My New Makeup Set Up

Hey everyone! Today I'm sharing my updated makeup set up! So I've been playing around with my makeup set up for a few years now because I'm never quite 100% satisfied. I've had the MALM vanity table from IKEA for about two years and while I love it, I was starting to outgrow it. I was putting more and more stuff on top of the vanity to make space in the drawer and it looked a little too cluttered to my liking. So I went out and got the ALEX 9 drawer system by IKEA. I know, not very original. Everyone and their mother has this thing, but it's really perfect for my needs. Anyhow, here's how it all looks now.

In case you were wondering, I moved all my hair products to the bathroom which is where I do my hair anyway. The rainbow unit is now used for school supplies/arts and crafts storage.

I set out all my perfumes on a little glittery tray on top of the drawer unit. (the tray is from Dollorama) The perfumes used to be inside a drawer, but I always forgot to put it on. Now it's right in my face when I get ready! I also put all of my perfume samples in a cute bowl so that I can use these up too (also from Dollorama). Last, I have a dish that contains all my earrings (from IKEA).

I've put away any brushes I don't use regularly and consolidated all my brushes into two pots instead of three. This way, the top of my vanity is less cluttered and I have more space to work with.

The drawer is now completely reserved for my main obsession : eyeshadow! I've kept the ice cube tray system for my singles and use a plastic drawer organizer from IKEA to hold my small palettes. The large palettes are on the left side and are all easy to grab. I've decided this was the easiest and safest way to store my palettes. While it does take up a lot of room (which I don't mind), it's out of the reach of my cats, which like to rub themselves on stuff and send them flying to the floor. I've had this happen in the past (thankfully it was an inexpensive palette), but I do not wish to live through that again. So now they're tucked away and safe in a drawer!

This is the nail drawer. I keep in here anything that pertains to nails that isn't nail polish. 

Here's the bracelet/watch drawer. I really love my arm candy so I've got a bunch in here. The divider is from IKEA.

Here's the liner, base and mascara drawer. It's divided to help me find what I'm looking for easily. I'm not 100% happy with this drawer yet. I find that there is a lot of wasted space and the products are stacked on top of each other so this might change in the future.

The powder drawer is on of the fullest and also one of my favorites. I've divided it in categories. Face powder, bronzer, highlighter and blush.

I'm so glad I can finally fit my nail polishes into a drawer! It's probably one of my favorite drawers just because of that! Now everything fits and is easy to find. There isn't a whole lot of place for my collection to expand though. I think it will be fine though since I haven't been buying much nail polish recently.

The lip drawer is also one of my favorites. Since the drawer is deep, I can fit my lipstick holders in there so the drawer is super organised! Everything is easy to find and I'm really happy about the way this one turned out.

Another drawer that I really love is the foundation and skin care drawer. I'm not that big of a fan of the way everything is organised at the moment, but I love that everything skin related is in the same spot. I have all my foundation, sponges, bases, concealers and skin care in here so everything is handy when I do my face.

There is two other drawers, but one is just full of cottons pads, face wipes, q-tips, that sort of thing. The last one is a junk/false lashes drawer which looks terrible at the moment. I'll try and make them look better eventually and I'll show you then!

So that's it for my new makeup set up! If you are interested, you can also check out my older set ups here, here and here. Hope you all enjoyed :) Have a great day!

January 2014 Beauty Favorites

Hey everyone! It's time for my first monthly favorite post of 2014! I'm sorry this is a little late, but better late than never right? I don't have much time to write this since I have to be out the door in 30 minutes so lets get right to it!

January 2014 Favorites

♥ Goody TangleFix Brush - Does a pretty good job of detangling my hair and it's supposed to be less damaging than regular brushes so you can use it on wet hair! I like how compact it is as well, very travel friendly!

♥ Bioderma Sensibio H2O - Always a favorite, but I've been particularly loving this lately. I've been using it day and night and my skin is better than ever.

♥ Twilight Woods Triple Moisture Body Cream - I don't know I moisturizing this really is in comparison to other lotions, but this smells incredible. I could smell it all day long. Thinking of getting the body spray!

♥ Shiseido Facial Cottons - These a little more expensive so at first I was skeptical, but they are so soft and they aren't scratchy. Now I don't want to use anything else.

♥ Cover Girl Outlast Stay Fabulous Foundation - Great coverage, doesn't look dry on the skin and amazing staying power.

♥ Lush Body Wash in The Olive Branch : I got this in a Christmas set from Lush. The citrus/orange smell is amazing and it lathers really nicely. You have to use a loofa with this though because it's very liquidy and will get used up very quickly if you use anything else. Also, I'm sad it's such a small bottle :(

♥ ZA Total Hydration Energy Mist - I ran out of my Urban Decay Setting Spray so I've been using this a ton for setting my makeup and making sure it isn't powdery. Not sure how much it helps for staying power, but it definitely helps tame the powder look. It feels refreshing also, which is very nice.

♥ Quo Blending Sponge - I think I mentioned this in the past. It's great for foundations that are fuller coverage or heavier in consistency. It really works wonders with the Cover Girl foundation. Gives a flawless, but really natural finish.

♥ Sally Hansen Vita-B Lip Moisturizer - Not sure if you can get this anymore, but these are really slick and pleasant on the lips. Almost the only thing that doesn't accentuate the flakes on my lips when my lips are at their worst.

♥ Batiste Dry Shampoo in Blush - I've been using dry shampoo a whole lot more recently. I love the texture that it gives to my hair, which is normally very flat. The regular Batiste dry shampoo is always a good choice since it works well and smells quite nice.

♥ Avène Tolérance Extrême Cream - This is designed for hypersensitive and allergy prone skin, which I is exactly my skin type. It's very moisturizing and thick (I'd say if you're oily you should stay away) and it's perfect for my skin, especially in the winter. I haven't got dry patches since I've been using this. I have to mention though that I absolute HATE the packaging. It's horrible and impossible to handle, I hope they will change it.

♥ Glysomed Hand Cream -  Still the best hand cream I have ever tried. I've mentionned it so many times that I'm not going to review all over again :P

♥ Bonne Bell Liplites in Pink Candy Cane - love this color, it smells and tastes like vanilla and it's not sticky, love it! I don't think they sell this exact flavour anymore, but they've got a bunch of other ones that look just as nice.

♥ NYX Buttergloss in Éclair - This gloss has a great opacity and it super comfortable on the lips, not at all sticky. The color I have is Éclair, a cool toned pink which looks very nice on. I wish I had gotten more of those though, because they are great and the color selection is quite large.

♥ Quo Eyelash Curlers - Not only are these super pretty and pink, they also work really well with my lashes and they only cost 5$.

♥ Wet n Wild Color Icon Bronzer in Reserve your Cabana - This is an highlighting powder (even tough it's called bronzer), but the shimmer is very subtle so instead I use it as an all over powder when I want to preserve the dewyness of my foundation. It's not great at keeping shine at bay, but it gives a really soft glowy look to the skin.

♥ L'Oréal Infallible Shadow in Amber Rush - I love the texture of this shadow and how pigmented it is. I apply it with my fingers for the best color payoff. The color is just sublime.

♥ Nivea Lip Butter in Raspberry Rosé Kiss - You have to be careful with this one. If you're lips are too chapped, the white color of the product will only make it stand out more. Otherwise if you're lips are just a little dehydrated this is perfect, it soft, hydrating and the smell is out of this world.

♥ Urban Decay Naked Palette - I didn't get this until this Christmas because I thought I didn't necessarily need it and because it's kind of expensive. My boyfriend got it for me for Christmas and now I realize how much I was wrong! It might be my favorite of the Naked Palettes. I love the warm tones and the color selection. Such a great palette!

♥ Maybelline Define-a-Brow Eyebrow Pencil in Dark Blonde - I always thought brow pencils would look harsh on my barely there brows, but I was completly taken by surprise by how much I love this. It's much quicker and easier than powder (and a whole lot less messy). Since the pencil is a bit waxy, it also holds the brows a little bit. Also, dark blonde is just perfect for my brows. Loving it!

♥ Tarte C-Brightener Maracuja Eye Treatment -  I don't know much about eye cream since I ever only tried 2 different kinds. However, I must say that I much prefer this rich creamy consistency to the gel formula that I was using before. I have dry under eyes and this helps my concealer glide on. Great discovery, but I'm not sure I'll repurchase considering the 40$ price tag.

New Lipstick Storage

My other favorite for this one is my new lipstick storage! I got the acrylic holders at Dollorama for 2$ each. I think it looks bright and pretty and it helps me see exactly what I got at a super affordable price! Very glad I got these.

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That's all for my january favorites! What are your favorites for this month? Let me know in the comments :)

*Quick Update* - In case you were wondering about how I'm doing with the 10$/week project, well I still haven't got any new makeup since the beginning of 2014! I'm thinking of getting the Nars Laguna/Orgasm duo soon though. It's 55$ here in Quebec, which means I have to wait at least 6 weeks before I can get it. The 6th week of the year started yesterday, so I'm right on track! I'll let you know if I end up buying it!

