Er, except minus the whole 80's hair/make-up.. Thing. :P


Edited to add two photos of my face.





I seem to have a lot of red and blue samples.. Perhaps I should let you guys in on my secret I call my "Laundry Room." Ok, it really is my laundry room, but it is simultaneously where all the make-up magic happens.



Top left to right:
Full 1PL Glissade, halfsize Rococo (and sample), full silk powder, half size metamorphosis, baby buki brush, sponge (needs to be washed), Pure Cover #1 and #9, 2CL Glissade sample, Nocturne sample, Pout sample, Wallflower sample, melancholia sample, lollypop sample, full size Sassy and Lollypop, Samples: Moon, Psyche, zero, room service, suede, sabine, spellbound, orchid, wine, anqelique, pretty vacant, velvet goldmine, ringoffire, helterskelter, caribe, planetearth, londondungeon (which I would give to someone who really wanted it since I have a FS of it.) Full size shadows: mystere 106, londondungeon, destinationunknown, moonagedaydream, endlesssea, peekaboo, agentorange, hothothot (I don't like much but I used that coupon code so it's not really a big deal. I figure I can use it in my hair or with something stickier than the liquid stuff that I am forgetting the name of that I have in this picture...)

Holy WOW I have lots! Sheesh!! haha. Anywho. I guess I don't have any pink except for anqelique.

So that's what I've got to work with, here at least.

I just ordered these colors:

asphalt _sparkly black_ (HITC-full)
taintedlove (Rocks!- full)
HITC samples:
coney island
italian ice (yellow)
girl's night out
late for work (blue)
rooftop garden (green)
Pure Hue - Brocade

(And I ordered the brush that was/is on sale. I've had a good amount of orders for my own personal business, so I had money in my PayPal that was burning a hole in my digital pocket! Oooh, burning digi-pocket you are the death of me!)

Anyway. That's what I've got going on. Let me know of any colors you are DYING to see me put on. :P

Also, I am apparently responsible for the challenge coming up and hope you all are ready. It will surely be exciting.

<3Carolyn!

Oh, yeah, forgot to show you guys the actual horrorshow that is my laundry room on a daily basis. :P I fished out all my samples and everything I own from AL in order to create the first pic I posted. :P




Also, I will take any tips on organizing my cosmetics!! Kind of like an organizing make-over and facial make-over all in one!!

Are you on the Aromaleigh Anonymous group on FB? If so, you need to check it out. We post trades and all sorts of groovy things there. There are some pics of others' stashes and organizers on that page and in the forum if you search. (Zhariel's is way cool, BTW. And Robyn has a nice set-up, too.) I don't have mine on FB because my set-up does not nearly rise to the level of awesomeness obtained by other AL Afficionadas. But for fun, here is my humble set-up:

My Binder:


My Organizer:


The drawer thing is a Sterlite organizer from Target. The box holding cotton balls and Kabuki brushes on top is from Ikea. I am just lucky they matched. In front of that (which you can barely see in the photo) is where I mix my colors... a $2 watercolor palette from an art store

You are so funny! I love the pics of your laundry-cosmetics ward (or room!) It doesn't "hamper" your beauty at all!


I'll have to think on the colors for you to try a bit more... Hmmm.

-Melissa

Nice stash! For sample size organization, many ladies here use three ring binders with 2x2 slide holders or baseball card holders. (It took me so long to post this with pics & links, by the time I got it up Sioux had already shown you some great examples!!)



You can get them at office supply stores, WalMart, Target, all the usual places.

For storing your fullsizes, some ladies like train cases, others use fishing tackle boxes, an empty drawer, and Sterilite containers. WalMart/Target carries lots of different types of Sterilite containers, from countertop drawers to carts.

countertop drawers pictured below - they come in a wide variety of sizes.


Zhariel recently got a really pretty pink organizer!
She talked about it here.

