drop??)
Oh noooooo! No cloud storage at all? 🙁
I am really bad about syncing with my computer, but you are making me do that right now!
No, I’d only had the phone for four months, and it was my very first smart phone, so I hadn’t figured out how to do all of that yet. It’s inspired me to actually read all the manuals this time around so I don’t screw myself over again. LET MY SUFFERING BE A LESSON TO ALL.
I hate when you have to learn a hard lesson 🙁 I have learned this lesson with computer stuff (hard drives), so I can relate. So sorry it happened to you! 🙁
Great tip, thanks for sharing!
No prob!
I saw the picture of all your lipsticks collection on Insta yesterday and My GOD! 😀 Like a makeup heaven for us lesser mortals! 😀 I love the idea of clear glass tumblers! I obviously don’t have that many liners but whatever I have fits in a cute plastic bright blue mug! its quite handy! I have another mug of the same kind in a bright pink and that holds all the brushes! they look cute together! 🙂
I really like them this way! Clean, sleek, affordable, and they’re all on display but easily moved around. Plus, I can re-purpose the glasses if I ever change my mind, lol!
That’s a great way to store your liners 🙂 I don’t have that many so I just keep mine in a pouch.
You could definitely just do one glass as well for a more curated collection 🙂 Pouches work nicely, too!
This is sort of what I have, but it’s not super practical for me. I actually sleep on a couch in a living room so my actual designated makeup storage is limited to whatever I can store in 2 3-drawer stackable storage kits lol. Half my drawers don’t even close anyway lol.
I just got a plastic holder for my eyeliners. I’d like glass ones but seeing as I have 6 cats whose favorite activities include knocking as much stuff over as possible, I figured I’d better stick with plastic. I also have a 4-cup holder for my brushes and everyday eyeliners.
Basically when I put on my makeup I have to do it in a dimly lit room, in an armchair, holding up a mirror while fending off cats. Oh, how I yearn for a vanity and space…
You might find a train case handy or tackle box (fishing gear) or a tool box (it might be larger than what you have and/or have more compartments and make for easier access while you do your makeup!). I used to have one years ago, and it was particularly handy for when I was in college and driving to-and-from college and my parents’ house on breaks.
Luckily, no kids and no cats, and nobody goes in my makeup space but me and Mellan, LOL! And thankfully, he doesn’t bother the makeup. Fingers crossed you’ll have a little space just for yourself sooner rather than later, Shana 🙂 If you have any short, blank wall space, you could add shelving and put a light-up mirror and a few of your goodies there – you don’t need a lot of space!
This looks great and really easy to see what’s inside! I honestly have a large set of 8 taller clear glasses and 8 shorter ones from a set I bought when I got my first apartment. I am one person and I use maybe 2 or 3 of each glass. Right now all my eyeliners are lined up in color order (I have over 100!!!) but they take up a ton of space on my dresser. I’m kind of torn having them in glasses so they’re much more contained and wanting to be able to see everything at once and quickly pick a specific color. Oh decisions!!!
Hey Sara!
My best advice would to consider if you LOVE every single eyeliner of the 100 or if you find yourself reaching for just a few all the time. Perhaps lay out the ones you use all the time, store the ones you less often but still reach for. If you put them in glasses, you’ll still have them displayed to a degree 🙂
But hey, if you have the space to have ’em all out, why not!
I like that idea! I definitely favor some over others (like you, Urban Decay, Tarina, etc). I’d also keep them divided by color so I wouldn’t completely lose my system. They’re getting to the point where I can’t fit any more without them falling off the end of my dresser! My eyeliners and eye shadow pencils are in plastic cups that are getting swapped out for wider glass ones tonight… Extra room on my dresser AND in my kitchen!
LOL! It is getting to be that way in my dresser where I keep the overflow, which I just have laying horizontally in shallow drawer containers. I used to stack them, but they’re getting full that I can’t quite stack!
What would be cool would be like a really big glass top drawer sort of like this http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://d3515qaf3aty6m.cloudfront.net/e680644ba734ef9acc82b74484c7b689/gallery/1356585549-GLASS%252BTOP%252BDRAWER%252BBOX.jpg-original.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.wollongongwardrobes.com.au/gallery/Uncategorised/glass-top-drawer-box/245907&h=2448&w=3264&tbnid=coKRc-FJVAtXsM:&zoom=1&docid=LsjLAPiK8JXs1M&ei=QEPZU-3FO7Ov7Aa_s4DQCw&tbm=isch&client=firefox-a
or
http://www.archiproducts.com/en/products/107543/cosimo-wood-writing-desk-with-drawers-and-glass-top-cosimo-laque-blanc-mat-adentro.html
so you could see them all but still have use of the desktop space. And it would look like an awesome museum exhibition of eyeliner!! 😀 Although it might be an expensive option to buy a new desk just to display your eyeliners…but if there’s any place I can suggest something as crazy as that, it’s Temptalia 🙂
I really need ideas to store my lipsticks. Glasses *might* work, but I’d need several. Right now they’re in jewelry boxes, upside down so I can see the labels. But since many lipsticks have rounded lids, they don’t stay upright unless they are tightly packed in the box. If I take too many out, the remaining ones start to fall over and there’s a huge domino effect lol. I guess I should make some room on the vanity for a large, clear unit with shallow drawers.
If you’re into DIY and have a lot of empty boxes, you can create lipstick holders out of them (I know EnKoreMakeup has a tutorial, but I’m sure there are a few nowadays), which can help hold everything up despite the rounded tops!
But I can completely understand your situation, because I have the same problem 😉 Usually if I don’t have enough to tightly pack a container, I might lay some horizontally or use another product as a placeholder to hold up the rest.
Thanks! While I was searching for that I actually found a video that involves making a tiered structure out of styrofoam slats and punching lipstick sized holes in it. Might try that!
I used a really long and thin box with sides about half the height of a tube that I got for free as a box of chocolates. It works great since 2 lipsticks fit side by side and I can see the colors. Since it’s pretty full now, I don’t have to worry about an avalanche of lipstick when I remove one.
Excuse to buy chocolate? Don’t have to tell me twice! That is a good idea, thank you 🙂
I have a fishing tackle box (single layer) for organization at the bottom of a vintage train case. I store all of makeup in there, organized in the little compartments. I try to never buy so much makeup that I need additional storage, so it acts to limit my purchases too (which my wallet likes :P).
Tackle boxes are great for storing makeup! And they make it easy to take with you 😀
I try to manage my collection of make up brushes in a couple of vintage pressed glass goblets that are pretty to look at. My liners are organized in lucite lipstick holders from the Container Store, along with an ever growing collection of shadow sticks. Glosses and lipsticks in a velvet lined dresser drawer. By keeping things separate, I can immediately tell when something has been “borrowed” by my teenage girls. We each have a large glass cookie jar brimming with nail lacquers.
How many eyeliner does each part of the holder hold, PJ? Never seen it used that way – very cool. I like some of the acrylic organizers I’ve seen over time, but they’re so expensive and never seem like they hold a lot (well not for the price, I guess)!
I’m always nervous about glass in my bathroom (I’m a klutz when I’m rushing in the mornings and just a klutz generally!) and I like something shorter, so I can see the names of the liners better. Right now, I’m using a wire office desk container – meant for pens and such – but I’d like to get several glasses similar to what you use, Christine, only in plastic and somewhat shorter but it can wait til the new bathroom vanity goes in.
You should definitely be able to find shorter ones and in plastic! There were a ton of options when I was at Target. I was using an office organizer/container that had several little compartments for pens/pencils before. It was too small, LOL!
Target has some nice plastic toothbrush cups in the bathroom decor section. That’s what I use for my brushes, because they have separations so I can keep my face brushes, lip brushes, and eye brushes organized. I think they’d also work well for eye liners because you could have a cup for each brand and then a section for each color family!
I don’t have many eyeliners so they’re just shoved in a drawer.
Gotcha! 🙂
I’m soooo curious for a makeup storage post from you. How you store your stuff and also what you do with your collection (which must be extensive from all the swatching and testing you do)
~Arielle
Hi Arielle!
