How Do You Organize Your Beauty Samples?

This isn’t exactly a storage option, but here is another idea for some of your extra samples you may have. I recently made Spa in a Jar gifts. I don’t have as many extra samples as some of you, so I needed to purchase several things, but this would be perfect if you have a lot of extra items you didn’t need. I filled wide mouth mason jars with lots of little travel size beauty items. (You can use make up, a little candle, lotion, nail polish, shampoo, face mask, nail file….) I put on the Mason jar lid and added a tag to the top that said “Spa in a Jar”. I tied a ribbon around it and gave them as gifts. They were a big hit. Just another idea if you have an abundance of little items. (I also loved that so many people donate their extra samples. I think woman’s shelters and even some food pantries are happy to have these items.)

OH MY GOD CHRISTINE! You just saved my sanity with that cosmetic shelf life website. I have so much stuff that I know is older but still useable, but I don’t really use. This tells my hoarding self that I SHOULD throw it away. Thank you.

I have a big, plastic 3 drawer chest I got from Walmart. I use mostly make up bags to seperate things. I also have 2 Caboodles and one other tackle box looking thing. Some bigger things like full sized shampoos or bodywash go straight to the bathroom. My boxes sit for awhile before I empty them into their proper places. I am also saving Glossyboxes, Sample Society boxes, and Birchboxes for storage when I get my desk my boyfriend has promised me. I also bought some smaller plastic drawers from Walmart which I will set up on the desk. I made an organizer from glass candy jars from the dollar store that I can store lip gloss, mascara, eyeliners, etc in. It’s hot glued in a pyramid shape.

I keep my favorite makeup on my dresser on a tray. I have 2 of those plastic drawer organizers that I use for makeup and hair / face / body samples from boxes.

In the one I use for makeup I have bins to separate all the different types of products.

In the one for everything else I just have it grouped by drawer.

It works out very well for me!

I’m fairly new to subscription boxes but this month I received 4 regular subscriptions, the L’Occitane box, a huge sample bag from Ulta, the Walmart beauty box and the Target beauty box. I find that if I don’t sort the items early on then I don’t ever use them.

The first thing I do is sort the makeup I want to keep into my makeup collection and then sort out all of the items I want to gift to my SIL, sister and nieces into the empty boxes and bags. I try not to keep too much.

Then I try all the bath products, lotions and facial care as quickly as I can. Some of the trial size lotions, shampoos and conditioners that I tried before go into my travel drawer, which quickly becomes overflowing. When drawer gets full, I donate the toiletries. There are a lot women’s shelters and organizations that send to soldiers overseas that are very happy to have travel sized items.

For me the hardest thing to get rid of are the empty boxes. The packaging is so nice for most of these subscriptions that I hate to toss/recycle but if I need it I don’t keep it.

I group my samples by type then store them in my ipsy bags!

Gentle reminder that if you get samples you won’t use, women’s shelters will more than appreciate them. To us, it’s trash because we have such an abundance of products. To them it’s a luxury.

Love this! I’m always interested to see how everyone else stores their samples!

I picked up a bunch of those plain white photo storage boxes from Hobby Lobby and I use those to store my samples. I keep hair products, makeup, and facial cleansers/serums in separate boxes for easy access.

Yay! Thanks for this post, Liz! I can’t wait to see everyone’s pictures for inspiration!

I am interested in seeing people’s pictures too! It’s funny, I found this site last fall, just as I was getting frustrated with my Birchbox samples for various reasons, but one of those reasons was that even with only that sub, I felt like I couldn’t keep track of what I recieved and what I liked well enough to buy, etc. At that point, I was just using anything that looked interesting (and that I had a slot for in my routine) right away. Pretty much everything else either went in a box for travel or in the trash if I couldn’t pass it along and had already tried it.

Funnily enough, I feel more organized now that I have added a few more subs, including re-subbing to Birchbox. My main strategy is I try to use sample sizes immediately. That way I have just read about them and I can make a note of whether if like the product enough to buy when I need it later. This also increases my happiness with birchbox exponentially because I feel like I’m getting an immediate perk to my beauty routine, rather than just tossing stuff directly into a “use sometime later” box.

I organize full sized stuff by category, and use my birch boxes as drawer dividers. I don’t have a ton though. Birchbox is still really my main beauty sub.

I’d like to hear more about how people figure out and label with expiration dates. I don’t see any on most of the samples I have, some have numbers on the bottom, but I can’t figure out what dates they might represent.

First and foremost my biggest organizing secret is avoiding the accumulation of more than can fit in my current storage system. When it starts to get too full, I purge and get rid of anything that I’m not feeling anymore, or is now expired.

Makeup on bathroom counter: an acrylic organizer with my prettiest makeup and brushes on display, which sits on top of 6 small sterilite drawers holding makeup in 6 categories: primers and bb creams; concealers and powders; blushes, bronzers and highlighters; eyeliners, mascaras and eyelash curler; eyeshadows; lipsticks and balms.

Skincare in medicine cabinet: this is where all of my moisturizers, eye creams, zit zappers and face washes go.

Hair & body stuff in bathroom vanity drawer: A tall but narrow drawer, perfect for all the hair oils, gels, potions and sprays, plus body lotions, stored upright.

Travel stuff in linen closet: Anything I’m saving for travel is sorted by category in ziplock bags within a clear plastic shoe box from the container store. I travel at least once per month so this has to be kept tidy.

Swap stuff in my office: there’s a drawer near my shipping supplies for all the stuff I put up for swap, and I use birchboxes as the dividers.

