Tutorial: Depotting MAC Shadows

Depotting is a great option for those who are tired of pawing through their shadows trying to find a certain colour. It's also great if you're a freak for organizing, like I am. Or even for traveling- a 15 palette on vacation, a quad for your purse. Whatever! Another cool thing is that most (not all) MAC counters and stores will take the depotted shells back, and when you bring 6 in at once you will receive a free lipstick of your choice (excluding Viva Glam) from a MAC counter, or at a MAC store you may choose from a lipstick, lipglass, or eyeshadow.

Worried about getting your colours mixed up? Too lazy to print labels? That's fine. You can heat up the labels on the bottom of your shadow and re-stick them. If they look dirty or faded a baby wipe should make them legible again.

You can pick up a MAC 15 palette for about $16 CAD, and a quad for roughly $5. I had to go to an actual MAC store and not a counter, but the counters will have quads available soon enough. It is time consuming but not very difficult. I do remind you to be careful! You will have several opportunities to jab or burn yourself.

Below is a method you can use to depot your shadows with a straightening iron, instead of flame.

You will need:

• Straightening iron (any kind, as long as it's flat and you can fit a pan or two on it)
• Knife (I used a small steak knife)
• Strip of aluminum foil (to keep melting plastic off of your straight iron)
• Towel (optional, for sitting hot, stick pans and knife on)
• Tweezers (optional, for lifting the pan out)
• Qtips/Cotton pads & Alcohol (to remove glue from metal pan)
• Magnet (optional, to keep them in place, but I left mine sticky and skipped this for now)

I'm a perfectionist, so I sat down and wrote a list of my colours, then organized them in the order I wanted my palette. My 15 pallet is a spectrum from purple to blue, to teal, to green, to gold, to amber, golden reddy brown, to a reddish copper. See what I mean about this perfection business? My quad consisted of staple neutrals. Crystal Avalanche (shimmery white), Shroom (a muted golden beige highlight colour), Satin Taupe (a taupe brown with silvery bronze shimmer) and Carbon (a matte black.)

I put my straight iron on the hottest setting and went about the first step, which is popping the plastic pan out of the case.

STEP 1: Above, you will see that I have circled an indented area above the little sticky-outty part (technical term, right there!) You'll want to grip the shadow with your index finger on one side and your thumb on the other. Hold it down against a flat steady surface that won't be a big deal if you happen to slip and stab into. Angle the knife down and inwards into that edge. I had better luck trying the corners. Every little eyeshadow seemed to come apart differently. Some easier than others. Just press the tip of the knife in and jiggle it a bit. If you're not getting results, try another area. Be careful not to damage the eyeshadow.  

STEP 2: Once the pan is out, lay a strip of aluminum foil over the bed of your straightening iron and sit the eyeshadow pan and the empty case (label down) on top of the foil. Your label will be done before the eyeshadow. Check after a minute or two. Try to slide the tip of a small knife under the label. It should just lift up and come right off. I swiped the knife completely under it to separate it. That way it didn't curl like it may have if I had grabbed hold of one end and peeled it off. I immediately put the sticker inside the lid of my 15 palette, and on the back of my quad. I put another pan of shadow on beside the first one while I waited for the first to be done. I took it off of the iron and checked to see if the bottom had become slightly melted or warped. I pressed my knife against the bottom and wiggled it up under the shadow fairly easily. If it requires force you need to heat it up more, or you risk breaking your shadow. 

STEP 3: I lifted the metal pan out of the plastic casing on the end of my knife and "wiped" it off on to the towel. You could lift yours out with tweezers. It's very hot and I did burn my finger tips once or twice. I tried to remove some of the glue from the bottom with rubbing alcohol. Some came off in such a way that the glue peeled off in solid... Some were much messier. I wasn't successful at removing all of the stickiness on most of them, but I doubt I'll be playing musical pallets with a lot of them anyway. 

Rinse, repeat, collect your free makeup. You know the drill! Can't wait to go back to MAC and collect my 3 free shadows tomorrow! 

-H. Cat

Updated: Picked up my 3 freebies. I chose Electra, Parfait Amour, and Swish. Here are my palettes thus far. Excuse the crappy cell phone camera.

Tutorial: Brush Cleaning; the Thrifty Way

Brush cleaning is necessary to remove the oil and bacteria from your brushes. This is important because the brushes won't work properly if dirty, and you don't want to be depositing bacteria on to the skin.

MAC brushes are expensive but a worthwhile investment if you take the time to properly maintain them. I try to clean mine about once a week, or after a particular makeup application has totally coated the brush. IE: Blushcreme on my MAC 187.

It's important to clean your brushes both immediately before and after doing a makeup application on another person.

I developed my brush cleaning technique simply because no stores where I lived sold brush cleaner. That's probably changed now, but my way works and will cost you virtually nothing- since you should already have everything required.

A clean sink area and counters pace is easiest, but if I'm watching TV sometimes I'll use cups of water (about 3), paper towels, baby wipes and improvise.


Assuming you are washing at the sink, you will need:

• Dish soap (removes the grease/oil), or a gentle baby shampoo (the perks of being a mom!)
• a hair conditioner, within reason. I wouldn't use one tinted for, say, red hair. Can't go wrong with a basic moisturizing one. It has to rinse clean! You don't want a greasy brush.Today I used Aveeno Nourish Plus Moisture. 
• A towel to lay the brushes on
• Some paper towel if you like (I don't use it for a sink wash)

I've got a double sink so this couldn't be more simple. You might want to designate a bowl or something to toss your soapy brushes into. I throw mine on the dish rack.

First I run warm water. I wet my brushes under the stream of water and work them gently to make sure they're saturated. Then I put them down someplace (dish rack, bowl, clean side of sink, etc) and squirt a glob of dish soap or baby shampoo into my hand. I then take a brush and swirl it through the soap almost like buffing a foundation onto the skin. I put the soapy brush back on the dish rack and grab another. Repeat the swirling. Sometimes you'll need to add a little more shampoo as it'll get used up or turn a gross black colour. With smaller brushes you can swirl two or three of them at a time.

So you're done lathering up your brushes. Now rinse the soap off of your hands and work the brush in your hands, under flowing water to remove the soap. Again, be reasonably gentle with the brushes. You'll want to be thorough in rinsing them, but you're going to condition next so if you miss a bit of soap you'll have another chance. Once rinsed, back on the dish rack they go.

Now you'll squirt a bit of conditioner into your palm and work the brushes through it in the same way. Once you've applied conditioner to all of your brushes, switch the water from warm to cool. Rinse your brushes completely in the cool water. When finished, simply "re-shape" them if needed, and lay them flat to dry.

I usually clean my brushes at night because certain brushes can take about 12 hours to dry. I was sick last night and didn't have to chance to do them until this morning, so I won't be able to wear makeup today. So much for my planned FOTD!


-H. Cat