Are you guilty of hoarding make-up, or carrying every item of make-up you own in your make-up bag just in case you need it? Are you unable to find your favourite eye shadow or your small eye liner pencil in the chaos of your make-up heap? Then you need to read this complete guide in organising your make-up. Not just for your own sanity, but also to help your make-up have a longer ‘life’. If you look after your make-up then it is less likely to become damaged or ruined and will last you much longer, saving you money in the long run. Try to follow the following rules and you will find applying your make-up much less stressful the next time you’re in a rush for work or for that important date.
De-clutter:
This is an important one, we are all guilty of hoarding, of keeping things we never use or don’t really like, things that are broken or are unusable, and what is the point?
To start, gather all of your make-up together, empty the contents of your make-up bag and put everything in one big pile. Sort through all of it, and when you do ask yourself:
- When was the last time I wore/used this?
- Is it broken, damaged or unusable?
- Is it in date? Remember make-up expires too.
- Would I notice it was gone?
By asking yourself these questions you should easily be able to sort your make-up into one of three piles.
1. Make-up to keep: the essential make-up you absolutely cannot do without and would have to immediately go out to buy again should something happen to, fits nicely into this category.
2. Make-up you’re not sure about: the make-up you like, want to keep and is good condition, but realistically don’t use, goes into this pile.
3. Make-up to bin: any make-up you do not use, want, is broken, unusable or is out-of-date can go into the rubbish pile.
Put the first ‘to-keep’ pile to one side, ready to organise later and throw the third ‘rubbish’ pile straight into the bin. Find a storage box or container big enough to fit everything in the ‘unsure’ pile into, place everything inside and put it away in a wardrobe or accessible location. If, in the next three months, you don’t need to use the contents of this box, then you certainly do not need to keep it and can throw it out.
Cleaning:
Before you start organising and sorting through your ‘keep’ pile, first start by giving everything a good clean. After a couple of weeks of use almost everything will be covered in powder and various other bits of make-up, now is the ideal time to clean it all up. Pay particular attention to your brushes, clean then well and try to clean them regularly, not only will this prevent unwanted residue rubbing off when you are applying new make-up, but it will also likely improve the life of your brushes.
Sorting:
To sort your make-up you ideally need some kind of container, a make-up box is ideal as it will usually have compartments for all of your make-up, however, something like a draw tidy will do equally as well. How you sort your make-up will greatly depend on what you choose to store it in, how many compartments you have etc. Try to use common sense and group things together, here is a guideline:
o Eyes: include eye shadow, mascara, eye pencils etc.
o Face: include foundation, concealers, blushers ad other face powders and lotions.
o Lips: include lip sticks, balms and pencil’s.
o Brushes: group your brushes together to make it easier to ensure they aren’t crushed or bent out of shape.
Maintenance:
Consider where you store your make-up. It might be tempting to keep your make-up in the bathroom next to your mirror, but this really is the worst thing you can do. The high heat and humidity in the bathroom can lead to mould and bacteria forming in make-up, it can become spoilt and rendered unusable, furthermore the ingredients can dissolve and degrade, making your make-up much less effective. Make-up stored in a bathroom often doesn’t last as long as make-up stored in cooler, dry conditions and therefore costs you more when it comes to replacing it. An ideal place to store your make-up is in a drawer or cupboard, where it is cool. Also, when storing brushes, make sure that the bristles are not bent out of shape, as this may ruin them.
Keep on top of de-cluttering and cleaning your make-up, avoid letting your make-up collection pile up again.
