Organizing Eye Shadows So They Take Up Less Space

Holiday gift sets are often a double edged sword. You get a heck of a deal, but the ornate packaging that surrounds the makeup is often too bulky to take home The colors are great, but where would I put it?

Remember Smashbox’s Eye Wish palette I just reviewed? I really like it, but once I took out the primer and mascara, the box contained just the shadows and it was really bulky so there was no room to stash it with my other shadows. My solution? Break that sucker apart and repackage it my way.

Here’s what I did.

First, a look at the box, both closed and opened.

I bent the palette until the corners of the shadows raised up a little bit so I could slide a butter knife under each shadow slowly so they’d release, but not pop out which could cause them to crack and break.

Luckily, they’re attached with a small dot of adhesive so they’re really easy to free.

Well, you’ve popped them out. Now what? Grab a CD case and remove everything from the inside. This is the new, slender home for those shadows and liners in the palette that will now take up about half the space.

Shadows on the left, liners on the right. See the dark shadow on the top that I cracked? Be really careful and patient getting them out.

Close up the lid and lazily peel away some of the ‘Features ‘Because You Loved Me” from your Celine Dion Falling Into You CD (optional of course). See where the plastic opens along the left side? I later moved that left row of shadows under it over to the column on the right so the shadows weren’t exposed.

See the difference in thickness from the original palette to the CD case?

Of course this isn’t exclusive to just this palette, you can also do it to your shadow singles so you can round them up in one area. For singles, I hold the shadow 4- 5 inches above a candle flame (be careful) until it starts to heat (but not melt) just so the adhesive becomes soft. Use something thin and sharp (like an X-Acto knife but again – be careful) to lightly lift the metal pan from the packaging.

Organizing your makeup is like organizing your closet, if you can’t see it you won’t use it. Use this, along with the pill box trick I showed you a while back to begin organizing your ever-growing beauty collection.

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