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To me, a trip to Sephora is like a hot cup of cocoa on a cold winter day. New Anastasia Beverly Hills palette? I needed it. After baking my fifth lockdown banana bread and watching ‘Tidying Up with Marie Kondo’, I decided it was time. Let me show you how to konmari your makeup collection.
I love trying out new makeup, and that’s why I have a lot. What better way than to declutter and organize your makeup collection with Marie Kondo? Marie Kondo is famous for her bestselling book ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up‘. Marie’s principles can definitely be applied to your makeup collection and vanity room too.
First things first! If you’re short on time and just looking for a quick fix on how to organize your makeup collection? These are my favorite products!
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1. Commit yourself to tidying up
Finding the motivation to start the grieving process of saying goodbye to a big chunk of your precious makeup collection can be difficult. I postponed this chore until I was sick of baking banana bread. But the idea of having a perfectly organized makeup vanity corner sparked excitement.
And you certainly don’t have to throw all that money spent in the trash.
Related post: 12 amazing beauty products flight attendants can’t live without
2. Imagine your ideal lifestyle
Like I said before. The thought of having an organized, accessible, and essential makeup collection sparks a bigger joy than owning a lot of things I barely use.
The drawers full of make-up palettes I barely use became more of a nuisance. Especially if you don’t have a lot of space.
To help you visualize a perfectly organized beauty corner, it helps to get on Pinterest. Pinterest has loads of photos of vanity corners or beauty rooms we all dream of having! To get you going, here are a few of my favorite ones.
3. Sort by category
To have a clear view of every single makeup or skincare item you own, we need everything in the same spot. I used my dinner table and started making piles—a foundations pile, an eyeshadows pile, and so on.
Getting everything together in categories will show you precisely what you have. I didn’t have a clue about what I owned. I even had new, unopened double products hidden in the back of a drawer.
4. Finish getting rid of things first
This step is the most crucial in how to konmari your makeup collection and spark joy. They also like to call this step ‘the purge’, just like in the movie. Instead of purging people, we’re purging our makeup collection.
Use this step to part ways with everything you don’t use. How are we going to do that? I divided this essential step into smaller steps applicable to makeup.
1. Check the expiration
Checking the expiration date is a no-brainer, I hope. Makeup and skincare have an expiration date. While we’re all guilty of keeping things longer than we’re supposed to, you have to be careful when it comes to beauty products.
Start with all the unopened products. Unopened beauty products that are correctly stored generally have a long shelf life. Once they’re opened, there is a maximum of three years, depending on the product. Check the product and look for a sign that says “12M”, which means twelve months.
If it’s open and you can’t remember when you bought it. Dump it. If you’re unsure, check if it smells funky, changes color, has a different texture, or looks weird. Use the table below to have an indication of the expiration dates of other beauty products.
| Products | Shelf life |
|---|---|
| Mascara / Eyeliner | 3 – 6 months |
| Foundation / Concealer | 6 months – 1 year |
| Powder products | 2 – 3 years |
| Lipstick / Lip gloss | 2 – 3 years |
| Cleansers | 1 year |
| Moisturisers / Serum | 6 months – 1 year |
| Lip Balm | 1 year |
2. Products you never use
After the purge of products based on the expiration date, it’s time to sort based on how often we use something. Make a different pile with the things you haven’t used for over a year. Look at the products. Physically hold them and ask yourself the following questions:
- Does it ‘spark joy’?
- Will I use this product?
- Why do I want to keep it?
- Is this product unique?
If you answered yes, keep it!
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3. Give away
Now take a look at your ‘no joy’ pile. Instead of throwing away products that you’re not using, give them away. Make someone else happy. At least this way, the money you spend does not go to waste.
The purge is over! Now pour yourself a glass of wine. You successfully got rid of your makeup clutter! You’re one step closer to organizing your makeup collection the konmari way!
5. Time to clean
Just as cleaning your makeup brushes, it’s essential that you clean your makeup too. Sanitizing your makeup will keep bacteria out longer and can help preserve shelf life once opened.
I use pure eighty percent alcohol which I bought at a drugstore. Take off the first layer of eyeshadow from each pan with a piece of paper dipped in alcohol. Clean the palettes too.
We all know that eyeshadow can crumble and end up everywhere. Then spray the eye shadows and palette with alcohol and let it dry. Lipstick can be dipped into a tiny glass of alcohol, and pencils can be sharpened.
6. Let’s get organized
Now we have everything discarded and cleaned; it’s time to organize and store it. Nothing is more annoying than needing something and having to dig through a pile of stuff to find it.
1. Makeup organizers
If you have a large makeup collection, it saves a lot of time to have your daily essentials in a separate makeup organizer on your vanity desk. This way, you have the makeup you use daily within your reach. Believe me, it saves you a lot of trouble and is way easier than digging through a drawer.
These big makeup organizers are amazing for having the most important items within reach on your vanity desk!
If you’re looking for something smaller, this small makeup organizer is great for a few key items.
Check out this beautiful golden makeup organizer that has the perfect size for a few essentials! How good would this look on your vanity desk?
Everything else should best be stored in drawers in separate boxes. Using drawers will make it a lot easier to see all your products compared to a closet.
2. Drawer dividers
Drawer dividers can be very handy to have your stuff organized and not move around when opening your drawers. This set works perfectly with the famous Ikea Alex drawers!
The brand Vtopmart has a lot of affordable different styles of drawer organizers for your vanity or bathroom.
This handy lipstick organizer is great for organizing your lipsticks, and this little drawer box works great for lip pencils and eye pencils.
There are different ways to organize your eyeshadow palettes, but this eyeshadow palette organizer is very handy for having your favorites nearby!
Fewer options mean fewer choices, and that means quicker decisions. It’s the same as standing in front of a closet full of clothes but still having nothing to wear. I hope this how-to konmari, your makeup collection, and spark joy help you declutter and organize your beauty room.
If you’re looking for something a little fancier than your average makeup organizer, check out Moochi! They have beautiful makeup organizers that will catch everybody’s eye for sure!
Marie Kondo says that clutter can affect your state of mind. Sometimes even without realizing it. Hopefully, your mind can be at peace when doing your makeup at your makeup vanity after this big tidying up!
