The Makeup Bandit

Hello!

I’m going to start this blog entry off with a little story..

 Once upon a time when I first started going to shoots, fashion shows etc, I thought it was a grand idea to bring every piece of makeup I owned with me. [I am a person who believes ‘Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,’ but I took it to the max.] I think I had about 50 pounds of makeup shoved into a Seya bag. It was great and all, but one day I was at a shoot and both elevators broke down as well as the freight elevator. We were on the 26th floor…

After hauling a 50 pound bag of makeup down 26 flights of stairs, I decided to learn my lesson and start being choosey with what I was taking with me. Problem is, cosmetic companies tend to create extravagant packaging for one tiny object. They also tend to make them random irregular shapes. I’m talking rhinestones, lights, plastic everywhere, dangly thinger ma bobbers..

COME ON. Give me a screw on cap and I am golden, no need to make it a game of tetris people.

1. Since most of my cosmetics were singles and I wanted them in palettes, I depotted ALL of my shadows.

**MAC Shadow palettes also fit Urban Decay and Lorac singles in them perfectly. All you need is to pop out the surrounding casing, use a lighter underneath the plastic holding the shadow for around 8 seconds and boom! It’ll pop right out and into the palette**

2. Who needs separate lipstick tubes? It takes time to open em, look at the color, close em, find the ones you need. BAH! Drives me crazy and you end up wasting precious time you could be applying. Solution? Break off and scoop out all the lipstick into a small rubber container. Put in microwave for 45 seconds - 1 minute. Pour into a pill box and BOOM! Done :)

**Make sure to properly clean between each client and throw these out every 1 and 1/2 years as most lipsticks go bad 2 years after opening.**

3. Lashes fit perfectly in pill boxes! Do it! It cut down on twenty boxes that I used to carry around.

4. Lip glosses in an art box! Art Boxes are no longer for only for children. (:

5. Remember pencil cases? So do I! I store my lip pencils in the front and mascara/eye liner in the larger pocket.

6. Too many stick/cream foundations? Japonesque sells an empty double palette. Scoop out the foundations and pack em right in there! DO NOT HEAT THEM - I did this and it melted the plastic container when I poured the hot foundation in. Whoops!! ;)

7. Do you find yourself asking - WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY POWDERS?! Solution: Depot them in the same manner as the eyeshadows, then hot glue them to a piece of thick foam board. Cut to fit whatever sized container you have. (I used an artists container that was on sale at a craft store for $2. I got pastels, oils, brushes etc AND a powder palette container.) WINNING!

So now I carry around a tackle box & a cross body (for airbrush) and thats all! Broken elevators? Walking up hill both ways in 6 ft of snow? I’m ready for it!!

Until next time!

TMB