I have posted lots of bits and bobs of my collection 🙂 http://www.temptalia.com/category/features/makeup-collection
So neat and tidy! Do you think you’ll keep using these even when the pencils get shorter as you may sharpen some? It’s always so annoying for me to store the liners that have gotten a little…”stubby.” 😛
To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a pencil down to stubby before, LOL! I probably will keep them in the same glasses, but if they’re really almost out, then I might keep them with my mascaras/brow gels!
I was using jars & cups to keep my eye pencils in, but they kept getting knocked over (I keep them in a “built-in” closet shelf unit), so I recently transferred them into pencil boxes. I keep black, brown, white & nude in one, and “colors” in another. Lip pencils are still in an old re-purposed baby wipes container. My next step is to take my most used pencils of both types, and put them in another container.
I just have several shoeboxes & baskets for lipsticks, separated by brand, with a smaller basket I rotate frequently used shades into every few weeks. Glosses have a separate box, as well…
Neat! What kind of pencil boxes? I can only envision the larger plastic ones I used in school.
Similar idea,but I just use empty jars from Bath and body works candles to store my eyeliners and brushes.
Nice! Always good to reuse 🙂
Lovely storage solution!
Thanks, Philippa!
A combination of Muji storage and pencil pots with a vintage tea cup for shorter eye crayons and a Paul and Joe brush holders http://www.beautybay.com/accessories/pauljoe/brushholder/ Then most lipsticks and my Bourjois blusher collection go in empty Laduree macaron boxes. The Bourjois Little Round Pots are basically the size and shape of a macaron so it works quite well! I like to have most things out and on display so I remember I have them so I have an organised shabbles system with my tea cup, pots and macaron boxes on my mantlepiece and french style dressing table. >.<
What a darling brush holder!
I have a vanity and 2 small 3-drawer plastic organizers, but my lipsticks and eye shadows are starting to grow out of their spaces. I can’t keep anything out (like in cups like you have) or my cats WILL knock it over or carry it away. They’ve grabbed eyeliners off the vanity while I was doing my make up!
Pretty much everything is organized by color, but if I get new storage space that might change.
You are all making me thankful that I just have a dog right now, LOL!
I love reusing the bath and body works 3-wick candle jars… they’re pretty easy to clean out after you burn a candle and then you can either have a lid or not. I have one for small items (hand sanitizer, lip balm, etc) at my desk and the rest are at my vanity. I have one of chubby lip crayons and lip pencils, one for pencil eyeliners, and three to separate out single eye shadows by color. I also use some pottery bowls from an Empty Bowls fundraiser – the larger I keep tools and sponges, the smaller is really tiny/sample sized eyeliners. Target often has really great things in their $1 section – I have mint green and black metal mesh cups for brushes that match the decor in my room.
Great idea! I haven’t made it through a B&BW candle yet, but I’ll have to repurpose mine! Thanks for the tip!
You have a great idea to store them, need to be more organized with my pencils, they’re all floating at the bottom of my handbag or cosmetics bag. Thanks for the idea!
My pleasure!
I sent a pic of my makeup brush and most often used eyeliner storage. I just bought a beautiful storage box for my palettes, and once I clean off my big jewelry box I think it will go there. Why is there never enough room for all my makeup. Pretty soon, I will need a separate room, too. 😉
Thank you for sending it, Allison! 😀
I bow to your organizing skills.
Thank you!
I use glasses too to store my liners – trying to keep the lip and eye liners separate is a challenge for me, though
Do you have more lip liners or eyeliners? 😉
I use three see-through plastic Muji drawers for my eyeshadow quads, and a glass pot to hold my eyeliners/brushes. My lipsticks and blushes I keep in a few embellished pouches. I also keep my face powders on my desk (where I do my makeup). Now that my collection has grown, I’m waiting for the beginning of the school year to purchase some more Muji organizers (they’re so pretty, and convenient too!), before my desk gets cluttered! I also keep all my nailpolishes on my bookshelves, in front of my books. They’re all in their boxes, sorted through brands and numbers. i like to keep them organized. 🙂
Sounds very pretty! Those Muji drawers are pricey but lovely.
