By Request: How I Currently Store My Lip Product Stash!

After having written a post on my Makeup Storage Conundrum, I received an email asking how I was storing my stash of lip products. I therefore thought that I should make a visual response. Here goes....

The drawer itself is part of an original 1920s built-in cabinet in my master bathroom, and it is quite deep and not necessarily terribly efficient. That said, what it lacks in efficient use of space, it makes up for with 1920s architectural charm. I created makeshift dividers with all sorts of repurposed crates, boxes, and the like. My real challenge was how to store a ridiculous number of lip glosses and lip balms so that I could easily see them and access them, and then return them to their proper places after use.

My greatest find was a pile of little plastic baskets that house the lip glosses. I found them for .99 each at Walgreens, and decided that I needed to somehow contain them- so I used an old Melissa & Doug wooden crate that once housed wooden toys. Nine of the little baskets fit perfectly leaving enough space so that I can easily remove the individual baskets to view the contents. The baskets themselves are perforated which is helpful in identifying the lip colors.

The three baskets on the left side (vertically oriented) largely house drugstore lip products. The top is filled with Covergirl Lipslicks and Maybelline Baby Lips (though I did place my three OCC Lip Tars in that basket because there was space for them). The middle and bottom rows are exclusively Revlon Lip Butters.

The center column features mid to high- end lip glosses. The top basket contains MAC Kissable Lipcolours, Lip Gelees, and a few Lipglasses. The center basket is filled with glosses by Rouge Bunny Rouge, Susan Thompson Cosmetics, La Prairie, Bobbi Brown, and Armani. The bottom basket is a mishmash of glosses that includes Lipstick Queen, NARS, and whatever else needed a home.

The right side features yet more glosses!! The top basket is filled with glosses by Anastasia Beverly Hills, LORAC, and a couple of strays. The center basket is all about Chanel-- while it is nearly all Glossimers, it is the Extrait de Gloss that are my most beloved from Chanel. The bottom basket is exclusively Le Métier de Beauté and Burberry. Beneath the bottom basket I managed to squeeze in a little demitasse for lip liners.

The pink zip pouch on the far right is something that I found at Ross for only $2.00!! The moment I saw it, I envisioned using it to store lipsticks upside down so that I could see the labels, and the clear plastic lid makes identifying my lipsticks very easy. Yes, I realize that I have a disproportionate number of lip glosses to lipsticks, but you already knew that I was a lip gloss kind of girl.

Left to Right Compartments: Chanel, Le Métier de Beauté and odds and ends; Burberry; Susan Thompson Cosmetics Creamy Lipsticks and Rouge Bunny Rouge; and finally a huge mishmash of brands.

Beneath the lipsticks I have a rectangular glass container that used to contain a triple wick candle, and the moment I saw it I imagined its use in my makeup drawer. I use it to keep my lip balms easy to find. Below the lip balms on the left is where I keep lip compacts from Chanel, a Susan Thompson Cosmetics Pro Lip Palette, a few Bobbi Brown Lip Glosses, and other odds and ends. The container on the right houses my Le Métier de Beauté Lip Kaleidoscopes, and Le Métier de Beauté Créme Fresh Tints for Lip & Cheek, and a sample lip palette of Chanel Rouge Coco Shines.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel morally obligated to tell you that this does not represent all of my lip products! Hangs head in shame while simultaneously and obsessively plotting the next lip product purchase! I have a pile in my desk drawer that I need to photograph and swatch, and piles in my purse, and piles in my travel computer bag-- but you probably already knew that, didn't you?!

How do you store your lip products?