Sterilite drawers: http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=479&view=0&picture=1&tab=Description&ProductCategory=186&section=1

Somewhat similar acrylic organizer: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/bath/cosmeticsOrganizers?productId=10001051&N=205

Clear shoe box: http://www.containerstore.com/shop/closet/shoeStorage/shelf?productId=11000058

I have a 3 drawer storage bin in my bathroom where I store all my samples. They are sorted by hair, face, and body. It’s super simple!

I sent you pictures. I’m really looking forward to seeing what other people do- I love organization. I had a roof leak once that ruined some of my stuff that was in cardboard boxes, so now I have a house filled with pretty plastic containers.

For the longest time, I stored my stuff in a cute lil’ 6 drawer shelving unit that absolutely nothing else would fit in {it’s 32x13x7}…since my subscription habit has multiplied, I started using a larger 6 drawer unit {the kind that hangs from your closet rod…it’s in my walk in closet now}. It actually works perfect, I can label each pull out drawer {hair stuff, make-up, accessories, gifts, swaps, etc.}. I found mine at IKEA, it makes everything easily accessible & it’s so cute in my closet!!

I bought an acrylic nail polish holder to put on my wall, and I’m planning on buying a Beauty Station https://www.etsy.com/listing/169147756/the-original-beauty-station-makeup I think I’ll have it mostly under control once I get both of those set up and organized. My collection isn’t that huge, though.

Here’s the problem I see with having so many samples. They’re going to eventually age out before you even try them. I try to share the wealth; I give bunches to friends and family. I have a small box where I keep the absolute MUST tries. Then a second box with the “definitely maybe must tries.” The rest are in a big box for giveaways.

So, a year ago, my brother and sister in law sent me a HUGE acrylic beauty organizer for Christmas. 😉 It’s literally a clear acrylic cube with six drawers that is about 1.5 feet cubed. This is a giant sucker! It took me a little bit to accept it and the level of my beauty/subscription addiction, but almost everything fits in and is beautifully organized. The overflow/larger items I keep in neatly labeled and stacked PS Must Have boxes. (the post it note labels allow me to label everything clearly, and relabel when I periodically reorganize.) In addition, I also use clear hanging jewelry organizers in my closet for tiny samples, and clear hanging shoe organizers for larger sizes). – – – Clearly I need an intervention for my sub habit. Will try to upload pics when I can

I bought 2 organizers that look like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roll-Up-Organizer-Travel-Toiletries-Storage-Compartments-Makeup-Grooming-Jewelry/191547980958 on ebay and labeled each pouch. Mine are sorted eye cream, day cream, night cream, masks, treatment (like acne) and makeup.

Things like nail polish and shampoos I put in with my regular items.

Samples I can’t use, I bring into work right away and give to coworkers. I had tried collecting them a bin to take to the women shelter but half of them ended up expired by the time I had a decent amount to drop off.

I invested in one of those Lori Grenier makeup organizer. They have them on QVC, and in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, it is amazing, and worth the money. That’s where I put what I am currently using. Everything else goes into photo boxes. They are $1-$2 at Walmart. I organized all my stuff, and my hubby’s. They are perfect, because they have those little metal brackets on the front to put labels in, and they are a good size. So, I have travel samples, shampoo, facial items, nail polish, etc. I just pull out the box of what I want when I need it, because it’s easily marked, and it was so cheap to do. I’ll send pics tomorrow.

I keep mine in Birchboxes, lately I’ve been having to use my husband’s as my collection grows! It isn’t worth it to me to swap, so I either use it or give to my girls to use. They are 4, 6, and 8 and love the makeup samples to play with, I don’t wear much so I have lots to pass on! Anything really nice I save for my mom’s Christmas stocking. I haven’t had to actually toss anything yet, but if I find myself with too many samples I am planning on making up bags for the womens shelter here in town a couple times a year.

I’ll be sendings couple of photos pretty soon, but thought I’d share my organising efforts.
In a corner of the den I have a stack of pretty storage boxes, handy for my swaps. There’s also containers for my polish collection, Julep and others.
Upstairs, everything is sorted and labelled by type, mostly opinion Glossyboxes with the addition of a few larger photo boxes for hairspray and

OK this is strange but check that white/red lotion from Welda. It may be expired if it was from Yuzen a few boxes ago. I know mine was expired 12/14…Use it up first 🙂 As far as organizing, I keep unopened things I plan on keeping in a cabinet and things I plan on gifting or swapping in a 3 tier plastic drawer organizer.

I send pictures just now, too. I am a big fan of acrylic racks from Amazon for lip products and nailpolish. I also have about 20 Glossyboxes/Sample Society boxes/Birchboxes with sorted skincare and makeup items (categories like brows, serum, hair foils, liquid eyeliner, masks, etc.), and another 3 small sets of plastic drawers with more stuff (categories like blush, bronzer), plus a big set of plastic drawers for body lotions, hair masks, etc., and about 10 shoeboxes for stuff I tend to get more of or that comes in larger containers, like non-polish nail care, shampoo, moisturizers, etc.).

The boxes are not organized at all right now. But I am moving in July into a house with a massive master bathroom and I can’t wait to fill that up with ORGANIZED beauty products.

I’m so unorganized – I try and keep everything in the same area, yet most the time for swaps I can find all but one item, that 1 item is considered cleaning time since it will take me up to 2 hours to find that item. Items that are close to expiration date I donate, items i have had to long I ad as extras to swaps. Figure someone else might use them, or might have more luck swapping them.

I never thought of organizing by date before, but I guess I really should do that. I have a shelf in my bedroom with leftover boxes stacked up (usually Frenchbox or Glossybox boxes since they’re well made and hold up well, but also some pretty Birchbox boxes). I label each box with what is inside and keep them separated by category, i.e. hair products, face creams, nail polish, hand lotion, eye creams. When I run out of one item, I pull another put of its box to replace it.