I’m sure your first thought when it comes to storing makeup brushes is the cute glass cups with little stones or glass beads. They make your brushes a centerpiece for your bathroom counter. Sounds like a fantastic idea, right?

Wrong.

A Lesson In Safe Storage…

Story time. I bought my first set of high-quality brushes from Sigma (which aren’t cheap, mind you). I was continually growing in my love for makeup and I was making money either from my first job or saved up birthday/Christmas money. I researched brushes for a month and gathered any coupon codes I could. This included watching YouTube influencers and really figuring out which brushes I wanted.

In hindsight, I should have follow my advice in my last post, the Ultimate List of Affordable Makeup Brushes, which was to NOT buy brush sets. You will always end up with a brush or two you don’t use! In my case, there are quite a few brushes I don’t use from that set, but I digress.

I went the DIY route and saved up my Bath & Body Works candles, cleaned out the wax, peeled the sticker off, did the whole bit. Then I went to the craft store and found some sea-glass looking pieces to put inside. What I learned:

1. The pieces don’t move out of the way easily, so you end up digging them in with more force and more effort than you’d prefer at 6am in the morning.
2. It scratched the heck out of my sleek black painted wooden brush handles!

Moral of the story. At the least, don’t buy actual glass pieces for your filler. Buy something plastic and hope for the best. I don’t even know if I’d trust coffee beans. My best suggestion would be to store them with no fillers at all.

Or keep reading for my tips on the most effective and simple ways to organize your brushes!

Simple & Effective Storage

Acrylic Brush Organizers

If I had more room on my bathroom counter, or a makeup vanity, I would definitely go for this acrylic brush organizer option. I think the clear dividers look extremely clean and organized. This is perfect for when you don’t want to make your surface look cluttered. It’s like having a mirror. It creates the illusion of space. I’ve linked some of my additional options here, here (this one is really unique), and here.

A Brush Case

This square snakeskin brush case is what I use currently, and have been for over a year. It is from Morphe (big surprise) but the reason I love it is because it is a hard case, which means it protects anything from pushing up against the bristles while they’re stored (or traveling!!) It handles all my brushes and then some.

There’s nothing worse than starting your makeup in the morning with a wonky brush that’s been pressed at a 90 degree angle all day and all night. Try putting on blush with that mess!

I particularly recommend this case for those of you that travel often. The peace of mind from not having to worry about your brushes getting tossed around in your suitcase by those guys on the runway is unbeatable. When you store them in a case like this it makes packing quick and easy. Grab and go.

Snap Cups

These give you the best of both worlds! They’re two cups that you can store your brushes in separately, but when you’re needing to travel, take the brushes out of one size and place it on top. Snap and go.

This brush cup holder from Sigma was my first storage choice, because it came with my brush set. While I do enjoy this organization method, the amount of brushes it can hold falls short. I require much more space for my many brushes! Morphe sells a similar product in a regular size for about $10 less, and a mega size for those of you with a brush obsession like me. An even cheaper version is this
Makeup Brush Holder found on Amazon.

Buckets & Mugs

While this isn’t a new concept, I still believe it is one of the most simple and effective ways to store your brushes. No explanation necessary. This brush holder in black has three separate dividers, this
similar container in white, and this large brush organizer for those of you with a larger collection.

That’s a few of my favorite options! I hope you found some to help simplify and organize your brush collection. Stay tuned for next week’s post – my quick and effective ways to clean makeup brushes!