Dressing Table Tour Part 4

Hello there!

I've got the fourth and final part of my dressing table tour for you today. I have to say, I've really enjoyed putting this little mini-series together; it's been fun photographing and talking about some of my favourite trinkets and accessories. 

This last post gives me the chance to feature a few of my prettiest storage suitcases, which I keep next to the dressing table, and although the area is small and insignificant, it happens to be one of my favourite areas of the bedroom. 

This pretty pile of patterned boxes is an extension of my dressing table, used as extra storage for accessories and beauty products which I don't have room for there. I also have a magazine tidy full of fashion magazines and catalogues I need to find time to read. I think that polka dot tidy came from Tesco.

Two of my favourite home accessories are these beautiful floral polka dot suitcases. When I saw them in Next when I was Christmas shopping last Autumn, I just couldn't leave without them. I knew they'd be perfect for my bedroom. 

I was amazed by how inexpensive they were; £16 for the set of two! I've known smaller suitcase sets to retail for £45, and the quality of these are far superior to others I've dealt with. They are actually part of Next's homeware for kids, but I personally think they are better suited to adults. 

They compliment my decor, add a lovely feminine and vintage touch to my room, and are also wonderful storage boxes. I have accessories in mine, but they'd be great for storing photos, mementos, keep-sakes, make up, shoes, stationery... you name it! I love them so much I'm tempted to pick up another set to organise some other possessions. They're available online here, if you want to check them out.

As you can see, the suitcases are quite deep, and can store a generous amount.

In the larger of the two boxes, I keep my collection of winter hats, gloves, and mittens. I only have a couple of hats- (I don't suit them), but I have about a dozen pairs of gloves that I've been collecting over the last decade. I love accessorising with cosy knit gloves during the Winter, and usually find myself succumbing to at least one new pair each year. I never throw out the old ones, so I have a variety to wear depending on my mood and outfit that day.

The smaller suitcase is currently being used to store some of my beauty products to keep the clutter down on my dressing table. I can't just keep them in the bathroom like a normal person, because anything I leave on the side of the bath or in the shower will get used up by my (25 year old) sister when my back is turned. I can't afford to keep her in Aussie shampoo (a treat for me) and Neutrogena face scrubs, too, so it's more cost-effective to squirrel them away.

I love the two patterns on these boxes, and the striped lining is a nice touch.

Underneath those cardboard suitcases, I have this amazing strawberry print Cath Kidston suitcase! 

I adore the thing! My sister and I were browsing the Cath Kidston outlet shop at Bicester Village late last Summer when we saw them on sale for just £15! We both loved the strawberry print, and neither of us could leave without one. It's another piece designed for children, but in my eyes, it was the perfect display-slash-storage-piece. It's a shame about the plastic red handle, but otherwise it's so pretty to look at.

The inside is bright red, which is a fun contrast to the baby blue of the outside. I have thought about lining it with some kind of vintage-style paper or an old map to make it look a little more tasteful, but I'm still undecided.

This suitcase is home to two layers of light-weight scarves and snoods and there's plenty of room left for more. My sister uses hers to store her hair dryer and straighteners.

Cath Kidston unfortunately don't stock this design any more, but there is currently a ballerina print version, which is quite lovely, too.

And that's the end of my dressing table tour!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek in to my home and  if you've made it through to the end, thanks for reading!

If you'd like to catch up on the previous three posts from my dressing table tour, you can do so here: part one, part two, and part three.

Do you like using pretty storage boxes as much as I do?

Dressing Table Tour Part 3

Hey lovelies,

I hope you're all having a great week so far.

Today I'm bringing you part three of my dressing table tour, and I'm going to show you what I keep in the little nook under the dressing table. Let's take a look!

The cubby hole is technically designed for leg space, but I've always used it for storage. I'm stuck living at home for the time being, and when you have one room to live in and a lot of stuff, you have to make use of every little gap.

At the minute, I'm using the space to store accessories, styling tools, and some cosmetics in a random assortment of containers. It looks a bit mis-matched, but I can live with that. 

