Fixing Your Broken Eyeshadows

I recently visited the states, and did the unthinkable by packing some of my makeup in my checked luggage.

Yep. If you can imagine your worst fear happening, mine did.

A photo posted by Mandi Chiem (@mistava) on Feb 7, 2015 at 10:34am PST

As you can see from my Instagram a few weeks back, I left one of my eye shadow palettes to the mercy of flight transportation.

So I'm providing a step-by-step process on how you can salvage your broken make up rather than dishing out another $24 it would have cost me to get a brand new one. This is also a way to press some of your pigments into pans.

The key things I used were rubbing alcohol, a liquid-dropper, a bobby-pin, paper towels, a coin, and a well ventilated room or work area.

The alcohol comes in handy for mixing and sanitizing your tools. So my first step would be to soak that coin in the alcohol and rub down your mixing tool with it too. I used isopropyl alcohol from the local Rexall. You can get it at any pharmacy as it is an important first aid item.

DISCLAIMING SOME STUFF: If you're a child, please have an adult handle this. Don't get this in any of your fleshy orifices. If you have sensitive skin, then use some rubber or latex gloves. When handling alcohol, refrain (DO NOT) touch your eyes or any other mucous membranes. It will hurt. It will hurt a lot. When I say a lot, I mean A LOT.

Once you have sanitized your tools to your heart's desire, go ahead and crush up the rest of your eye shadow with your tool until it's mostly a loose pigment or powder. Try to do it slowly, or you'll end up with a lot of shadow outside your pan.

Next use your liquid-dropper and alcohol, and add 1-2 drops at a time to your pan.

Mix that bad boy up until you have the consistency of a paste, or porridge-like, or toothpaste-like, goop-like (yeah goop is a good word =D) substance.

It should more or less look like this all mixed up. At this point, I put it aside and let it set for about 15-20 minutes before pressing.

Try to be patient at this part. If you press too soon, you may lose more pigment than you want.

You'll know when to press your shadow when all the shininess of the alcohol has diminished. Grab a piece of paper towel and your coin. I used a Canadian loonie ($1 coin).

To press, place the paper towel on top of your shadow and press down hard with the coin. I like to use the paper towel because it is made to soak up liquids a lot better than a cloth. You can see the excess alcohol is squeezed from the pan. Remember you want to press down hard to get the shadow condensed properly in the pan.

While I pressed this shadow, I found that I needed it to be more condensed and ended up using a quarter to squeeze out the excess alcohol.

This is the end result. And for the test...

Ta DA~! Just like new. 

In it goes with the rest of my Moondusts. 

Now if you've learned anything from this incident, learn not to pack your make up in with your checked baggage. Thanks for reading and seeing!

~Misty