Dressing Table Tour and Makeup Storage Solutions

Saturday 25 July 2015


There’s something about a dressing area that’s a magical space. Its where we transform ourselves, spend some ‘me-time’ and where all the hair and make-up magic happens.

I’m fascinated with other people’s make-up set ups and storage, and can literally spend hours down the rabbit hole on Pinterest or YouTube looking at what other people use to store their collections. It brings together perfectly two obsessions of mine – organisation and beauty products.

I was on a make-up group recently where we were all swapping pictures of our make-up desks, so I thought I’d do a post about mine.

Everyone does it differently, and everyone’s collection differs vastly in size.

I probably have what my husband (and some more rational people) would class as too much make-up, but it actually seems nothing compared to some of the elaborate set-ups I’ve seen other people share, with multiple drawers crammed full of goodies.

Whether mine will expand to that point is anyone’s guess, but I doubt it.

What we are planning to do is turn one of the spare bedrooms in our new house into a dressing room, so I may consider moving my set-up there when the time comes, and there would be more room for expansion and a lot more storage.

For the moment, I use a dresser in our bedroom to store and organise most of my collection, but I do also have a small ensuite shower room, so some of my skincare stuff is kept in there.

We also have a built in wardrobe, and on the high shelving at the top I keep a couple of boxes of things – these are items I don’t use very often but didn’t want to get rid of, and one is back-up and unopened items. I’m not a fan of clutter, so I try to go through these about twice a year, shop my stash and get rid of anything I haven’t used for a while. So everything in my dresser is in fairly regular use.

This dresser houses all my most-used products. It’s a simple cream console table with three small drawers and a top unit with an oval mirror and one more drawer. It came from Laura Ashley quite a few years back, whose furniture I love. I don’t think they have the exact style anymore, but its pretty much identical to their ‘Rosalind’ unit in Ivory (shop that here - currently reduced from £1000 to £400).

Its also very similar in style to the ‘Hemnes’ range at Ikea. In fact, we have a Hemnes chest of drawers in the same room and that was chosen because it looks almost matching. I’d like to replace the stool with a clear ‘Ghost’ Perspex chair as its getting a little rickety now, so that’s on my wish list.

The storage I have in addition to the drawers is a mix of mirrored glass and Perspex units. I feel like the top is getting a little bit cluttered with stuff, but I try to keep it as neat as I can.


On the left hand side, I keep my perfumes. These are stored on a vintage glass cake stand that I bought at Hemswell Antiques Centre, but similar styles are easily available at most homeware stores.

Having them accessible like this reminds me to pop some on as a finishing touch before I leave the house. I don’t own huge amounts of different scents because I’m quite fussy.

There’s my Escentric Molecules 01 at the back, Lancome Miracle, D&Gs L’Imperatrice, both of Lady Gaga’s scents (I’m a fan of Fame, the one with the black fluid, for nights out), Paul Smith Floral, The Library of Fragrance’s Jasmine and Baby Powder scents, my beloved Chanel Coco Mademoiselle, which I’ve worn since I was 15, and a scent called ‘Polka’, which I just picked up for a few pounds but is really pretty for day.


On the other side of the mirror, it looks a little cluttered! There’s a mirrored glass three drawer unit that houses my jewellery. I’m not sure where its from because it was a present from my Dad.


The drawers are groaning due my addiction to the statement necklace (no easier cheat to looking pulled together than a bit of neck candy! Its crammed full of my favourites, although some of the bulkier ones have had to go elsewhere!


On top of that I have two stacked clear Perspex drawer units, both from Muji. I got these years ago when I was at uni and used them on my desk for stationary, before realising they’d be much better filled with make-up! You can shop the Muji acrylic storage range here.


The first module has three broad drawers and houses some of my favourite eye products. There’s the MUA Undress Me Too palette, and singles from Famous by Sue Moxley, Nars and Too Faced, plus a couple of Colour Story singles, along with a couple of shadow crayons from Eyeko and Gosh. These are my most reached-for mono shadows. You’ll also see a random Clinique Chubby Stick that didn’t fit anywhere else!


The next drawer is more favourites from Mac that haven’t been depotted, MeMeMe Dew Pots, a couple of Maybelline Color Tattoos and Bare Minerals. There’s also one of The Body Shop Shimmer Cubes and a couple of gel liners from Mac and Calvin Klein.


