Makeup Bag Organization: A Simple System for Everyday, Office, and Special Events

I’m no makeup artist. I’m just a girl trying to feel good on a day-to-day basis without allowing my beauty routine to take over my life. And although I would say my routine is fairly low maintenance, I find myself often having to dig through drawers and an assortment of baskets to put together a look that I’m happy with.

Getting a handle of my makeup overflow

In an attempt to have fewer things to take care of, I spent this past weekend culling my makeup stash to the things that I really use. I normally have a single makeup bag that I grab on a regular basis and then a small drawer of extras and options that I can pull from when needed. However, I found this system didn’t work. How did I know? My cosmetics and brushes were often strewn everywhere when I was searching for the right item. Also, I was accidentally repurchasing or buying items that I had plenty of already.

Thinking about my makeup habits

For the purpose of making my life simpler and saving money (by not overbuying) I sought a way to organize what I have and in a way that made sense with my own makeup habits.

My makeup personality:

I’m bad at matching eye, cheek and lip colors - on the days that I do wear makeup I keep a light application of foundation and a consistent eyeliner routine, but where I have trouble is getting the correct eye, cheek and lip combo. People who can immediately see which shades go with which other shades are so gifted – and I’m not one of them. It requires a lot of trial and error to sort through all the blushes and glosses I have to find ones I like.

I have a go-to makeup look for photos – apart from a few upgrades over the years, my signature photo look (the one I use for events, passport photos, etc.) has stayed the same for years. It involves full primer, powder, setting spray in addition to foundations (yes plural), highlighter, 3 blushes, and a lipstick, lip pencil, and gloss combo. It’s on a cool/neutral side so it goes with most anything I have in my closet.

Organizing my makeup by putting a whole face kit together

Here’s what my game plan was – I wanted to create different and complete kits that fully contained a different version of my makeup routine depending on the occasion so that I didn’t have to recreate the wheel every day.

This is what I came up with:

1.      Photo makeup – this is a full face of makeup with all the primers, setting sprays, false lashes and my sure thing makeup cheek and lip colours.

2.      Everyday makeup – this would be what I wear to be presentable and feel good at work and when I’m running errands. Mostly to even out my skin and put color on my face (with a little eyeliner) but not much more. I’ve got different blush, lip and lip liner combos in there depending on what works with the outfit I’m wearing that day and what my mood is.

3.      Handbag pouch – This holds the smallest of basics and always has my eyeliner, and a CC cream for touchups, plus I’ll put the lip combo I’m wearing that day in there.

Let me break down the steps that I took to finally get to my ideal makeup setup, in case you want to try and recreate this experiment.

Step 1: Gather all your makeup and group them into like categories

You’ve got to start by seeing everything you have. You’ll be dismayed, shocked, and even a little ill at how much you’ve spent but it needs to be done. I don’t wear makeup on a regular basis and yet I still had 9 different foundations, about 10 blushes, 12 lip pencils, and 20 lipsticks among other things. It was a reality check that I am justified in my new year proclamation that I’m not buying any new makeup unless it’s a replacement. The good part is that I have plenty of backups now that I know where to find them.

Sort through and throw out anything that’s expired. Throw out anything that you know you won’t be using anymore or doesn’t suit you. If you feel guilty about throwing it out, don’t. The money has already been spent, the real tragedy is allowing it to get in the way of the items you care about.

Step 2: Put together the contents of each of your respective kits

How you put your kit together will depend on your life and your relationship with makeup/how much of it you have. I mentioned before how I use makeup and so I sorted my things to address those habits.

My main priorities were ensuring that reaching for my supplies doesn’t create a new mess every day, that I can easily pack it when I travel, that I use what I have, and all the supplies I need are at my fingertips.

What’s in my makeup kits

In my case, the most specific kit of A+ products is what I consider to be my photo face kit. I go by the order that I use the products so I’m sure I didn’t forget anything. Mine includes:

PHOTO READY MAKEUP KIT

This photo kit includes the entire face that I put together in its entirety. It’s always the same lip and blush combo. Yes, I use all the blush products together because I like that layered look.

