Adventures in Depotting

I use to think that the task of depotting eye shadows was a bit daunting and tedious; thus, I was hesitant to give it a try. There was also a question of how to store my depotted goods. Around Christmas time, I was finally motivated to start this project since 1-a friend had gifted me with 2 Unii palettes and 2-New York was hit with a snow storm so I needed some kind of indoor activity.

I used the heat method to take apart my eye shadows. The general process was I would heat the bottom of the case with a candle lighter for a few seconds to soften the glue holding the metal pan. Then I would pry out the interior pan (I used a screw driver meant for eye glass screws). Any glue residue was cleaned off with rubbing alcohol and a piece of magnet (included with the Unii palette) was stuck on.

Unii palettes in Eggplant and Snow

I decided to take consolidate my Nars eye shadow duos. I had a few casualties while depotting them. These are pretty soft shadows so while trying to pry the pans away from the casing, the shadows would crack. I tried to re-solidify them with some rubbing alcohol with mixed results. Another hindrance was that some shadows would have a ton of glue holding the pans to the casing.

Nars Duos
Top row: Cordura, Kuala Lumpur, Silk Road
Bottom row: Brousse, Isolde, Hula Hula


Left: 9947 palette (One shade missing)
Duos: Top-Tzaeine, Melusine; Bottom-Egea, Eurydice


Empty Nars single case

I also depotted my L'oreal Hip eyeshadow duos that had such cumbersome packaging. These were definitely easier to take a part than the Nars Duos and other than a few minor chips; the shadows were all perfectly intact. For these shadows, I used a Japonesque empty palette to store them.

Top: Mystical, Charming, Precious, Sculpted, Perky, Animated
Bottom: Platinum, Enchantress, Moon Goddess, Gilded, Gunmetal

I just received additional Unii palettes in Black, Pomegranate and Twilight.


During my Christmas depotting marathon, I had also taken a part my Shiseido Luminizing eye shadow singles. No heat were required for these. The plastic pan popped out of the case quite easily.


VI720 Ghost, PK319 Peach, PK305 Peony, GR222 Fondant, BL223 Sky, VI399 Amethyst



Now that I realize depotting isn't all that bad. I hope to consolidate even more items together. Here's the next few items to be depotted soon: