How to... Depot MAC Eyeshadow

I recently decided that it would be a good idea to depot all of my eyeshadows into palettes as my collection is growing rather large and my make up bag is getting really clogged up with all the little pots! It's quite a complicated process so I thought I would make a tutorial for anyone who was also thinking the same thing but wasn't sure how to do it.

You will need a few things to do this:

• a MAC pro palette
• your potted eyeshadow(s)
• hair straighteners (or a candle)
• baking parchment or greaseproof paper
• a sharp knife
• tweezers (if you're using a candle as opposed to straighteners)
• small adhesive magnets (these can be bought from craft stores or eBay, where I got mine

Step 1.

Take your chosen eyeshadow and find the little groove where the plastic joins. Take your knife and very carefully wiggle it about. Don't apply too much pressure because I did and it slipped and I ended up with a nice big slice in my finger. Some eyeshadows will be a little less "yielding" and so will take a little more wiggling than others but they will all come loose.

Step 2.

Put the eyeshadow disk onto your greaseproof paper and place on the heated straighteners. If you're using a candle, hold above a lit candle with a pair of tweezers. Leave over the heat source for about 30 seconds to a minute, you're the judge of this. This will melt the plastic disk a little underneath.

Step 3.

Using your knife again, poke it through the bottom of the plastic. The plastic should have melted so there is a small hole appearing however this sometimes doesn't happen and that's fine - but remember, the plastic will be hot from the heat source! The plastic will be soft enough to be poked through and you will see the pan begin to lift. The glue that sticks the pan to the plastic will still be slightly tacky so you will need to be very careful in taking the pan out as it will be hot too! I like to place mine on another sheet of greaseproof paper so I don't damage the surface I am doing this on.

Step 4.

Take a little adhesive magnet, peel off the sticker and stick it to the base of the eyeshadow pan.

Step 5.

Take the original pot that your eyeshadow came in and repeat the heating method again, but for a little less time as you don't want to melt the plastic, just the glue that holds the sticker in place. Keep checking to see if the sticker on the bottom is starting to lift and it will come away very easily. Stick this over the magnet (don't worry that it doesn't fit perfectly or stick properly as the pan will be going into your palette and will stay in place. This step is just so that you know the names of your eyeshadows should you wish to find out again).

Step 6.

Take the insert out of your palette and place your pan where you want it to go. Repeat with any other eyeshadows that you would like to put into your palette and then simply pop it back in. As it works with magnets, it will fit right back into place perfectly.

Step 7.

Pop the empty plastic parts back together. Rumour has it that some MAC stores do accept these for Back 2 MAC so call your local store beforehand to find out if they do! Six empty MAC products equals a free lipstick which you'd be crazy not to take advantage of!

And voila! You have successfully depotted your eyeshadows! I was really nervous before I did this because I always manage to mess things like this up but it actually worked perfectly (despite my sliced finger!). It's a lot easier to do than it looks - the only slightly tricky part is using the sharp tools.

Did you find this helpful? Let me know if you'd like to see more tutorials like this!

Until next time!

xxx