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Home Organisation : Closet Tour

Hey everyone! Ever since I moved to this new place in June, I've been really into organisation and making everything look pretty in here. Since I love everything to have its place, I've been moving things around a little and now I'm quite pleased with how and where everything is. In case you all are also interested in home organisation, I decided to share with you all how I organize my clothes inside my walk-in closet! (by the way I'm still super excited to have a walk-in lol). 

It's quite a small closet though so I don't keep all of my clothes in there. The most exciting thing about it is that it connects the bedroom to the bathroom which is quite handy! Anyway, on with the tour.

Here's the left side of my closet

On the top shelf, I keep my chair cushion and my weekend bag, which is currently filled with my plushies because I don't want them to get dusty.

On the floor underneath my clothes, I keep 2 drawer units and 2 filing boxes which have important papers in them. I'll go more into detail about the left drawer unit's content later on in this post, but the drawer unit or the right has my pjs in them. I like to keep my pjs there because it's close to the bathroom, which means easy access when I get out of the shower!

On this side, I keep all my casual bulky sweaters and hoodies. I keep them color coded because I think it looks nicer. I also like to keep them all on identical hangers. 

This is the drawer unit on the left. Actually it's two units stacked, as you can see. In the top one, I keep arts and crafts supplies. On top of that, I keep my camera case and my tripod which is not there at the moment since I was using it while I was taking the pictures.

Underneath I have another larger drawer unit which contains bulky socks (fuzzy socks and wool socks, because apparently I have so many of them that they require their own drawer :P, I guess it's because it gets really cold here and I hate to have cold feet, lol), tights, leg warmers, scarves and bathing suits.

This is the right side of the closet

On the top shelf, I keep three white bins (from Dollorama), a blue shoe box (I've had it for years, couldn't tell you where I got it) and a white floral fabric from IKEA. In the two first bins, I keep candles and spare empty makeup bags. In the third bin I keep old Christmas cards which I have kept over the years. In the blue shoe box, I have keepsakes of all kinds and in the IKEA box I keep my nail polish collection. I'm not happy with my nail polish set up at the time, because it's a little too difficult to access, but it's all I have at the moment. I'm thinking of investing in a Alex 9 Drawer by IKEA and storing my makeup and polishes in there eventually, but it's quite expensive so I'm waiting a while longer.

On the floor underneath my clothes, I keep my empty suitcase, a container filled with art and school supplies as well as my clothes hamper. 

On this side of the closet, I keep all my jeans, work pants, work tops and dresses. I keep my jeans and pants ordered by color and the dresses almost, as much as I can, but it's not as easy since some of them have multiple colors. I also tried having all identical hangers, but I ran out, so I have to make due with two sets for now since I can't find the turquoise one anywhere anymore.

I also have my two lab coats and my bath robe on there. Which is super boring and I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, ahah.

Finally, on the wall over the hamper, I installed three hooks (from Dollorama) which I use to store all my necklaces. I divide them by color and length as you can see.

That's all that is in my closet! Hope you enjoyed this tour/organisation post! Let me know if you would like to see more posts like these!

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Updated Makeup Storage/Organization

Hey everyone! If you've been following my Facebook page recently, you probably know that I have moved to a new apartment at the end of June. So far, I love this new place so much and I have lots more space and light now :)

Just before I moved, I got a new vanity to store all my makeup (you might already have seen a picture of my preliminary setup at the old apartment on Facebook). Now I have it all organised and I also have better lighting! I'm really excited about the set up and the way I organised everything so I thought I would show you.

All my makeup fits in the vanity's drawer. In the drawer unit, I store hair products, tools and accessories as well as bracelets, extra skin care, etc.

That's my makeup collection in its entirety. I divide everything using small plastic baskets of different shapes and sizes. Lips stuff is on the far left, then eye makeup is in the middle and finally face makeup is on the right.

As you can see, I store all my lipsticks upright so that I can find them easily. I used to stack them on top of each other, but I had to dig through every time I was looking for something and I would forget about some of the products I had. The bins in the back are filled with products that I reach for less often. 

I keep all my makeup brushes in 3 different cups. I have one for my face brushes (furthers back), one for my eye brushes and one for the brushes with a short handle (mostly Eco Tools brushes). I also use a small plain drinking glass to store my pencils and liners.

