January 05, 2011

How to press loose eyeshadow pigment

The other day while reading Dee's post on all her eyeshadow pigments I got inspired to press my pigments. I love the look of pigments, but find them really annoying and messy to use.

Here's how you do it, and apologies if you've seen this a billion times before. What you need:
  • Loose eyeshadow
  • Empty eyeshadow pan
  • Rubbing alcohol or surgical spirits, although I have used rum in the past! Basically the higher the alcohol content the quicker it dries.
  • Ear buds or anything small-ish to use to mix the eyeshadow
  • A coin the size of your empty eyeshadow pan.
Make sure you lay down some tissues as this will get a bit messy.


I used Chi Chi eyeshadow dust in Shopaholic.

I love the colour, but find it a pain to use because I don't like working with messy pigments. As a result this colour had been in the bottom of my makeup draw not getting much love.

Add a couple of drops of alcohol to the  pigment and mix well with the cotton bud

Put your coin in some tissue and use it to press down on the wet mixture. Press well to get rid of as much of the alcohol as possible and leave the surface smooth.

Voila! Leave to dry overnight, and your eyeshadow is ready to use.


You can also use this method to repair broken eyeshadows or any other broken powder makeup. The alcohol smell will evaporate as it dries, and the colour will not be affected at all.

Do you like loose pigments? or do you just not go anywhere near them?

12 comments :

  1. This is so handy! I've got a few loose eyeshadows I don't use because they're so messy. I tried pressing them the other day and wondered why it wouldn't bind together.. Will have to get myself some rubbing alcohol :)
    great post xx

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  2. Hey this was so helpful especially as im just getting into pigments! thank you!!
    also ive awarded u an award on blog so check it out :) xx

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  3. Wow I didn't know it was so easy! :) Thanks for sharing :)

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  4. I always thought pressing pigments would be hard, but you just showed me how easy it really is! I'm definitely gonna try this out soon! Thank you for sharing this!

    Andrée xx

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  5. I'm glad you girls found this helpful, it is super easy to do and 10 minutes is all it takes to get rid of messy pigments and turn them into lovely pressed shadows.

    Lilit
    xoxo

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  6. great post! I don't mind using loose pigments, but will definitely put this to use when I break a powder product.

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  7. Awesome! I have bookmarked this post so I can come back to it when I've decided which eyeshadows I'm keeping. Thanks for posting this, it's really useful and interesting. :-)

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  8. Thank you so much for this little lesson. I have some mineral pigments which whilst lovely, are a pain to use because they're so loose and flighty. I've got rubbing alcohol so I'll give this a try (perhaps on a colour I'm not so fussed on in case I stuff it up) and let you know.
    xx

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  9. Good luck Kath, it's too easy you can't stuff it up.

    Lilit
    xo

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  10. I've done it! and it was sooo easy. I've got a series of mineral pigments that have great depth of colour but a pain in the bum to use so tonight I started on my blush and 3 of the eyeshadow pots. Addicted! A few more to go now. Thank you so much for sharing this - I would have ended up with wasted makeup that I hardly used otherwise.

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  11. Yeay I'm glad you found it easy, and how addictive is it huh? I know when I was pressing mine our kitchen just looked like a science lab but it was just so satisfying to turn the pain in the bum powders into something I actually would use!

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  12. Just a little tip, if you user just alcohol, yes it will be pressed into the shape of the pan but will not be nearly as sturdy as if you use a binding agent. otherwise your loose eyeshadow won't bind properly to the pan or to it's self :)

    You can use just alcohol to mend broken previously pressed items as they already contain binder

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