De-potting an eyeshadow is basically, removing the eyeshadow pan from the pot. There are many reasons why de-potting your eyeshadow, but it depends on your preference, lifestyle, etc. For those of you that have limited space for storage, have lots & lots of shadows - & tend to neglect several of your shadows, or travel often, de-potting your shadows may be something that will benefit you. I personally, never liked the idea of de-potting my shadows and I always wanted to keep them in their little black pots. I'm not sure why, but I liked the idea of owning several shades and I didn't want to depot them all at one point and later on, wish I didn't. Now, I notice that having so many shadows is a complete nuisance when I'm trying to find a certain shade and I have to fumble through my drawers. What I've also noticed is, when I use a palette, I tend to use more shades.. and my MAC shadows have become neglected with the exception of a few.
The benefits of having your shadows in a palette is:
- All of your shades are always handy, and you'll never have to dig for a certain shade
- Going with the previous bullet point, you won't lose eye shadows (believe it or not, I have a bad habit of never closing my makeup bags, and I've lost eye shadows, lipsticks, you name it)
- It is very handy for traveling - You can keep a small palette in your handbag for shadows you wear every day
- When a bunch of shades are in front of you, you'll see better what you have. Therefore, you'll tend to use more shades.
- A palette takes up much less space than a bunch of pots would - for both storage and travel.
- Depending on how many MAC eye shadows you have, for every 6 pots, you can "Back to MAC" them for a free lipstick or lip gloss (at counters) or eyeshadow (at MAC stores).
There are several brands to choose from, but I'm not 100% sure which palettes will fit MAC shadows. MUFE sells palettes and there are some on http://www.camerareadycosmetics.com, but like I said, I'm not sure if any of those fit MAC shadows. Your best best are MAC palettes, as they are fairly inexpensive and are specifically for MAC shadows. There is also the ELF palette, for only a $1, which isn't bad, and the Z-palette, which I find a bit expensive - but, since there are no slots, you aren't only limited to MAC shadows.. you can use any shadows, blushes, etc. If you know of other palettes, please let me know in my comments below!
Once, you have your palette to fill, you'll need a few tools for de-potting.
- A knife that comes to a point (a butter knife doesn't work well) - or you can use a letter opener. In addition, I use a pair of tweezers.
- A flat iron
- Wax paper (optional)
- Rubbing Alcohol or Goo Gone (Goo Gone works better) and a Q-tip
- Magnets