I use a decorative glass plate to display my most used skin care and body sprays. I use a cute floral napkin holder to store my large eye shadow palettes. As you can see, I also like to keep a box of tissues on my vanity to wipe off my brushes or any mistakes that I may make while applying makeup.

Finally, I use another decorative glass bowl to keep my earrings.

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Where I got everything

♥ I got the vanity, the mirror, the chair, the cushion, the lace brush holder and all the decorative plates as well as my palette holder (which is a napkin holder in reality) at Ikea so I think that most of you could probably have access to it if you wanted to recreate a set up similar to mine.

♥ I got all the dividing baskets and both plastic brush holders at the dollar store.

♥ I got the lighting fixture at Canadian Tire, but I've seen similar ones at Walmart and Ikea.

♥ I got the rainbow drawer unit at Costco and you can easily find it online on amazon or ebay.

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That's my whole makeup set up! Let me know what you think of it and how you store yours!

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My Affordable Beauty Storage : Makeup, Nails, Hair and Accessories Organisation Tips and Ideas!

Today I'm back with a post about beauty products organisation! I love to have everything organised in my home so I have been perfecting my makeup, nail, hair and accessories storage system ever since I started getting into makeup a few years ago.

I'm relatively pleased with how things are organised at the moment, so I thought I'd show you all how it looks along with a few tips and tricks I have picked up along the way to store everything neatly. Right now, everything is easy to reach and I can find what I'm looking for super quickly. It looks nice (in my opinion at least :P) and it's efficient! Do you have any makeup storage tips for me? Let me know in the comment section! ♥

Full Set Up

A few things you need to know about my set up :

- The white dresser does not contain any beauty products. It's just my clothes in there.

- I don't have a very big collection of beauty products. My full makeup collection fits within the first three drawers of the rainbow tower. Everything else is other beauty related items.

- Most of my nail polish is is the pink basket on top of the dresser. For reference, it can contain about 50 polishes (but they are tightly packed in there). I got the pink basket at Dollorama.

- All of the dividers that are inside the drawers were bought at the dollar store as well.

The vast majority of the stuff I use for organisation is very affordable and budget friendly.

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Rainbow tower

This rainbow tower contains all my makeup, nail tools, hair accessories, skin care and hot tools. I got it at Costco for 35$ It's great for keeping organised and it's super cheap :)

At the top, I keep :

- my light up double sided mirror

-a cute box (from the dollar store) which I store rarely used nail polish in

- my everyday skin care items : moisturizer  spot treatment, eye cream, lip scrub, eyelash curlers, body splash, eye makeup remover, hand lotion.

Dresser top

This is what I keep on my dresser. 

- I keep my makeup brushes in three vases I got from the dollar store filled with small plastic bead to help the brushes stand up.

- I keep my large palettes in a clear plastic file sorter from, you guessed it : the dollar store!

 Necklace organisation and clear tower

In the second white and clear tower, I keep hair products and tools plus travel sized items. I got this storage system at Walmart for 30$.

At the top I keep :

- 2 Double sided mirrors (both from the dollar store)

- My makeup wipes in their plastic container

- Cotton buds in a glass jar from the Dollar Store

-  Cotton Balls in an empty  Bath and Body Works candle which I recycled

- A small 8X magnifying mirror

As you can see, this is also where I keep my necklace collection. In order to help me find what I'm looking for quickly and to keep the necklaces from tangling up, I keep them on small nails that I have attached to the wall. They are divided by length and color.

This storage idea couldn't be more simple and cost-effective! It only costs 4 nails (so I'm guessing no more than a few pennies) and it looks cute on display like that!

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Now let's have a look at what's inside the drawers!

 ♥ First up is my eye makeup drawer! ♥

As you can see, I have divided this drawer using three plastic baskets. I have left one portion of the drawer empty to fit larger items. 

First basket : Liners and bases

Second basket : Mascaras

Third basket : Eyeshadow singles

To the side I have larger eye shadow duos, quads, small palettes, etc. I also keep my lashes and eyelash glue there.

 ♥ Lips drawer ♥

You can easily spot my lip balm addiction here :P

I have divided this drawer using 4 baskets.

First basket : Lipbalms (there is more than one layer of lip balm and it could fit another one easily)
Second basket : Lip sticks (also has two layers of products)
Third basket : Glosses
Fourth basket : Lip balms in a pot and backups

Super easy and neat looking, in my opinion :)

♥ Face drawer ♥

These pink dividers a a little different from my grey ones but they are also from the Dollar store. The small long ones are 3 for 1$ and the large rectangular one is 1$.