The Super Sweet Cherry Pie bag is a beach bag which I bought from New Look about a decade ago. It's missing a few sequins now from years of use, but I adore it and it brings back a lot of memories. I haven't been able to use it in a few years, which makes me sad, so a week or so ago I decided I had to put it on display. I'm now using it to keep all my hair styling tools neat and tidy, at least until my next trip to the beach, anyway.

The box with the drawers is home to most of my costume jewellery. It's actually a stationery organiser, which I picked up from WHSmith a couple of years ago, but I saw its potential as an inexpensive jewellery box. It's perfect for keeping my accessories organised! This design isn't available anymore, but there's a similar one in blue here, and other designs here, here, here, here, and here. I also love this 3-drawer birdcage print box; I'm tempted to get it to store my make up palettes in.

The top three drawers of the accessories box are occupied by hair grips and bobbles; rings; and brooches.

I don't have a lot of rings, but my favourite is still the amazing frog prince ring I adopted from ASOS in 2012!

My brooch collection is beginning to grow quite nicely. I love anything quirky, as you can probably see, and I've got all kinds of novelty designs in my collection. (Many of them are from Cath Kidston).

The two middle drawers are home to a random assortment of accessories.

The left drawer is full of hair accessories like hair clips, turbans and hair scarves, grips, and styling clips. There are also a couple of large corsage-type brooches in there that are too big for my brooch drawer.

The right hand drawer is home to a random bunch of things that needed to go somewhere. 

My beautiful satin jewellery roll with the heart-shaped mother-of-pearl buttons embellished on the outside stores some of my special jewellery; pieces given for milestone birthdays, mostly. I bought the jewellery roll at work in the mid-noughties because I couldn't resist the prettiness. Isn't it lovely?

Underneath it are some skinny chiffon scarves, a couple of empty display boxes, some wire hair bands, the removeable straps from a sun dress, and various lengths of ribbon I occasionally use as hair bands.

And the big drawer on the bottom is home to most of my bracelets. I've had most of these bracelets for years (such as the bangles and Indian bracelets), and I don't have a very big collection these days. I got rid of so many a couple of years ago, and still haven't replenished the collection with many new ones. I probably have about a dozen bracelets I actually wear and need to start building the collection back up.

My lovely lilac jewellery box was given to me by my best friend for my 16th birthday, which was an alarmingly long time ago! Thirteen years this July; eek! Even after all those years, it's still in near perfection condition, and I still have that same best friend who gave me it.

This jewellery box is used to store some of my more precious pieces, as well as my collection of studded earrings. I have quite a lot of studs, most of which are just costume pieces, but I also have a few silver and gold pairs, with real pearls and yellow sapphires, that were given as presents.

My favourite pieces in this jewellery box are my Swarovski crystal rings, a locket that belonged to my Nan, and a pair of yellow sapphire studs my Mum gave me a couple of years ago. (They're actually orange in colour and attached to the black River Island card in the drawer in these photos).

My lovely best friend also bought me this pretty necklace stand, (for Christmas in 2012). It's from the same range as my heart-shaped earring holder, and cream wall hooks (seen in part 1), which came from ASOS. I've ran out of counter space, so at the moment it's displayed on the floor in the corner. I'm not quite sure where to put it! It holds short necklaces, and at present I don't have many, so it looks a bit sorry for itself.

Here's a peek at the chaos inside the beach bag. It contains my hair dryer, two pair of hair straighteners (mine have just died so I've borrowed my sister's pair), curling tongs, a hair removal contraption, and a heat-protector mat.

This star-shaped box doesn't currently have anything inside. It was originally the packaging from a Lush bath bomb set I was given a few years back.

And finally, this hexagonal tin is full of cosmetics samples and a couple of empty travel bottles. I never used to bother with these sample sachets, but over the last couple of years I've realised how handy they are for travelling. The shampoo and conditioner sachets you get in magazines are particularly useful to take swimming and on your travels; they're so much lighter and cheaper than travel-sized toiletries!

