When it comes to storing makeup it's easy to think quality storage means ££. However over the years with my own ever expanding collection I've discovered you can find storage solutions in the most unlikely of places and getting creative really can save you money!
So here are 5 storage solutions I love that are all under £2 - pretty amazing right?
Curver My Style Small/8 Litre Storage Box
£2.00 on offer - Tesco in-store (£3.00 online here)
First up a strong rigid storage box that would be ideal for body/bath products or even storing makeup in. The style of these would look great on a shelf as a pair or trio to separate makeup in categories. I will be making good use out of this storage box by storing all my hair products in it and keeping it next to my hair tools. The My Style range also consists of medium and large boxes, in both cream and brow, at very reasonable prices.
Popcorn Plastic Storage Box
£1.00 - Poundworld
This is maybe my most favourite storage option as it so fun and ideal for keeping large body products in. For only £1 the detail of the storage bucket/box is impressive with the scallop edging making it look a lot more expensive that what it is. On a desk, shelf or in your bathroom this is bound to look great!
Ikea Skurar Plant Pot
£1.90 - Ikea here or in-store
For the past year or so I've been using these wonderful Ikea plant pots to store my makeup brushes in and still love this storage solution idea. For only £1.90 each the metal plant pots are amazing quality and quite large in size. To make all my brushes stand up I've simply fill the pots half way up with uncooked rice. A simple storage solution that's practical and looks great.
Glass Sweets Jar
£2.00 - Matalan
A simply idea for storing lipgloss', lip crayons, mascaras and eyeliners is housing them in jars. These can be recycled jars, Kilner jars or even sweets jars like the one above. Pinterest is awash with ideas of how to jazz them up and even paint the inside of them.
Candle Holder
£1-2 - Various
Around my makeup room I have numerous candle holders to store anything from eyeliners to nail art brushes in. Candle holders are generally inexpensive yet decorative and look great on all surfaces. Highly recommend looking in Tesco, Primark and Home Bargains.
Hopefully this has given you a few new storage ideas and shown that you can find pretty looking storage on the smallest of budgets!
Fee xo.
Last month I randomly discovered some pretty stationary storage boxes in Tesco for only £12.00 each (Tesco Direct - here) and instantly decided they had to be my new makeup storage solutions instead of the Muji Drawers I was planning on purchasing.
The pretty navy floral storage box consists of two deep drawers and even though constructed out of cardboard are super sturdy, so I knew I would be able to store quite a lot in them. Still this didn't stop me purchasing two as I wanted to be sure I had enough storage... and finally I do!
Instead of stacking the storage boxes likes my Muji Acrylic Drawers I decided to place them side by side as it looked better that way and easier to reach. As I had 4 large drawers to fill that could be messy as I liked I decided to fill the nearest set of drawers to where I sit and do my makeup with makeup products and the right hand side of drawers with skincare.
Top drawer - Lip products
For the top drawer I decided to storage some of my favourite high end lipsticks - quite a few Clarins, MAC and others. Then on the other side a selection of lip crayons as I really can't get enough of them at the moment! Lip crayons/sticks are a product that I really don't think you need to pay a lot for so these are all high street ones.
Bottom drawer - Bronzers/Palettes
More of a full drawer that houses a lot of my favourite palettes and larger bronzers. This made buying the storage drawers so worth it as finally I have somewhere to store larger palettes, even the large Urban Decay Naked 2 palette. To the front of the drawer I have 2 amazing products from the Kiko Life in Rio collection - the large bronzer is amazing (I'm sure I will be featuring it soon), palettes from NYX and Laura Mercier, plus my trusty HD Brows quad palette that is so multi-purpose. At the back of the drawer I have both the UD Naked 2 palette and Naked Basics palette, a Kiko eyeshadow palette I love and Bourjois Bronzing Powder which is another favourite.
