beautyorbread: Makeup Storage Solution

Helmer, and on top of Helmer is my makeup which I reach for on a daily basis

Hong Kong isn't an easy place to live in (or even surviving in) I'm telling you, it is definitely not for the faint-hearted. I don't have the luxury of living in a spacious flat anymore, spaces in Hong Kong are limited, everywhere.

My room is small, which I shared with Mr Holiday. Before I moved back here, I was worried about storage available for all my beauty stash. Honestly, my makeup collection has grown so much, the quantity has reached to an 'abormal' level.

Luckily, I have a petite but well functioned dressing table. However, what's lacking is a storage for all my makeup. I went to Ikea, of course that's where you would go when looking for furnitures. Tell you a little secret, I've made at least 6 trips to Ikea in the first 2 weeks after I arrived in Hong Kong, crazy eh?

My dressing table and makeup storage stack in my very humble room

I kept looking and looking; then rediscovered this white, office looking stack of drawers-on-wheels. Hang on a minute, I have one (but in red) in London already - I didn't use it for any beauty-related things, it was merely a stack of drawers to hold 'equipments and bits and bobs' like spare light bulbs, screwdrivers, hammer, etc. How boring is that!

But, ladies and gentlemen, can I introduce to you Helmer?

Helmer is available in red and white, the size is 28x69 cm with 6 generous sized drawers and cost a reasonable £25.

I know that in the beauty blogger world, Alex is a much more popular choice, a bigger (36 x 115cm) and with more drawers, 9 instead of 6; but costs a lot more at £90.

I also love Helmer the fact that the shape is sleek and fits with smaller flat environment. Helmer is on wheels so you can swirl it around easier if you need to. Also it's provided with small pieces of paper you can label the content of each drawer as you can see in the pictures above.

I have filled up all 6 compartments and found the spaces very easy to work with.

I put my daily makeup brushes, mascaras, eyeliner and eyebrow products, blushers and some eye products that I reach for on a daily basis; on top of Helmer for easier access (as you can see in pictures above). I would then switch up these products with what I have in my drawer.

On the first drawer, I put in all my base products - foundations, tinted moisturisers, primers, sponges and eyeliner pencil sharpeners. I am also a fan of Muji so I put my products in desk storage organisers from Muji so that the content looks more organised.

On the second drawer, I have all my lip products in the front for easier and more visible presentation when I open the drawer, and at the back I have some bigger palettes and some miscellaneous eye products. All of which I put them into my empty birch boxes!

Then comes up my favourite drawer, my crazy amount of blushers, and a small collection of eye shadows and palettes. I stole the idea from my sister who has also recently organised her makeup collection. She used one of those empty iphone boxes to hold some of her makeup.

Like so, it holds like a dream! Not only does it fit perfectly with my blusher drawer, it also saves me a bit of money on buying more trays whilst recycling these very sturdy and high quality iphone empty boxes!

Then comes on my nail products drawer. Although not highly organised/ colour coordinated, it is big enough to hold all my nail products and I can find my favourite colours to wear quite easily. At the back of the drawer, I put all of the stick-on fake nails as well.