Picture this: You’re prepping for a night out and pretty soon the bathroom is a chaotic mess of beauty products. The best makeup organizers are a necessary intervention (whether staged by you or a discerning roommate), adding some much-needed order to your beauty stockpile. Because as our personal collections continue to expand, the size of our bathrooms unfortunately does not. Inspired by the glam set-ups of Open Door stars like Lana Candor and Heidi Gardner, we found actually stylish setups to match a wide range of budgets and cosmetic collections—from vintage Italian options with compartments for every aspect of your routine to chic baskets that lean into the idea of organized chaos.
Our top picks:
Tried and True Baskets
Perhaps the most obvious answer to any storage woes, baskets can solve pretty much any and all organization conundrums, corralling similar items into one place for later. There’s no shortage of containers out there that’ll make sure your beauty products aren’t overcrowding your countertops, but we recommend something that’s bathroom-friendly (i.e. moisture-resistant) and easy to clean. Our top picks include stackable designs that you can acquire more of as your products grow, a woven design that’s meant to live in the bathroom, and an unexpected pick: a Vitra toolbox with the perfectly sized compartments to separate your eyeshadow palettes from your skin care.
Add to Cart
For more robust makeup collections, carts offer a multitiered storage solution for easily portable glam. You won’t find any cheap plastic carts on our list though—we think your beauty products deserve a beautiful storage option even if you aren’t a professional makeup artist. We sourced high-quality vintage pieces like a classic Joe Colombo cart and the Herman Miller OE1 Trolley to house your prized makeup brushes and lip glosses. Store your most-used makeup products up top for easy access and keep smaller cosmetic organizers on hand to store the products you grab less frequently.
Beauty by the Drawerfull
A small night stand or slim chest of drawers offers a more discreet option for stashing products (meaning dirty brushes and bruised skincare products will be your little secret). For this hack, we perused the kid’s section at some of our favorite retailers for fun-sized nightstands as well as more colorful options from our favorite design spots. Our top pick for the section? The Kartell Componibili storage unit that’s available in different storage modules and would look just as chic in a bathroom as it would in your bedroom.
Vanity Tables for the Open Door Look
If applying your beauty regimen is more like an act of selfcare, take inspiration from the glam rooms of Lana Condor or Harper Sorum and dedicate a whole space to your moisturizing rituals. In this category we found options that will still help you maximize your floor real estate, like a lift-up table top that can also double as a desk, and a well-priced Wayfair option that looks just like an ordinary nightstand but actually converts to a mirror table and chair set.
Grab-and-Go Vanity Cases
Vanity cases are some of the best makeup organizers around even when you’re not traveling. They offer more structure than typical toiletry and makeup bags with built-in dividers that you can dedicate specific products to (some swear by them as brush organizers). Vanity cases also pose an opportunity for a personalized moment—look to our pick from Mark and Graham, one of our favorite retailers for all things monogrammed. We also pulled aluminum designs from a couple of our favorite luggage brands that are built for rough-and-tough carry and can take your 12-step skin-care routine on the road.
Drawer Storage
Removable drawer dividers are our favorite method for decluttering counter space (and making sure your drawers can actually close). They’ve got loads of functionality—use some as brush holders, some to divide your face products, and some to break up eyeshadows. The true beauty of these individual nests is that you can also dedicate space in the same drawer to organize jewelry, hair accessories, and more without everything getting jumbled. Amazon has a bevy of both more ornate and minimal options, plus you can choose from plastic, metal, or even wood should you be looking to coordinate with the larger storage piece.
