10 nail polishes. Seven lipsticks. Five bottles of hairspray. Four bronzers (because apparently I am very, very pale). That is just the beginning of a list of toiletries that littered my bathroom counter on a recent weekday morning.  Not to mention the dozens of eye liners, brushes, foundations, mascaras and the like rattling around in the drawers beneath. Clearly, it was time to rein in my cosmetic collection.

Nail Polish

How many manicures does it take to get to the bottom of a nail polish bottle? More than I’ll get in my lifetime judging by the dozens of lacquers lining my bathroom drawer.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to organizing polish collections; shelf it or paint it. The shelf it gang advocates displaying nail polishes, color coded on shelves, just like one typically sees at a salon. That option was out – my husband would never go for racks of varnish adorning the walls of our master bath. The paint it crew suggest storing polishes in groups of colors in drawers, but not before painting the top of each bottle with a drop of the hue housed within so that one can easily suss out which color is in each bottle. That was also a no-go, due to the aforementioned complete lack of patience.

An even easier solution is to house polishes, grouped by color, in paper market trays. These are the open-faced gift boxes found in the gift wrap departments of many retailers and sold for about $1 each.  Not only is this an affordable way to store polishes and see all the colors in your collection at a glance, with this disposable storage type you’ll never cry over spilled paint.

Lipsticks & Liners

Acrylic containers have basically cornered the market on lipstick organization but, since I don’t own any acrylic furniture, I wasn’t ready to introduce my bathroom to acrylic either.

I am, however, an advocate of lip liner so I felt it made sense to store lipsticks with their coordinating liners.  Enter clear glass votive holders, the ideal way to store lipsticks and liners, paired by hue, either in drawers or on countertops arranged on trays. I paid about fifty cents each for mine at a local Old Time Pottery.

BIY Beauty Organizers

If Martha Stewart wore more than just clear gloss, perhaps there would be an entire section of “Living” devoted to chic, DIY, chevron-patterned makeup organizers, all made out of items just lying around the house.

Unfortunately for me, Stewart seems to be a makeup minimalist, and I am forced to come up with my own BIY (buy-it-yourself) cosmetic corralers.  No, I’m not crafty nor detail oriented, so I can’t tell you how to turn a coffee can into a pretty pink organizer, but I have discovered some handy products that do the job beautifully for just a bit of green.

Keep curling irons, blow dryers, flat irons and the like contained, even when still warm, with the Style Station Organizer or the Polder Style Station, both sell for about $20 online.  Lori Grenier’s countertop white, wood cosmetic organizer holds up to 100 pieces in specialty compartments and it rotates; get it for about thirty bucks at QVC.com.  If you have a healthy respect for cosmetics but not a downright obsession, the Stretch and Store Organizing Tote at Walmart sells for just $13.30 and features a removable plastic white tray topped with an elastic tote that stretches to accommodate different shaped items.

Of course, you could stop adding to your cosmetic collection which would make organizing all these oh-so-pretty products much easeir. But, frankly, that’s not something I recommend -) In fact, tomorrow, I’ll be adding to your collection with a fabulous giveaway featuring some of the very best new products I’ve tried. Stay tuned– and subscribe to my blog– for details.

Subscribe to my personal blog, Glamour, Every Day, via email or RSS for tips on infusing everyday glamour into beauty, fashion, style, entertaining and beyond. Plus, connect with me on Instagram @prettycitycarolyn or on Twitter @mrsbrundage.