The Nail Polish Declutter

Following on from my 2015 goal of slimlining my skincare and makeup stash, I decided to also rifle through my ridiculous nail polish stash and get rid of a few bottles. I must admit that I had hopes of trimming it down in anticipation of gaining some new nail polish racks and storage in the New Year, something that the husband hinted at looking into to help get my beauty room looking neater. It sure would help selecting manicure colours, which is often frustrating with my collection being spread out in various storage units in that office!

colours I have given away or am about to

I knew I needed to relinquish my hold on ‘nice colours’ that I would never wear – using excuses about future nail art enterprises and how pretty they looked in the bottle just isn’t going to cut it anymore. I basically know what I like to wear when it comes to nail shades, and yet here I sit with a veritable tonne of baby pink shades that will never see the light of day on my fingertips! I have to admit that it was hard for the hoarder in me to look at beautiful bottles from Australis, Darling and Essie and make the decision to add them to the pile, but ultimately they are too nice to waste away collection dust and the shades will better suit the deeper skin tones of my family anyway.

My plan is to go through and get rid of a few polishes at a time (judging by these photos I'm keeping all of my cool-toned shades, ha!) and whittle down my collection bit by bit, that way it won't feel overwhelming for me. Seriously though, if you saw how many polishes I have...

Charlie being most helpful during my nail polish declutter!

Most of the ladies in my family wear nail polish regularly so giving these away shouldn’t be too hard, and I’m looking forward to displaying my beloved nail shades once we decide on what racks would suit the room best. Would you be interested in a polish storage post when that day comes?

-Emma x

Current Makeup Storage - The Everyday Products

I adore posts that allow me to take a sneaky peek into the makeup drawers of others, and since my ‘daily tray’ has now expanded to take up an entire drawer I thought it was time for me to share it. I used to store my most reached for products in a Muji-style open top container on my desk but found that the overspill was becoming unsightly and looked messy, so I rearranged my desk drawers to allow myself the freedom of a whole top drawer for my most loved/most reached for/most awesome beauty goodies.

I use white plastic baskets to separate and add order to the jumble of products within the drawer, though I am contemplating removing the long basket that currently holds brushes as it isn’t the easiest thing to find the brush you need when they are laid out flat like this. The drawer at the front holds some of my most used base products, including my Smashbox primer sample, BB creams and tinted moisturisers. The next drawer over is a bit of a mix, holding my daily mascara and eyeliners as well as my MAC Painterly Paint Pot and EOS lip balm.

I’m not sure where I’m going to put my aforementioned Muji style containers so for now I have one inside of the drawer housing my fuller coverage face options – Illamasqua Skin Base, Maybelline Dream Wonder foundation and my Clarins concealer. It also holds my two Maybelline tinted brow gels and my setting sprays (MAC Fix+ and Skindinavia Finishing Spray) I’ve sat my current favourite Revlon Colorstay Whipped Foundation next to this along with some perfumes and the products I’m trying to use up at the moment – full post on this new challenge to come soon!

On the far side of the drawer I have some larger palettes as well as an old Glossybox box which holds my current go-to blushes (Chanel JC's and some Thailand purchases) as well as products I want to play around with or have just purchased. All of my Bite Beauty products are here because they are too beautiful to be slipped into the regular old lip drawer, is that a bit sad or what? I like having my babies close, what can I say!?

Ultimately I think that this style of makeup storage is working for me – I can slide it shut to conceal mess and can sit on my comfy desk chair when I want to rotate products in and out of my routine as it is within easy reach. I still find myself lusting over an Ikea Alex 9 Drawer to store the bulk of my collection but at least I’ve found contentment with my every day products. As an aside, if you’ve spotted something you’d like a review of don’t hesitate to mention it in the comments – I’ll take any blogging inspiration I can get at the moment!

How do you store your daily products?

Do you have any makeup storage tips I should know about?

Emma x