Bonjourno ladies and gents! The time has finally come for me to do something that I’ve been talking about for about 6 months now. Time to de-pot my MAC eyeshadows, and create my own MAC palette. I’ve been worried about ruining my eyeshadows throughout the process, which is why I think I’ve been putting it off. But if you only knew how easy it is, you wouldn’t hesitate.

MAC has palette sizes in 2, 4, or 15 eyeshadows. I thought the 15 was too much of a commitment, and not travel friendly so I went with the 4. I already had 7 or 8 MAC eyeshadows so I bought 2 of them. I tried my best to match each of the 4 with similar shades and colours that work well together. Yet some of my eyeshadows are odd shades. I haven’t used MAC eyeshadows for awhile now since I’ve been addicted to my Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette. So this is a work in process. Time to buy some new MAC shades and switch out some of those odd weirdos!! YAY!

So getting down to business. Here is the process to de-pot MAC eyeshadows. You’ll need a hair straightener, a knife, a roll of magnet tape, and a magnetic palette to put your eyeshadows in (such as the MAC palettes, but really any magnetic palette would work)

First step is to separate the top and bottom plastic pieces of the pot (remove the shadow from the compact). All you have to do is stick the knife in between the two pieces. There is an obvious seam. Then place the piece with the shadow on the hot straightener. Make sure the straightener is on the hottest setting. Even if you start to smell some burning don’t worry! It is plastic, but you won’t ruin your straightener.

 

Leave the shadow on the straightener for about a minute. Careful its hot!! Easiest to take it off the straightener with the knife. Next, use the knife to take the metal pan of shadow out of the plastic insert. If you can’t fit the knife in yet then don’t touch! Put it back on the straightener, the glue will need to melt more. Trying to remove the eyeshadow before its ready could result in a damaged metal pan and/or damaged and cracked shadow. Cut a small piece of magnetic tape and place on the bottom of the tin pan of shadow.

Now if you would like to keep the identification sticker on the bottom of the pot so you know the name of each shadow, thats another easy step. Place the bottom part of the plastic pot on the straightener until you can slip the knife under the sticker. Peel it off, and place it on the back of the metal pan. It’s okay to put it on the magnet, it’ll still stick.

Then its simple! Just pop it in your magnetic palette!! I created one palette of purples and blues (with one empty spot) and another of more random shadows that kinda made a bit of a neutral/warm palette (with a weird green in there). Like a said, a work in process. Can’t wait to add to the collection. AND….I de-potted 6, which is enough for ‘Back to MAC’, meaning I bring back 6 empty eyeshadow pots and get either a lipstick or lip gloss for free!!! If they try to give you a hard time for the metal pan not being in the pot thats BS. They’ll take it back. They don’t recycle the metal part. Have fun and be careful!!

Have you ever de-potted MAC eyeshadows? Any suggestions on which ones I should buy next?