The drawer above that is mainly lip products, and a Makeup Revolution The One blush stick for contouring. There’s my favourites from Revlon (Colour Stay Moisture Stains in Shanghai Sizzle and London Posh), Rimmel’s Moisture Renew Sloane’s Plum, Maybelline Colour Sensational in ‘Fuschia Flash’, Topshop Lips in ‘Inhibition’, Sleek Matte Me lip cream in ‘Party Pink’, and Benefit Full Service in ‘Lady’s Choice’ -  just the shades I wear most out of my collection.


The top unit is two small drawers -  all favourite lip products again. A couple of the Nars Satin Lip Crayons in Rickugien and Biscayne Park  - I definitely want more of these. My favourite red – Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in ‘Rebelle’, Barry M lip stain and Clinique Pop Lip in Wow Pink, two of the Soap and Glory Sexy Motherpucker Glosses, an Urban Decay Revolution lipstick in ‘Naked 2’, and Chanel’s Extrait De Gloss in ‘Imaginaire’.


On top of this unit are my most used brushes – a mix of Sonia Kashuk, Real Techniques and Mac with Shu Uemura lash curlers. I keep them in a little mirrored glass pot with a lace motif which I picked up at The Range.

Next to them is my quick brush cleanser, Makeup Revolution Pro-Hygiene, so I can keep them sanitized and fresh (they do need a good clean in these pictures, sorry about that!). There’s also a Mac kabuki , a little travel size of the Mac Fix Plus and a Royal Apothics Lip Butter on there.


To the side is an acrylic desk organiser from Osco. I picked this up from Amazon (see it here) as my palettes wouldn’t fit in the drawers any longer and I needed a bit more storage. Even though its supposed to be for stationary, it works perfectly for make-up items as well. One side has a shallow drawer where I keep highlighters (Mac Strobe Scream and Jelly Pong Pong Skin Luminizer Gel, and some other shadow singles from Marsk and Bourjois).

There’s an section above it for my most loved palettes – Urban Decay Naked 2 and Naked 3,  Makeup Revolution Flawless, Smashbox Full Exposure, Nars Dual Intensity, a contour palette, and some quads from Bobbi Brown and Chanel.

There are smaller compartments where I keep my most used foundations – Chanel Lift Lumiere, Mac Studio Sculpt and Urban Decay Naked Skin, alongside the Soap and Glory Make Yourself Youthful BB Cream. The eye pencils from the Urban Decay Black Magic set, another little palette (The #Selfie palette from Makeup Revolution), and my Mac and Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks sit next to some tubes of Eyelure lash glue.


In the central drawer unit itself, I keep vitamin pills and things. Might seem like a bit of an odd place, but I generally get ready there in the mornings with a cup of tea, so it reminds me to take them! A little box next to it is filled with random smaller items that don’t have a home anywhere else – Party Feet gel cushions, perfume samples and that sort of thing.


The right hand drawer has more palettes crammed at the back – most of the Sleek palettes, Makeup Revolution and NYX, and the Urban Decay Naked on the Run kit which doesn’t fit anywhere else.

There’s a couple of pairs of Esquido Mink lashes, my Blend.It face sponge, and a couple of pots of mineral foundation from BeautyBay.

I also keep my ‘quick kit’ in here – this is all the products I need to do my ‘basic face’ and that I use everyday, which I keep in this little Zoella makeup bag. I pull this out each morning and it has all the stuff I need, although I can grab other of my favourite lip and eye shades from the desk storage. If I’m going away I generally just take this bag and chuck in a couple of different lip colours.


The central drawer I’ve divided up using old Glossyboxes – they’re the perfect size and shape to use as drawer dividers. My loose N07 Perfect Light Setting Powder and SteamCream sit at the back, then there’s a box with sponges, wash off tan and body shimmers.

The next box has my Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or, and some of my coloured lenses. Below that is a box with my skincare in – lipbalms, BB creams, sunblock etc. The final compartment has Kirby grips, hair ties and clips.

The drawer next to it has my hair products in – I love my Mythic Oil and then most of the other products are from BlowPro.

My sectioning clips and hairbrushes and combs are all crammed in there too -  a Denman dressing brush, my beloved Tangle Teezer and my Air Motion Pro. My hot tools live in a separate box in the wardrobe and just come out when I need them.

And that’s it! What kind of set up do you use? Would you organise the drawers any differently? What works for you? I’d love to hear more ideas for quirky storage.

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