Depotting MAC Eyeshadows

As you may have seen in my second to last post I recently purchased one of the MAC 15 shadow palettes with the ambition of depotting my loose shadows into it when I could spare half an hour. I thought I'd document what I did (injury-free thank goodness) so you can have a go yourselves in your own time.

Here's what you'll need:

• A towel or something similar to protect your work surface
• A candle 
• A sharp pointed knife
• Tweezers
• A MAC palette (obviously!)
• Some adhesive magnets - I bought mine off eBay
• Scissors in case you want to trim the labels 

So without further ado, let's get started!


1) Pop out the pan insert from the casing: Open the eyeshadow and VERY carefully wiggle the end of the knife into the groove where the pan insert meets the outer casing. Keep wiggling until the pan insert pops out. Make sure you don't press too hard and let the knife slip. Blood in your eyeshadows is not very becoming.

Once it has successfully popped out, you'll have something that looks a bit like this (note lack of blood):

Set the outer casing aside for now. You'll need it a bit later.


2. Removing the pan from the pan insert: Take your tweezers and hold the pan over the flame of the candle. Make sure you don't hold it IN the flame; you don't want to melt the plastic completely. Hold it there for around 30 seconds until you can see that it has softened.

Once you think this is the case, gently poke the bottom of the pan insert with the end of the knife to prise up the eyeshadow from the plastic.

If it doesn't want to come out, don't force it - the plastic just isn't soft enough. Hold it over the flame a bit longer and give it another go when you think it's ready. The plastic will be VERY hot when you do the poking so use the tweezers to hold it steady.

3. Stick on the magnet: Pretty self explanatory really. When the metal on the underside of the pan has cooled a bit and the glue on the bottom is still tacky, stick an adhesive magnet to the back (carefully so you don't damage the eyeshadow). Centre it by moving it on the tacky glue.

4. Removing the name label: This bit is optional, but I like to stick the label to the bottom of the shadow so I can keep track of the colours and finishes. As you can see this one is Modelette, a lovely matte brown.

The labels are usually very well stuck on so the best way of removing it without damaging it is to hold the casing over the candle at an angle to slightly melt the adhesive attaching it and a small area of plastic at the edge.

Make sure you don't hold it too close to the flame - burnt fingers/labels aren't amusing or attractive. As you can see in the clever split-picture below, once the plastic has softened you can take your knife and gently press down at the edge of the label to indent the casing. You should now be able to lift off the label causing little to no damage at all.

 The adhesive will still be sticky when you do this, so you will be able to place it straight over the magnet that you've just attached to the shadow. Feel free to trim it to neaten it up a bit.

5. Admire your handiwork!

It looks a little complicated at the outset, but the more you do it the more you'll get used to it. You'll be a pro in no time!

I suppose this means I now have to go and spend more money on seven more shadows to fill my palette. Any recommendations?

I hope you found this guide helpful - let me know if you have any questions :)