For my skincare drawers these are nearly packed full but hold everything I need and more! Skincare products have always been something that didn't fit in my Muji clear drawers so I was sadly storing it all in multiple mismatch beauty boxes I'd collected that always looked messy. But finally I have somewhere to hide it all away!
Top drawer - Daily Skincare
This contains all my skincare favourites that I use in my daily skincare routine. The main bulk of the drawer is taken up with serums and moisturisers - No7, Bioderm, Heal Gel, Kiko, La Roche Posay and The Body Shop. Then to the back I keep eye cooling products, my favourite gel eyedrops from Lumecare, a sample pot of eye cream from Benefit and randomly some Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix pads. Then in the left corner I have a few of my favourite spot treatments.
Bottom drawer - Extra Skincare
My skincare junk drawer here that I will dip into when I want to use something different or my skin requires something more moisturising. This contains mainly serums and moisturisers, a few eye creams and targeted skin care pens for pigmentation and fine lines.
The storage drawers have really transformed my makeup desk and I'm finding it so much easier to keep it neat and tidy being able to store so much out of sight now.
A purchase I'm really pleased with!
Fee xo.
Yesterday I felt Spring had finally arrived! After a rainy start the sun came out and it actually felt warm, warm enough to open a few windows, which prompted some tidying that led on to a full on spring clean.
I'm not one for spending the whole day cleaning & tidying on a Sunday but as the sun came out I noticed how dusty things actually looked and how much painting needed to be done (which will be another time), so I decided to give everything a bit of a clean. I then decided to organise quite a lot of things in my kitchen, makeup/office room and then finally my wardrobes. I'm now writing this pretty exhausted but with a lovely clean spring-ready house.
In my dining room I gave my glass console table a good clean (I seem to have a lot of glass furniture!) and added some yellow flowers in a white half vase to tie in with the yellow wallpaper in my living room. The yellow flowers I've had for over 3 years now as they artificial, so I keep re-using them in different areas! I also stacked up some recent magazines on the table next to it and added a lovely new Neom candle (review to come soon).
On my dining table I added some fresh tulips which I think look perfect for spring, though I know won't last long until they are all drooping over the sides of the vase... so I am thinking I may have to track down some artificial red tulips so it can become a permanent feature on my table during Spring.
In the kitchen I decided to stack some cookbooks and the odd gardening book instead of displaying them the usual way and added my favourite white gluggle jug next to them. On the other side of my kitchen I added a wooden wine rack that is from Next.... though it contains more bottles of Malibu than anything else.
For my makeup room I didn't actually have much to do except for add a few new pretty things to my desk such as the lovely Blue Willow tray and my perfume bottle car boot find. I did contemplate cleaning my Muji storage but decided that could be left for another day... hence the no photos as the storage has foundation fingermarks dotted all over it... oops!
I also added some magazines to my magazine stand which is actually an old shop fitting, but does the job perfectly of holding my many magazines that I can't throw away. I also gave my wardrobe a good clear out and placed all my winter clothes in a huge plastic container to go up into the attic so I have more room for summer clothes (this is something I started doing a few years ago now and it helps so much with space). I also added some new gift bags to my clothes rails (just A4 sized paper gift bags) that I use for holding underwear, scarves and accessories. Plus I attached a canvas shoe rack to the rail which I actually place rolled up t-shirts plus shoes in as I actually don't have any drawers, so hanging organisers really are a great way to create some type of extra shelving in a wardrobe.
Another little trick I did to finish of my spring cleaning was to add some verbena & lemon perfume/essential oil which is meant for a burner onto some cotton wool pads and placed them down the back of every radiator, so when my heating is on the scent will be released more.
Really hope you have enjoyed this slightly different interior post and hopefully it has given you a few ideas if you are planning a little spring clean yourself.
Fee xo.
Today I thought I would do a slightly different post with all the DIY storage ideas that I have been seeing around the internet and ones that I have also thought up.
