Repurpose contact lens cases as makeup containers

by Jen

The compacts that eyeshadows come in can take up a lot of room in your purse, which is especially annoying if you don’t use every color in the compact. Lipsticks also take up room, and if you want to carry several and keep your options open they can get heavy.

Here’s something I’ve done for years. I take the eyeshadow (or blush, or bronzer) I like, crush it into powder and put it into a screwtop (not fliptop) contact lens container. My eye doctor gives me one every year, so I always have plenty of them around. I also put lipsticks in them: I crush part of it into the container and stir it with a toothpick until it gets a nice consistency for using either a brush or my fingers. This is also a great way to mix colors, or add Carmex or Vaseline to it for higher gloss. You can often improve makeup colors this way, too. In the picture, you can see my latest creation: I took a peach that was too pale and dull and mixed it with a red that was too bright. I added some Carmex, so it’s more sheer than it looks, and the result is a really nice bright but sheer coral.

Once your eyeshadows are in loose powder form, it’s easier to spill them when you open them, so be careful. You also might want to wipe the edges from time to time if powder has gotten onto them. But the screwtop contact lens case will not spill a grain of powder. Flip-top contact lens containers may be as reliable, but I haven’t tried them.

The room these containers take up in your purse, luggage of makeup kit is so much less than the original containers. If you’re not fond of carrying brushes or applicators to apply the powders or lipsticks, I’ve found that using fingers to apply them works at least as well – maybe better in the case of powders, which seem to stay on longer when I apply them by hand, maybe because of the oils from my fingers.

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Posted in Going Green, Health and Beauty on April 2, 2008
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