DIY Friday: Depot MAC Eyeshadow

Over the years of working as a professional makeup artist, I have learned how important it is to keep my kit compact. Being the hoarder that I am, the organizing task is quite a challenge. I carry A LOT of stuff with me. 3 bags and they're all heavy. Add another one if I need to lug around my airbrush makeup. Ridiculous, I know.

I refuse to bring just what I need and leave the rest at home. When I do, I always leave something behind - like the case where I keep all my pencils, or eyelash curler, or mascara, etc. And I always look for something I do not have with me. Always. So I'd rather bring everything with me than stress myself out while working.

Since I'm a stubborn packer (that sounds funny, hihihi!), I like making use of every little space I have in my kit. My ultimate goal is to fit everything in just one case or bag, which is quite impossible for me, honestly. But keeping things compact helps a great deal. One thing I love to do is to depot my eyeshadows and house as much in a palette. It doesn't just save me space but it saves me time of going through all the eyeshadows, looking for a specific color and opening the damn packaging. I used to keep the eyeshadows in their original boxes and neatly line them up in my kit. It was a really beautiful thing to see but it's too high maintenance.

There are a lot of depotting tutorials out there but here's how I depot an eyeshadow: (And I am proud  how perfect the eyeshadow looks after I depot it! :))

Here are the things you'll need:

The materials

• Alcohol
• Something sharp to stick through an opening, I used a cuticle pusher
• Flat iron
• Tissue
• Hand towel
• Tweezers (not in photo)
• MAC eyeshadow

First, turn on your flat iron and place a piece of tissue, folded in half, on the heating plate. I use medium to full heat.

Prepare the flat iron

Next, take the eyeshadow. Grab your sharp tool and stick it to the space between where the lid locks to close the container and the base. Remove the top part that houses the eyeshadow pan from the base.

Take apart the container

Place the small container with the eyeshadow on your heated flat iron, with the plastic facing down. Let it sit for a couple of minutes - about 3 to 5 minutes. This is to melt the strong adhesive so it will be easier to remove the pan from the base. Do not force the eyeshadow pan off the base, that will crack the powder and ruin it.

Melt the adhesive

Take the eyeshadow off the flat iron with a pair of tweezers. Carefully clamp on the sides of the plastic base and make sure the tweezers do not touch the eyeshadow so as not to ruin it. Do not touch it with your bare fingers as it will be very hot. Flip the container and check if the middle part has melted.  If it has, the eyeshadow pan will be ready to remove from the housing. Put the eyeshadow facing down on the towel, take your sharp metal tool and stick it to the middle to hold it down then take your tweezers and pull up the plastic base.

Remove the eyeshadow pan from the container

With the eyeshadow facing down, let the pan cool down for a minute of two. Grab your alcohol and tissue. Spray and wipe and repeat until you've removed all the sticky residue off the pan. Check the sides of the pan as well. Since MAC eyeshadow pans are not magnetic I added a metal sticker on the bottom of the pan since I will place this in a magnetic palette together with my other eyeshadows.

Clean the pan

If you're as OC as I am, I like placing the original label of the eyeshadow on the depotted pan. To do that, take the main container and place it on the flat iron with the sticker facing down for a minute. Take your sharp tool and carefully remove the sticker from the container by scraping the label off on the sides. Take the sticker and place it on the bottom of the pan (in this case, on top of the metal sticker). It should have enough adhesive to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the label

Now your newly depotted eyeshadow is ready to move in its new home. Yipee! :)

Ta-dah! MAC Paradisco, depotted!

The newbie with her sisters

My Z PRO Black Palette. Look, I have space for one more! :)

Now don't throw away the main container just yet. Keep it, collect some more then bring them to Singapore or Hong Kong (hahaha, such a hassle!) and Back-To-MAC them and get a free lippie! I know, it sucks that MAC Philippines has discontinued the Back-To-MAC program when most countries participate in this environmental program. This is why I rarely buy locally as my way of protesting. Anyway, you can ask your friends to do this for you if you have no plans of leaving the country soon. That's what me and my friends do!

Ready for Back-To-MAC

Don't have a palette, yet? Check out our store, We Heart Makeup. We carry Z Palettes, UNII Palettes, Sigma brushes and a lot more! Visit our Multiply site and Facebook page! :)

Z Pro Black Palette - Php1,350.00
Metal Stickers - Php250.00 / pack of 30 pcs or Php10.00 each

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