Hope some of you try out these ideas!
On a recent trip to Ikea I picked up three £2 Skurar Plant Pots (don't worry if you don't live near an Ikea - here's a £1.22 eBay alternative!) basically because they were pretty!
I then had a lightbulb moment of what if I store my makeup brushes in them!
As you can see this totally works and is a perfect solution for my large makeup brush collection. The only drawback is that the plant pots are quite tall, taller than my makeup brushes at least, meaning when I put my brushes into the pot they could hardly be seen.
However this problem is easily solved by using long grain dried rice in the bottom of each plant pot, so that the brushes stand up nice and high, and also separated.
However this problem is easily solved by using long grain dried rice in the bottom of each plant pot, so that the brushes stand up nice and high, and also separated.
You may want to ignore my mostly dirty brushes but I think it turned out quite well!
I filled both pots half way with dried rice and then placed in the brushes. As you can see one holder is for eye brushes and the other is for face brushes.
I filled both pots half way with dried rice and then placed in the brushes. As you can see one holder is for eye brushes and the other is for face brushes.
As for the SKURAR plant pots I really do love them. They are metal, meaning they are nice and strong and the cutout lace detail is a lovely touch. My alternative eBay find plant pots here are very similar indeed but made of plastic FYI - but still it beats walking around Ikea for hours just for plant pots, or a fab solution if your nearest Ikea store is 1242 miles away!
You could also use these plant pots to store sharpies and other bits of stationary. Really great for budget desk storage whilst still keeping it pretty!
Fee xo.
Last week I mentioned that I planned to go to Ikea for a new desk.... and I did! Sadly I didn't take my camera along with me as it was an impromptu trip, but I did get the desk I wanted.
The desk was under £30 and I'm really pleased with how it looks. So I thought I would show you!
I decided I needed a new makeup desk as I wanted to create an extra office area with a desk in my makeup room... for paper, stationary and to do boring tax things at. So I decided to use the makeup desk I had (see below) as it's glass and quite impractical for makeup/keeping clean and then get a new, smaller desk for doing my makeup at.
My previous desk...
The desk that I originally used was from Ikea (I do think Ikea are the best for desk combinations) and similar to my new desk I purchased the table top and legs separately. The table top was the Vika Gruvan in White (£70 - here) which I think looks really nice with the space for items under the glass . I just placed cards from Paperchase and Rob Ryan lasercut prints under there to add a bit of interest. Then I bought two bookcase style trestles, again from Ikea, however these aren't available anymore, though there is a lot of choice when it comes to legs and trestles.
If you are planning on buying a desk from Ikea I would highly recommend doing a Google image search of the desk (table top) you like the look of and see how it has been style by others and what legs look good with it.
The desk that I originally used was from Ikea (I do think Ikea are the best for desk combinations) and similar to my new desk I purchased the table top and legs separately. The table top was the Vika Gruvan in White (£70 - here) which I think looks really nice with the space for items under the glass . I just placed cards from Paperchase and Rob Ryan lasercut prints under there to add a bit of interest. Then I bought two bookcase style trestles, again from Ikea, however these aren't available anymore, though there is a lot of choice when it comes to legs and trestles.
If you are planning on buying a desk from Ikea I would highly recommend doing a Google image search of the desk (table top) you like the look of and see how it has been style by others and what legs look good with it.
New Desk Setup...
When deciding on my new desk I knew I wanted something smaller. My philosophy being smaller desk, less mess! The top is the Vika Amon in White (£20 - here) which was actually £17 in-store and 2 x Lerberg Trestles in Grey (£5 each - here) totaling only £27 which I think is so reasonable for a desk. If you are on even more of a budget there is a smaller table top in the same range for only £7.
The options for legs are really great at Ikea and you can actually have one normal metal leg and then a storage unit as the other leg, as all the legs, trestle legs and storage units are the same height and depth.
Storage & Accessories...