-          Primer

-          Armani liquid foundation + foundation brush

-          Fenty foundation stick

-          Huda Beauty Tantour + contour brush

-          Charlotte Tilbury Bronzer

-          Loose powder + brush

-          Setting spray

-          Eyebrow pencil

-          Pencil eyeliner

-          Liquid eyeliner

-          Mecca Maxima eyeshadow pencil

-          Chanel eyeshadow quad

-          MCO Beauty Jelly Tint Blush + blush brush

-          Rare Beauty cream blush

-          Dior powder blush

-          Rare Beauty highlighter

-          Lip pencil

-          Lipstick

-          Lip gloss

EVERYDAY MAKEUP KIT

This has the basics of a face with most of the same products minus a lot of the time-consuming prep.

In this kit I keep three different lip and blush combos. The blush is a palette at the moment, and the lip kits represent a nude option, a warm fall option (because that’s the season I’m going into) and a red option because sometimes you just feel like it. I find that it takes the guesswork out of digging through everything I own. I just make note of the wardrobe I have during the season and make sure that at least one of the lip combos work for each outfit option I have on rotation. Figuring out the wardrobe is another story for another blog post.

My everyday makeup kit includes:

-          Foundation + brush

-          Hourglass cheek and highlight palette + brush

-          Eyebrow pencil

-          Pencil eyeliner

-          Liquid eyeliner

-          Rare Beauty eyeshadow palette (warm tone)

-          Chanel eyeshadow quad (neutral tone)

-          Eyelash curler

-          Setting spray

-          Nude lip combo

-          Red lip combo

-          Warm lip combo

HANDBAG KIT

This kit has the fewest static items, but I add whichever lip combo I’m wearing for the day in here before I pack it in my bag. It’s not meant to be a full face but rather for touchups. Also, I include a couple of extra hair accessories in case I lose or break mine.

This is also the pouch that I include in my carry on bag when I travel because my full makeup kit is too much weight to carry on me. It includes:

-          CC cream to cover-up potential redness

-          Pencil eyeliner

-          Liquid eyeliner

-          Lip balm

-          Hair tie

-          Tiny hair clip

Step 3: Find a pouch or container for each kit

I’ve got three kits so I needed three pouches or containers. There’s a good chance that you already have very workable options so don’t feel compelled to go out and buy something new. One great resource for me has been the thrift shops. I have found a few amenities bags from the airlines at my local shop. Some of my most exciting finds were a Dyptique/Qatar Airways pouch and a Bulgari/Emirates pouch (this one holds all my nail polishes).

Make sure that it fits the entirety of your contents so that you don’t have to go searching for the right thing later. Again, having all the tools and products you need at hand is a big part of why you’re doing this in the first place.

I prefer to make my kit as small as possible so to accommodate this I buy travel size setting sprays and I even got a set of travel size brushes for my everyday kit because I found that the space was more limited.

Step 4: Makeup kit maintenance

I wash the brushes out of each once a week and then make sure my pencils are sharpened, but the kit stays the same for the quarter. I only buy when I need something replaced. The fun and money saving aspect of this is that you don’t feel a need to get new options because you actually WANT to use what you have.

What I find myself doing is if I see a product I like or want to try out, I’ll usually take a screenshot and note it for later in my shopping list so that when I’m out of something or ready to move something on I can then take that opportunity to buy.

Knowing which formulas work for you

I have a few things that I want a particular brand for because they are tried and true winners (like the Armani foundation and Nars concealer) but for the most part I’m not afraid of trying drugstore brands too. I just make sure to read a lot of reviews.

Conclusion

If you’re not a beauty influencer or someone who has to have a full face on everyday, this idea of different kits might be a good option for you to make things simpler and save time so you can actually cultivate your signature look rather than forgoing it because it’s going to take too much effort to get out the door.