I use a wide 7 drawer cart I got at WalMart
for $30 last year. I bought a second one to hold some of my son's toys too, they work great for so many things. My cart is in my bathroom closet, I took the bottom 2 large drawers off and keep them under my bed with other things in them. This makes it not so tall (it's 39 1/2" tall with all drawers), so my husband can get into the closet and get to things without my cart being in the way. I took the wheels off my previous Sterilite cart and stuck them on this one, so I can roll it right out of the closet if I need to.

That may seem big, but it will hold your collection as it grows, as well as anything else. I keep my facial stuff (makeup remover, cleansers, moisturizers, sunscreen) in the bottom drawer of mine right now. I used to keep hair stuff in a drawer but moved it out as my collection grew.

I certianly am on the FB group! I posted there about my extra londongdungeon (I keep trying to spell it like this: "lundondungeon" lol).

I am excited about organizing my stash. I really really need something like what Zhariel has for her brushes. Thankfully there is a Storables store where I live that has everything for everything to store anything. :P

I have some of those Sterilite thingies but was using them for other things. I think perhaps I should empty them of their nothingness and go have fun with my make-up! :P

My boyfriend and I are moving to a larger apartment (2 bed/1ba, yes, believe me, I tried to get that 2bed/2ba but he was so resilient!) and hopefully I will have more room to have a good little space for my make-ups and things. It will be nice to be organized before we move, so I better get a move on!

Thank you again. Maybe I should add a picture of my face/coloring/etc. It was late so I forgot that part. :P

I haven't figured out how to post a picture, but I found a business card wheel made by Real Simple. It's great for travel and holds about 15 samples in the business card sleeves. I also found a fabric covered business card holder that holds about six on each page and has about 15 pages. I've filled it up. I did find that it was easier to put the samples in the sleeves if I used double sided tape to stick the samples to a business card. I bought some blank cards that are used to print your own business cards. I just saw a pink rotary rolodex that I am considering for my make up area.

Alrighty, here is an idea (since I know you aren't afraid of color ) :

Line your eyes with londondungeon (one of my fav.s!)
use rooftop garden on your lid
use caribe in your crease, add londondungeon to darken outer crease (I'd definitely recommend that you add some navy/darker blue to your stash, my top picks being midnight matte, cobalt and peacoat pure hues)
pout for your lippie
meta all over
either use melancholia as a cream blush, or dust some wine shadow on your cheeks for blush

So I basically based this look around using rooftop garden and londondugeon together. Other than using those two colors together, feel free to do what you want! Hope you like it!

Oooohh! That sounds fantastic!! I will try it when I get my order.. I want to go check the mail right now!

So, when you do liner, what do you do if the shadow you're putting on your lid starts covering up the liner...? I haven't mastered the technique of lining with shadow, either. hehe.

Yay, glad you like it! I'd do the lid color first, then do the liner using sealant (use a ratio of about 2:1 shadow to sealant, premixing the stuff in the shadow cap or any flat surface-- just make sure to wash and dry of the shadow cap after use). I only do the liner first if I want the lid color to mix with the liner color (usually if I am using a gel liner, I want my lid color to go over the gel liner). Sorry a/b that, the order in which I listed things isn't exactly the order of application I'd use!

Hehe, it's ok. I think I am pretty good as asking questions.. And I have been struggling with that question quietly for a while now..

So, just fyi, no one really taught me how to use make-up, I just watched my mom and didn't do what she did. :P Also, I tried to watch my friends or their sisters in order get a good idea of how... But now with the internet I can watch random strangers do their make-up! Yay!

Thanks again, Tally. I will go check the mail and hope that it's here!

Haha, that's pretty much how I learned how to do my makeup too. With the exception of getting made up at a counter once in Macy's when I was 14. I do my mom's makeup now since I am better at it than she is!

Me too! Especially when we're going to a party or something together. (Yes we party together. )

I remember doing her makeup once and she had lots of compliments.