As for the pretty items on my desk, I have tried to keep it more minimal so that I will hopefully stay tidy. I of course have my Muji Storage which I love and couldn't be without (full post of my Muji setup here) and a Glass Sweets Jar from Matalan (£2 in-store) that holds lip products. I also have a chocolate box beneath that which contains lipbalms. I also have a Pedestal Mirror from Primark which was only £4.
You may have noticed the lack of brushes on my desk, which is because I also purchased two lovely metal lace trimmed plant pots (Skurar range £2 each - here) but I need to put some uncooked rice in to them to hold the brushes and so they sit higher in the pot.
For decorative accessories I have a new vintage perfume framed print that was a gift which I really like. I also have my golden stag that was in fact from the Christmas range at Asda a few years ago and my gold stegosaurus which was a plastic toy that I applied gold leaf to. As for the cute old style milk bottle vase I purchased that from Dot Com Gift Shop for £2.95 here and the artificial flowers were from a selection at Dunelm Mill.
Hope this was helpful to those of you that may need some inspiration or like interior posts.
Fee xo.
Months & months ago I mentioned my Muji acrylic storage and how much I love it, but since then I have added to it and changed it around.
I'm really pleased with which storage options I went for so I thought I would go though it.
For quite some time before I purchased proper storage and not just Glossy boxes for my makeup I was struggling to keep it organised and tidy. I also just wasn't using half of what I had due to everything being stored in boxes. But for some reason I saw it as a splurge; spending money on what are practically clear plastic storage boxes.
However after reading reviews and working out how much it would cost I decided I needed some. I decided to see it as an investment as I will always own quite a lot of makeup and the storage will hopefully last me a long time. I actually know of bloggers that are still using their Muji storage after 15 plus years!
However after reading reviews and working out how much it would cost I decided I needed some. I decided to see it as an investment as I will always own quite a lot of makeup and the storage will hopefully last me a long time. I actually know of bloggers that are still using their Muji storage after 15 plus years!
All the storage here cost me £29.90 (though I worked out I could have saved £5.00 buying a 2 drawer unit). This did house quite a lot of my everyday makeup so for just under £30 I was really pleased.
What I purchased - 2 x Acrylic box 1 drawer wide (£7.95 each - here), 1 x Acrylic box 1 drawer with flip-top lid wide (£8.50 - here), 1 x Acrylic desk pot 3 partitions large (£5.50 - here). Total - £29.90
(EDIT 2016 - I've recently added to my setup with something I picked up from eBay for only £8.80... this looks incredible like Muji storage and I love how it looks! You can find my review post of it here!)
(EDIT 2016 - I've recently added to my setup with something I picked up from eBay for only £8.80... this looks incredible like Muji storage and I love how it looks! You can find my review post of it here!)
The top flip-up drawer contained blushes, bronzers and highlighters. Middle - foundations, concealers and primers. Bottom - eyeshadows, gel eyeliners, eye primers and brow products.
Then in the 3 section desk post - mainly eye brushes in one, face brushes in the middle and then eyeliners and mascara squished into the last one.
My main problem though was that I still didn't have anywhere to store lipsticks/lipglosses and I didn't have room to store any palettes so I was keeping them stacked up by the side of the storage... which wasn't such a good idea with a curved glass table as they kept falling off the end!
Arghhh no, look at my mucky fingerprints all over the drawers! One of the drawbacks to pretty acrylic storage.
After a few months of having the Muji storage and enjoying how organised it kept my makeup I decided to double what I had so that I could store lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes... and also have a random drawer for lipbalm, correctors and face sprays.
I added to my storage set-up - 1 x 2 drawers wide (£10.95 - here) and 1 x 1 drawer wide (£7.95 - here). Total - £18.90
This now houses pretty much all my most used makeup that I like to have the choice of day-to-day. I did really need an extra drawer to store lip glosses, however I didn't want the storage to be too high or both towers to be equal in height so I purchased a £3 glass sweets jars to store some of my favourites in (you can see what that looks like here).