I have my make-up stored in a train case that is busting from the seams. I’m looking into actual furniture for better storage and organization. I can’t wait to see what others have as their set-up so I can get an idea!
How fun!! I hope you can find the perfect vanity/storage solution 🙂
I use a pencil case with 60 loops. I can hold 120 eyeliners in that, and see every color. It is somewhat big though. 🙂
Very cool! I saw Dustin Hunter (YouTube) do something similar and almost wanted to go that route, but I knew it would be too fussy for me… I would be bad about putting them back!
Have send u email with pics:)
Awesome! Thank you!
I like the simplicity and neatness of this!
I have an acrylic organizer that has a few small compartments that I got from Walmart and I keep my go-to liner, brow pencil, spooly, mascara on one side, favourite brushes (expensive ones) on the other, 4 lipsticks in the front and Naked Basics with my mattifying powder in the back. Makes it easier to do a basic face in the morning to have most products that I might normally skip right there in front of me.
And the other containers that are out in the open are 3 small mason jars for all my brushes. 1 for eyes, 1 for face, 1 for needs-to-be-washed. And a short square acrylic organizer for my kabukis. I also like to do and re-do the set up. There’s always a better way, or a way that’s better because it’s different and it refreshes my set-up 🙂
I keep a lot of my basics in something like that, too – mascaras, brow gels, etc. It’s nice to have the go-tos separated out!
I have mine in a pencil bag. How original. Granted, I’m not an eyeliner girl. I don’t have more than 5 or so.
Hey, if it works, nothing wrong with that! I wouldn’t call my setup original either!
I love it. Great job!!!!! Everything must look so effortlessly streamlined! *applause* 🙂
Thank you! 😀 One can only imagine how you’ve got your stash set up!
since getting poor, relatively speaking, the current rotation is taking up what room the computer doesn’t on the dr table. No problem, when you live alone! that’s what comes from not heating the upstairs for a few years. my e/ls are in 5 containers, currently by brand. UDs are in a~41/2′ old frog tumbler from a defunct bathroom set. Colors show. Stila, Sephora, some MUFE, and Butter London are in the matching tumbler. Some varied shorties are in a wedgewood creamer…ivy, that the handle broke on, and odds/really worked down are in my silver baby cup. other stuff is in dollar tree metal containers with glass rocks (brushes, to keep ’em upright), one has the korres lip stuff, one has sephora/Kat/NYX/OCC lipstuff. a shorter metal tim, octagonal, has sheer lips: old dior, mj, it, lipstick queen, cargo quad. dollar tree metal for eye fatties. and a silver tray has stuff upright on it: a boxy zip container of tarte lip, monarch, chrysalis, ladybird, lorac pro 2, mattenificent, naked 3. 2 dollar tree bathroom totes. one has primarily the non-depotted nars blushes, HG palette/mood exposure, korres blush, tarte blushes. long line l/s + fattie pencils, nars, buxom, milani primarily, are in the small compartment. the other bathroom tote has masacara in one part, e/s singles in another, and z palette makeup geek shadows, esperanza, some pantone universe palettes. prior to poverty, everything lived upstairs, where the majority still does. real STORAGE is a metal craftsman tool box, about 30″ high and 36″ across, with a lift lid + all kinds of drawers. that’s kind of organized by warm versus cool + has primarily powder products. then there’s some bamboo cutlery drawers for face color, but with multiple same cases, you have to pull out a few before you find what you want, but they are real space savers. ah, well, there’s always labels….in a way, i hate to think where the current rotation will go, if the makeup goes back upstairs. overdue for a pruning and culling of stash. it’s a good thing that dementia hasn’t set in, because nobody else could ever find anything! OMBFG!
It’s always fun to see how people organize something they have a lot of. I like eyeliners by color and have done it for so long, but I finally see the appeal of having it by brand. I catch myself going, “That one blue from Urban Decay,” and then it is easier to grab the right one.
Those Craftsmen tool boxes are a great solution for makeup – so many drawers/compartments that apply well to makeup!
That’s a very nice idea!
Thanks!
this is cool way to store eyeliners
thanks for the idea 🙂
No prob!
Can you tell us what your top 4 colors are?
Impossible, lol!