And that's everything that can be found under my dressing table! 

I had intended to make my dressing table tour a three part feature, but I've turned it in to a four-part as I have more still to show you!

I'll be blogging the final part in a couple of days, but in the mean time, you can also catch up on part one and part two of the tour if you'd like to see more of my dressing table.

I hope you've enjoyed this post!

How do you store your accessories, styling tools, and cosmetics?

Dressing Table Tour Part 2: Make Up Storage

I'm back with the second part of my dressing table tour!

Part one of the tour focused on all the pretty trinkets displayed on the dressing table and you can catch up with part one here. Today I'm going to show you how I store my make up.

So, who would like a peek in to my drawers?

My dressing table has three small drawers down one side. Two drawers hold my make up, and the third holds my nail polish collection. Let's take a look!

The top drawer is kept organised by a wooden cutlery tray which I bought in Cargo over a year and a half ago. Cutlery drawers make fantastic make up organisers, and often look much nicer than cheap plastic dividers. They're a lot cheaper, too. This one cost me £8.

On the left are my lip products. I don't have a huge collection of lippy, but I'm gradually building it up. The other three sections, from the back, contain my blushers, mascaras, and base products. In the gaps around the tray are a few lipgloss and lipstick sets, some nail files, and an epilator I haven't used in forever. I love how colourful this drawer is.

Up until a few months ago all my make up had been stored in one drawer- and I miraculously managed to keep it organised. Now I'm looking at these photos and wondering how I did it! I had to expand it to a second drawer at Christmas when I gained several new make up sets and even now it's cramped.

The second drawer is home to my eye make up collection. Most of the palettes are eye make up sets, but there's also a couple of face powder palettes that are too big for the first drawer. I also keep some cleansing wipes, and a mirror to do my make up with in this drawer.

Last week, I got fed up of the disarray and made these dividers out of a sturdy cardboard box that once held chocolates. The box was square, so I cut a section of the lid off to size, and sellotaped it to the end of the square to make a rectangle. I wanted it to fit the length of the drawer to make the best use of the space. I then took another piece of the lid and sellotaped it to the middle of the square to divide it in to two.

I now have an organised make up collection and it didn't cost me a penny! This will probably just be a temporary storage solution until I can purchase another cutlery drawer or drawer tidy, but it's sure worked a treat at keeping my make up tidy!

The front section is home to my liquid and pencil eye liners. The middle and back sections hold my powder eyeshadows, most of which are singles, but there are a few duos and palettes in there, two. Along side the divider are several Inglot, Stila, and Soap and Glory palettes.

I'm addicted to green eye make up, which I'm sure you can tell from the photos, and I love good quality make up products. My favourite make up brand has got to be Inglot, but I like and use both drug store and high end make up brands.

My favourite products are still my gorgeous Inglot eyeshadow palettes. The colours are highly pigmented and I have a rainbow of pretty colours to play with.

And finally, the bottom drawer is home to my nail polish collection, nail art pens, and tools. 

I have quite a large collection of polishes; the last time I counted I had more than 110! Oops. I think I may have a nail polish addiction!

I try to keep my nail polishes organised by colour, glitter, and effects, as it makes it easier to locate a particular bottle. This is less organised than it usually is. I need to take it all out, go through them all, throw out the ones which have dried up, and give them a tidy.

The purple pot holds my tools such as a glass nail file, dotting tools, tweezers, manicure scissors and so on. The cupcake is a little manicure set I was given for Christmas.

The drawer isn't the most ideal way of storing my nail polish collection, as it's so easy to forgot about particular colours when they're stored away. I want to get a little display cabinet to hang on the wall above my dressing table where I can display some of my favourites and remind myself to use them, but in the mean time the drawer is more than adequate for keeping them all neat and tidy.

And that is how I store my make up collection!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peek in to my dressing table. I've really enjoyed putting it together.

Look out for part three of my dressing table tour coming soon, when I'll be showing you how I store some of my accessories.

How do you organise your make up and cosmetics? If you've done a post like this, I'd love to see your links!