I Has A Crafty

Ever since I moved into my apartment over a year ago, I have been struggling with organization, particularly in the bathroom.  My old space had a large linen cupboard, and a long countertop where I was able to keep my makeup all sorted into bins, hang my necklaces on pretty scrollwork jewelry organizers, and all kinds of good stuff.  My new place, as much as I love it, has absolutely NO counter space, and nowhere at all to put my beauty junk.  I have hardly worn earrings other than for special occasions, because it is such a pain to dig them out of the bottom of my jewel box.

Since I have no counter space, and no extra room for additional storage, I have been wracking my brain for ideas to maximize the space I do have, and came up with this:

An afternoon of stitching around the edges of some plastic canvas with a bit of acrylic, some ribbon, and I have a handy little earring organizer!

The top part is my favorite bit...Little bows, and I used a decorative brad I had on hand as a hanger.

My local JoAnn's had some 12 x 12 decorative metal squares, and I looked at them a few times, wondering what on earth they could be used for...

Slap a few magnets on the backs of some makeup containers, and it's handy cosmetics storage!  (And you get a cookie if you notice the reflection of my little paw in one of the eyeshadow cases  :D )

Done and done, the bathroom counter is cleared!

Lipstick Chemistry

Many, many moons ago I worked as a cosmetician, but since then I have definitely fallen into a makeup rut. I like what I like, I do minimal makeup on a daily basis, and my Fancy Party Makeup has been the same for years.  But that doesn't stop me from BUYING ALL THE THINGS, because you know the advertising that tells me I will be rich, beautiful and admired if I wear Such And Such brand is all trufax.

This leads me to my makeup collection, which contains maybe 30+ lipsticks, at least half of which I bought, tried once, and realized the color was terrible or not what it appeared to be in the tube.  And throwing them all out just seemed like a giant waste of money.  Then I realized lipstick melts in your car on a hot day, so could I recycle all those icky lippies and make a color I would actually like?

I grabbed up all those old, weird colored lipsticks, as well as a couple that had been favorites and were now all used up except for bits down in the bottom of the tube.

I actually used an old dental pick I had lying around to pry the product from the tube, but something like a tiny spatula would have been much better for scraping out the very bottom of the lipstick case.  Some of the info I found online mentioned using a double boiler, but I am an impatient person, so after emptying all the lipstick out into a small jar...

I melted it in the microwave.

You don't want to boil it, or get it so hot that it burns or separates, so I just did short 15 second bursts, three times, and stirred it between each go-round.

It is really important (and I can't stress this enough) that once it is melted, put it into the container immediately.  And when I say 'immediately' I mean ZOMFGS HURRY HURRY HURRY!  The first one I did is still useable, but it is super-messy and lumpy.  Your new lipstick will pour right out of the jar easily, provided it is still very hot.

I ended up with this:

From a bunch of unwearable orangey-reds, a pink that looked like cotton candy (ugh), and some tans...AWESOME!  :D

I didn't do any real measurements, but here's the list of colors I used:

L'Oreal Timeless Tawny
Cover Girl Toasted Almond
Revlon Natural Cocoaberry
Revlon Blackberry
Revlon Smoky Violet
Revlon Mulled Wine
Clinique (unknown pink)

Google tells me you can also add a stick of lip balm to make a sheer color, or throw in one of those lipsticks with sparkle to jazz things up a bit...You could even go raid the bargain lipsticks at the drugstore and make your own custom colors!

Imma need more containers...  ;)