Beauty Re-Organization and Today's Look

I haven't posted on here in forever (a little over a year, actually), but I'm trying again. I've actually got some stuff to share right now, so I figured this is a good time to try!

So last night I got an unexpected burst of energy/motivation at around 11:30 P.M., and I started cleaning and reorganizing parts of my bedroom - mostly my beauty products. I definitely need to get some kind of additional storage eventually - maybe trays or a desk organizer - because it's not as organized as I'd like, but it's better than before. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any "before" pictures, so you only get to see the more organized version.

So, to start with, here's my whole dressed full of stuff that I rearranged. This is most of my makeup and hair products, except for some lipstick and concealer and stuff that is currently in a makeup bag in my purse.

In the two drawer sets on the left, I keep most of my makeup. From top to bottom:

• Drawer #1: This drawer has all of my lip products - lipstick, gloss, liner, balm, chapstick.
• Drawer #2: Individual eyeshadows and palettes. It's getting a little crowded in there, so I'm thinking I'll get a desktop organizer like this one from Target, where I can stand the palettes up in the large compartment and store some brushes in the smaller compartments.
• Drawer #3: Eyeliners, mascaras, brow pencils/powders/gels, tweezers, false eyelashes and adhesive.
• Drawer #4: Powder foundations, blush, bronzers, finishing powders, highlighting powders - basically, all of my powder face products.
• Drawer #5: Brushes. I don't have a good system for brushes yet, so I lay all of my brushes next to each other in this drawer right now, besides my e.l.f. brush set that I keep in it's folding bag.
• Drawer #6: Hair stuff. Large and small hair clips, head bands, hair ties, etc.

This little basket was part of a Bath & Body Works gift set that I was given for Christmas probably seven or eight years ago, and I use it to store most of my lotions, body butters, hand creams, and a few little hand sanitizers.
On the right are all of my hair products - hair spray and dry shampoo in the back row; second row is sea salt spray, heat protectant, and thickening lotion; third row is a control creme and silkening creme; front row is another silkening/frizz creme, the old version of Redken Mess Around, leave-in conditioner, deep conditioning mask, and reviving spray.

My nail polish organizers stores - surprise! - all of my nail products: polishes/lacquers, files, buffers, clippers, cuticle pusher, cuticle oil, top & bottom coats. I also have my essential oils stored on the top left, along with my Mary Kay lip mask & balm, and my Physician's Formula liquid liner (just because I keep it standing up so the products will get down into the felt tip, so I don't want to lay it in the drawer with my other liners).

Next are my liquid face products: foundation, primer, setting spray, cleansers/exfoliants, and sunscreen. In the front, I have a spot treatment and some random "smoothing and relaxing eye patches" that I got in an ipsy bag. And my body spray and deodorant are on the right. The black thing sitting behind all of this stuff is the e.l.f. brush set that I mentioned before, in it's folding storage bag.
I think eventually I'm going to get this to put my hair and liquid face products in, just to keep them together and not just sitting on the dresser.

The last thing on my dresser is another, smaller, set of drawers where I mostly store jewelry. I've had these drawers forever, but still haven't taken the sticker off - oops! This isn't all of my jewelry...I haven't moved my jewelry pin board and magnetic containers up from the basement yet, and those have most of my jewelry on/in them, so I'll post that once I've moved it. From top to bottom:

• Drawer #1: earrings
• Drawer #2: necklaces
• Drawer #3: a few random things - mala bead necklace, coins from the Bahamas, casino token
• Drawer #4: more hair stuff - a hair band with gold metal leaves on it, bobby pins, and I think there's an SD card in there...
• Drawer #5: bracelets

And finally, a little metal shelving unit that I got from a house my parents bought (the owner apparently just moved and left everything behind?). I have baby powder and some lotion, nail polish removers and nail drying spray, more regular lotion and Jergen's Natural Glow moisturizer, hair brush (pretend that brush isn't covered in hair - ew), blow dryer and flat iron, cotton balls, and a loofah. And a container of cat litter! ;)

So that's it right now - as I said before, once I get the rest of my jewelry and my other set of drawers moved upstairs, I'll post those as well.

I guess while I'm here, I might as well show my outfit, hair, and makeup for today. Almost my entire outfit is composed of pieces I've received from Stitch Fix. You can check out my first post for an explanation of watch Stitch Fix is, and how it works (sorry about some of the photos not showing up in that post - I'm not sure why they stopped working). I LOVE this service, and can't get enough.

Sorry about the awkward camera angle...I couldn't move any farther back because my dresser was right behind me, so  the downward-slanted angle of the camera kind of makes my torso look huge and my legs look really short! Hopefully I can find a different place to hang my mirror...

Today, I'm wearing the Just Black skinny jeans that I got in a "fix" earlier this year, short-sleeved open-front cardigan that I got in my very first fix last year, a mixed-material top that I just received in a fix earlier this week (eep!), and a puzzle charm necklace that I got in a previous fix. The only things I'm wearing that aren't from Stitch Fix are my glasses and my shoes!

My hair and makeup are below - you can't see the makeup very well, because the lighting in my office is weird and yellow-ish, but this is the best picture I could get.

Primer/Foundation: Make Up Forever HD primer, and then Face & Body liquid makeup as foundation - I love this product because it's not heavy, and it lets my freckles show through, where a lot of foundations kind of cover them up.

Eyes: NYX Cosmetics Love In Paris eyeshadow Palette in Mercibeaucoup. I used the matte-brown cappuccino-esque shade on my lid, an old matte Covergirl bronzer of mine for the upper crease, and then a combination of the peachy-pink and burgundy/wine shades from the NYX palette for the crease, to bridge the two brown/bronze shades. Then I used my Physicians Formula eyeliner and Marc Jacobs O!Mega mascara sample that I got as a Sephora Beauty Insider reward. Then I used a bright blue eyeshadow to line my lower lashes, from an old Urban Decay palette that my sister gave me when she got a new UD palette - I don't think they make the palette anymore, because I couldn't find it on their website.

Brows: I used the NYX Automatic Eyebrow Pencil in Light Brown for the outline of my brown, and then went over the outline and filled in with the NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Auburn/Red. My brows definitely could have looked better, but I woke up late this morning so I was in a hurry and kind of just brushed over them pretty quickly.

Bronzer/Blush: Nars Blush/Bronzer Duo in Orgasm/Laguna. I went pretty light on bronzer/blush today, too, because I was in a hurry.

Lips: Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm in Audacious, and Starlooks lip gloss in Guilty Pleasure

I'm trying to be a little less low-maintenance when it comes to my hair (a lot of the time I just put it in a ponytail and that's it), but I'm also trying to avoid using heat often since I'm growing it out and wan't to avoid unnecessary damage. So in order to get wavy hair without curling it or getting the crimpy-waves that I get when I braid my hair overnight, I've been using Vivian Vo-Farmer's twist-braid technique overnight to get waves naturally, which I love. It not only makes my hair wavy, but it also has more volume, and doesn't go flat and straight after one day - I put it up in a loose topknot on nights that I don't wash my hair, so it keeps its volume). When I first take it out of the twist-braids in the morning it looks similar to how it looks in my outfit photo but curlier, but after I run my fingers through it a little bit it gets looser and more wavy. And then after I've brushed the curls out with my fingers, I flip my hair to each side and then forward, and hairspray it each way, just so that it keeps the volume all day.