Spring Clean Your Beauty Space

MELANIE CHARLTON FASCITELLI, DOING WHAT SHE DOES BEST.

When it comes to organizing a closet, no one does it better than Melanie Charlton Fascitelli. Her wildly successful organizing company, Clos-ette (http://www.clos-ette.com) is the one-stop shop for the who’s who of Hollywood and Manhattan’s elite. Her latest endeavor, a line of closet accessories (http://www.clos-ettetoo.com), has already reached cult status amongst her adoring clients. Fans of Melanie’s services include Jay-Z, Eva Longoria, Liv Tyler, Drew Barrymore, Phil Collins, Sting, and Julianna Margulies.

So, as it comes time to spring-clean our beauty cabinets, who better to call on for advice than the queen of organization herself? Here, Melanie gives us her top 10 tips for re-organizing your bathroom space. After all, isn’t the essence of spring about chucking the old to make way for the new?

• Always look for expiration dates on makeup. Goopy nail polish must go, and toss mascara bought three months ago—those are no-brainers.

• Use drawer liners for the bottom of drawers and shelves to keep messy makeup from spilling on them.

• Use drawer dividers to help you organize your makeup and give everything a place. We design these ourselves at my firm, Clos-ette, but for the non custom stuff, we love The Container Store.

• Organize your make up the same way you organize your clothes: keep like things together. Brushes with brushes. Lipsticks with lipsticks. Mascaras with mascaras. Face creams and washes together…

• If it is his-and-hers or a shared bath, try to keep a division. Figure out who needs how much space, and divide up the space. Fair is fair: the one with the most stuff should win the war of the space.

• Invest in apothecary jars to hold cotton balls, Q-tips, soaps, etc.

• Invest in a magnifying mirror with a light you can mount to the side of your sink and vanity to get the mirror off the counter.

• If at all possible, use a drawer to store brushes, blow dryers, and irons! (And please clean the old hair off those brushes.)

• Sanitize, wash, and clean all your makeup brushes as well your hairbrushes.

• Our Clos-ette Too Travel Jewelry Case (http://www.clos-ettetoo.com) is great for taking all of your jewelry off your bathroom or vanity counter and putting it in a fabulously organized case, which travels easily as well.

SARAH HOWARD IS THE EDITOR OF BEAUTY BANTER.