I keep everything in their original boxes. Makes them easier to store and to see the color names...
Is it bad that I could tell you every eye shadow I have just by looking at it? I don't need the boxes... I can just look at the colour and tell you. I find it kind of odd.
I think it kind of depends on how much stuff you have, and how many different companies they are from. I own makeup items from around the past 50 years and from different companies, so they are all packaged differently.
I sort things by color and by type. To keep them separate - and which makes them pretty easy to find - i put related items in baggies, although some things don't fit into baggies. The boxes are transparent and when things are stored in boxes with the name out, i can see what's in them from the outside, even when they're stacked.
For example, I have one box for violet (cool) and purple (warm) eye products. In it are:
Baggie One - Eyeliner Pencils
Baggie Two - Eyeliners: Liquids / Gels / Glitter Gels
Baggie Three - Blue-Violet Eye Shadows
Pencils / Gels & Creams / Pressed Powders / Loose Powder
Baggie Four - Purple & Plum Eye Shadows
Pencils / Gels & Creams / Pressed Powder / Loose Powder
Baggie Six - Mixed Cool (Violet) & Warm (Purple) Eye Shadow Compacts
Creams / Pressed Powders
Baggie Seven - Mascaras
Loose in Box
3 MAC Crushed Metallic Pigment X4 Sets (loose powder)
2 MAC Eye Shadow Quads (pressed powder)
There are at least 80 different items in the Violet-Purple-Plum box.
I have 8 Eye boxes:
-- 1. Eye Basics - primers, tools, Black liners & mascaras (which i rarely use)
-- 2. Brown & Taupe Liners and Mascaras
-- 3. Neutral - Brown, Nude, Gold, Silver, White
-- 4. Warm - Yellow, Orange, Copper
-- 5. Warm - Teal, Green
-- 6. Cool - Violet, Plum
-- 7. Cool - Pink, Cool Blue
-- 8. a big box holding really large palettes and palettes with mixed colors
4 Lip boxes - recently drastically reorganized - and again, different colors are in different baggies
-- 1. Treatments, Primers and Balms; and Gold, Nude, and Brown lip stuff
-- 2. Red, Coral, Orange, Green, Blue, and Silver lip stuff
-- 3. Violet, Purple, Plum, Berry, & Pink lipsticks
-- 4. Violet, Purple, Plum, Berry, & Pink lip glosses
3 boxes of Cheek stuff - Blush, Highlighter, Contour/Bronzer (no baggies)
-- 1. Neutral - Silver, Neutral Pink, Taupe, Beige, Bronze
-- 2. Warm - Coral, Peach, Gold
-- 3. Cool - Lavender, Cool Pink, Plum
Plus a couple boxes for color correctors, primers, concealers, tinted moisturizers, foundations, and powers.
Eye and Cheek things that are different shapes and sizes stack better when they are in their original boxes.
Lip things stored in their original boxes with their names up means i can tell what they are at a glance.
Plus i keep an inventory, so i know what i have, where it is, and when i bought it.