One thing I really love about this storage is that you can see and know where everything is when you are sat applying your make-up which saves on a lot of time. Also I have found myself using different products because I know when things aren't getting used as often. For once when I do make a mess I can easily tidy up as everything does have a place. Plus it is easy to switch up makeup - for example I have just changed my bright summery lipsticks for more rich berry shades.
If you are thinking about investing in Muji Storage I would suggest really working out what drawers would be best for you and thinking about what would go where before purchasing.
Or opt for more affordable acrylic storage from eBay here.
Or opt for more affordable acrylic storage from eBay here.
I'm now off to clean the makeup fingerprints from my drawers haha!
Fee xo.
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| Image credit Style at Home |
I'm going to admit it - I would love for any drawer around my home to look like the above image.
But the reality is I start off with such good intentions and then within a matter of days the little piles/group of products I have created either fall over in the drawer or everything just gets merged into one... and then it's back to being one big mess again.
However I know that acrylic storage is the solution... no more products falling into the middle of the drawer when I close it and no getting bored of the rubbish little groups I have made. I still think Muji storage is great and I intend to get a few stack-able drawers in the next month or so, but they are definitely on the dressing table/out of display type of organizers. Whereas the Godmorgon range at Ikea is more for organizing behind the scenes!
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| Ikea |
The Godmorgon Box with compartments (here) is the main piece that I want when I next take a trip to Ikea for their meatballs. It is kind of pricey however it is quite large and I know it will hold a lot. I intend to use this in one of the two drawers in my wardrobe that is currently just a jumble of different beauty products that I actually rarely go into because it just over faces me!
From the looks of the organizer there is a divider to the top left part that can hold 16 products (lipsticks & nail polishes would be ideal here), then next to that is two compartments (good for foundation, highlighters and primer I'm thinking). The lower part is definitely my favourite bit of the whole organiser as I love the idea of the top lift-up compartments so you can store more underneath.
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| Same as above & Adaras.se |
As you can see in the above picture you can really great use out of the dividers especially for pencil products (I know mine are everywhere) and also mascaras and even concealers. Plus it even has a wider compartment that I will definitely be using to hold extra brushes.
Underneath there it's just one big compartment I think, so for me this would be ideal for storing most of my eyeshadows as they are currently in an acrylic box on my dressing table but with my huge make-up bag sat on the top of it, so I hardly use the eyeshadows in there and just reach for eyeshadow palettes.
I just really like the look of this and I could see it being really handy to sort out my junk drawer issue!
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| Ikea |
There are more organiser in the range though that interest me! The top Godmorgon set of 5 Boxes with lids (here) is definitely calling me to, especially for them four smaller containers as one would be ideal for hair bands and clips as I'm forever losing them around the house. As for the bigger acrylic box I think that would have to hold all my hair products for doing my hair with - so hair oil, brushes, hair spray, heat protection spray etc.
Plus I'm thinking the other two holders would be ideal for makeup brushes without their tops on. So definitely worth £8.99.
The other Godmorgon £4.49 drawer divider (here) is cheap but I'm unsure if it would fit into any drawer I wanted it to. But if the measurements are the same as my wardrobe drawers then I will have to get this for my underwear drawer, as again like my makeup junk drawer everything is everywhere so this would make me roll up socks and what nots! Plus the two little hook on holders would be quite handy for bits of things!
Over the next few months I really want to get more organizers especially with the storage that can't be seen, at the minute most cupboards or drawers I open in my house are just a mess and even though no one can see it, it would definitely make my house totally clutter-free if all of the cupboards had good organizers in them - like boxes and trays and drawer dividers.
My first project is putting a noticeboard up (covered in pretty fabric) on the inside of my wardrobe door and on the other door a painted white spice rack for all my favourite nail polishes!
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