The baskets aren't exactly divided by type of product, more by the size and shape of the products. As you can see, the third basket contains small round products while the fourth has concealers and primers mostly.

 ♥ Bracelet drawer ♥

In this drawer, I squeezed four long and thin dividers.

First basket : Watches (mostly my boyfriend's watches)

Second basket : Fabric/string bracelets

Third basket : Stretchy bracelets

Fourth basket : Bangles

♥ Nails Drawer ♥

Again, different dividers, but also from the Dollar Store. These clear ones were a tad more expensive, but still not over 1$ a piece. The are also longer than the other plastic kinds. I love that they are clear they look very nice and clean.

First basket : Nail art plates, nail art stamp and scraper, buffing blocks, nail clippers, nails files, nail polish thinner.
Second basket : Cotton rounds, cotton swabs, pure acetone and toes separators
Third basket : Rhinestones, sponges, tweezers.

This is my least favorite drawer because it's a little messy looking in my opinion. Please let me know if you have any ideas for improving on this one :)

 ♥ Skin care drawer ♥

For this drawer, since product size vary so much and since some products are quite big, I couldn't find a proper way to place them into baskets. Instead, I chose to place an anti-slip fabric at the bottom so the products don't roll around when opened. 

The drawer is a little empty looking right now because I'm working on using some of these products!

♥ Beauty Tools drawer ♥

In here I keep makeup sponges, cosmetic cotton swabs, backup makeup wipes and perfume samples (inside the pink makeup bag - which is from the dollar store). Not very exciting, but you gotta put these things somewhere right?

♥ Bath and Body Works drawer ♥

Right now it's pretty empty looking, because I'm working on using up my products. I haven't been to Bath and Body Works in a few months! This drawer is divided with four baskets, three thin and one square.

First basket : Hand sanitizers

Second basket : Spare wallflower with recharges.

Third basket : Backup body splash

Fourth basket : Empty at the moment

♥ Hair accessories drawer ♥

In this drawer, I keep all of my hair accessories. This is the only way that I have found that is neat and organised to keep them. Otherwise I keep loosing all my hair ties and my clips. I think this looks very nice and clean and it's probably one of the drawers I am most happy with. I can always find what I'm looking for uber quickly.

First basket : Large hair clips

Second basket : Small hair clips and bobby pins

Third basket : Hair ties

Fourth basket : Headbands

 ♥ Hair tools drawer ♥

This is where I keep all of my hot tools. A great tip that I picked up from my mother is to keep the cords inside an empty toilet paper roll. It's not the cutest thing, but it helps keep the cords organised and protected. That way you're not damaging them by twisting them around the straightener. It also doesn't cost anything which is brilliant!

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Second tower

♥ First hair products drawer ♥

In this drawer, I keep my hair products which are in large cans or bottles.

 ♥ Second hair products drawer ♥

In this second drawer I keep smaller hair products.

♥ Hair brushes and combs drawer ♥

In this drawer I keep all of my brushes and combs. I have one basket which I put all the combs and small travel sized brushes in. For the brushes I like to put them side by side, but facing different directions so that the larger part of the brush isn't always on the same side. That way, I can save space and cram more brushes into the same amount of space.

I skipped two drawers after that because they just contain rubbish pretty much XD

♥ Travel sized products drawer ♥

Nothing too fancy in here. This is just where I keep all of my travel sized products and bottles. 

 ♥ Candles drawer ♥

Last but not least, this is my candles drawer (and the reason why I'm trying to finish off products before I go to Bath and Body Works again :P).

That's it for my affordable beauty storage tips! I hope you enjoyed this post and that it was helpful! I hope that it gave ideas to those of you who are still trying to figure out inexpensive ways to store your products!

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My Packing List Series : Part 4 (Travel Essentials)

Here comes the fourth part of the packing list : travel essentials. This category includes all other items which are necessary when backpacking!

My Packing List Series : Part 3 (Fashion)

This is the third part of my packing mini-series : fashion and accessories. These are all the clothes I am bringing with me backpacking for a two months trip. So far, this has always been plenty for me, meaning I didn't have to do the laundry too often and had quite a lot to choose for, but didn't have a super heavy pack.

Hope this helps :)

My Packing List Series : Part 2 (First Aid)

This is the second instalment of my mini packing series : First Aid. Here is all I bring with me for health purposes on backpacking trips. Hope this helps! Also, this is probably the category which evolved the most this year because of my pharmacy training. That means there were quite a couple things missing on here already. If I have forgotten anything important, please leave a comment below letting me know! It would help me a lot :)