There I sat, with my MAC shadows in hand and a pretty forlon looking palette. I decided to depot them all, even the ones I'd been avoiding. I was worried I would chip my favourites being so clumsy...let's see how I went!
I've used Fleur's tutorial here a couple of times and find it to be the safest, so once again I got to work. With this you'll need a straightener, greaseproof paper, a sharp knife (and I like to have tweezers on hand!) some round magnets and your shadows. As you can see in the image above, I have the tutorial loaded in case I need to be reminded of what to do next. Please note that you have to be really careful when doing this, I take no liability for anyones actions!
First step is to wiggle the knife in the front of the MAC packaging, where the actual pan meets the plastic around it (it's a little line near the front opening). Once you've gotten the pan out (as in first image) you place the greaseproof paper onto the hot plate of the straightener, with the pan on top of it. You want to avoid actual contact between the hot plate and the plastic, as it could be dangerous. Wait around 15 seconds (depending on straightener, I'd go for a little and see how much you can wiggle) and carefully lift your MAC pan up. Wiggle the knife into the centre of the back of the pan, and the glue should have melted enough for you to be able to prise the metal pan away from the plastic portion.
Immediately place your magnetic round onto the wet glue (to take advantage of it) I purchased my magnetic stickers from ebay, much cheaper that way I think. The next step is to put the plastic from the pan back into the round casing, and remove the name label to put onto the depotted shadow. To do this, you place the casing back onto the greaseproof paper and wait 7 seconds, then the label should come away easily. Pop it onto the back of your MAC pan, and there you have it!
The shadow I was most worried about depotting was my beloved limited edition shades, and as you can see here the Outre packaging looks a little worse for wear here. This shouldn't affect it's back to MAC capabilities though. The shadows all survived, so I'd say this was a successful venture!
My palette is slowly but surely filling up, I am looking into getting some more neutral shades soon as well as some proper brights. I would love any MAC shadow recommendations in the comments below, I'm quite new to the MAC shadow game (compared to the average girl) so would love your assistance!
I have a post coming up with swatches and names of all of these shadows, let me know if that is something you'd be interested in seeing and I'll fast track it!
I have to many favourites to name hehehe, I have a post about my MAC pallets that list all there names (I think). You did well depoting them with out casualties.
ReplyDeleteI love most of mine, but will have a look on your blog for some of your favourites :) I'm pretty proud of my depotting success
DeleteYou should be I am going to give depotting cream blush a go soon.
DeleteOh very cool. I didn't know you could do that. Learn a new thing every day :) Well done pumpkin!
ReplyDeleteNow I wanna see how to press the loose powders :)
@Candi yup, now it's so much easy to carry my shadows back and forth to your place in woop de woop! I will have to learn how (though I do have the pigment pressing kit) before I post it, I'll hop to it!
DeleteI don't think I could bring myself to depot! I'm too attached to packaging---to fill up my palette I plan on buying the pro-shadows that are automatically that way
ReplyDelete@Dovey I don't mind the MAC pots, but each time I want to travel with them it just takes up too much space. Limited edition packaging is something I would probably stay away from depotting, the ltd ed one in this post was from a blog sale so doesn't hold any meaning for me, so I depotted it. I have bought a few of the pro shades, but am at the regular counters (and blog sales) more often than not so it isn't always an option
DeleteYou did a great job. I almost trashed one MAC shadow trying to do this (I lost a chunk, but the rest is OK), so I've given up. I'm glad you're not a clumsy oaf like me!
ReplyDelete@olgiepolgie thanks! but I am a clumsy oaf, that is why I was so surprised at nailing this!
DeleteI really need to do this because all my MAC shadows are still in their individual pans and it's a royal pain digging around for them in my makeup case! Just a little bit scared I guess cos I'm a bit clumsy :-P
ReplyDelete@Vita I'm pretty clumsy too, don't worry. I find it much easier to close my shadow drawer now that they are depotted;P
DeleteYou really did a good job :) Ive never depotted any shadows and I am too scared to do it :)
ReplyDeleteI only own 3 shadows by MAC (Paradisco, Satin Taupe and Swisch) cause I don´t have a MAC store near me... this summer (in July) me and my fiancé are going to the city closest to us where there is a MAC store (also the city where I bought those 3 shadows mentioned above) and then Ill buy some more shadows... haven´t figured out yet which ones to buy though :)
Id love to see a post with swatches and names for the shadows above... I need ideas for shadows to buy this summer :)
hugs
Shortylegs I was so scared the first time I did it, heat and sharp objects are rarely good for me hah. I really want Satin Taupe! Mink&Sable would be lovely on you, it's the khaki in my palette and I've never worn it without getting a compliment! Retrospeck is a really nice one to check out. Will post swatches of the ones I have soon, I have some in palettes,too xx
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