Storage for Your Beauty Stash

Effective and attractive storage for beauty products helps you enjoy them to the max. You can find what you need to create any look, enjoy the pretty display of cute or sophisticated bottles and pots, and make sure everything lasts as long as possible.

Corral Your Colours and Brushes

Pencils, mascaras, brushes and even nail polishes are beauty items that can quickly overrun your dressing table.

Brushes in particular need a bit of looking after so they stay in shape. You can stand them up in jars, small vases, or bottles, and if the top is too wide to hold brushes upright, try adding some beads or marbles. Even coffee beans work and have the added advantage of a great aroma. Stab the brush handle down into the beans or beads, and the brush stays in place until it’s needed.

If you’ve got an old cafetiere you’re no longer using, this is a clever way of storing mascaras, eye pencils or brushes while keeping them dust free. Push the plunger down to the bottom, stand the brushes on top of it, then just pull up the plunger to make choosing the one you want easier.

Household Items for Beauty Storage

You can buy lovely storage containers and bags for makeup and other beauty products, but it can also be fun and creative to use items not meant for that purpose. 

Here are some ideas:

• Use a letter rack to hold makeup palettes.
• Organise eye pencils, lipsticks and glosses, or small tubes and brushes in cutlery holders.
• Arrange nail polishes on a pretty cake stand.
• Hang a spice rack by your makeup mirror to hold and display perfume bottles.
• Use a magazine holder for hair styling tools.

Future Proof Your Beauty Collection

Makeup trends come and go, then come back again in the future. Since makeup tends to have quite a long shelf life, it’s a pity (and a waste of money) to throw away partly used products just because they’re either wrong for the season or currently out of fashion.

If your collection is quite extensive, chances are you regularly swap out your everyday favourites, then find yourself making repeat purchases.

A solution is to carefully pack up makeup products you’re not using and stow them in self storage. If you like to keep things organised, a room with freestanding shelves or cabinets would help with taking stock and maintaining your haul, but otherwise you might find a self storage locker would serve you better.

Make Beauty Products Last Longer

Makeup is expensive, especially premium branded items. Items will last a lot longer when you give them a bit of TLC.

• Don’t pump your mascara wand in and out of the tube. This makes it dry up faster. Instead, gently pull the brush out of the container, letting any excess gather naturally inside the rim of the tube. If it’s running low, one gentle plunge in and out should be enough to recharge the brush.
• Make sure you keep the tops tightly screwed down on bottles and jars.
• Keep some items in the fridge. Nail polish, for instance, may stay free flowing for longer if it’s kept cold. You can use empty egg cartons to keep the bottles all together.
• Keep perfumes out of direct sunlight. You don’t have to keep them in pitch dark; a shady spot in the room will help preserve their scent for longer.

Some products, such as moisturisers, may contain active ingredients such as SPF that protects your skin from UV damage. These benefit from being kept in as dark a place as possible, but a drawer or makeup bag that shields them from light should do the trick and keep them fresh.

When you’re storing collected items, especially if you’re saving them in self storage for a couple of months at a time, check them carefully to make sure they’re fresh before you use them. This especially applies to creams and lotions. If it doesn’t look or smell right, or if creams have congealed, separated, or changed colour, discard them. You can also check expiry dates if items are still in their original packaging. Expiry dates are particularly relevant for sun lotions as they lose effectiveness over time.

Do you have any favourite storage tricks for makeup? 

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