depotting eyeshadows and a back 2 MAC

I have been growing my MAC eyeshadow collection for quite some time. I started out buying the little pots but more recently have been purchasing the refill pans to stick into palettes. It is neater, more compact and saves space in my makeup kit. Plus I really like to pull out a palette and see all the shadows at once instead of have to dig around looking for a shade. I had 12 shadows that were still in pots and last week I decided that it was finally time I depotted them and put them into a palette.

I looked up some depotting instructions on YouTube, combined a few of them using the steps I liked, and got to work. I didn’t take pictures of the depotting process as you can find a thousand videos of how to do it and use whichever instructions you like depending on what tools you have on hand. I have put this off for a long time but found it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be and it went much faster than I anticipated.

(Please forgive the camera phone pictures with a bedspread background. So professional right?)

Before and After

I have 2 full 15 shadow palettes and have organized them into neutrals and colors. 

As I’m sure you are aware MAC offers a recycling program where you take in 6 empties to get a FREE lipstick, eyeshadow or lipgloss. As you know I hit bottom on my beloved Creme d' Nude so I took this opportunity to ‘back 2 MAC’ 6 of my 12 empty eyeshadow pots and picked up a new Creme d' Nude lipstick.

It was pretty satisfying to turn this into this.

Getting rid of those 12 pots freed up a lot of space in my kit and I am enjoying the reorganized and no-longer-overflowing compartments. As I mentioned I really enjoy pulling out a palette to see all the shades at once and find it much easier to create looks when I can see everything in front of me instead of trying to remember what I've got. Knowing how simple the whole process was I find it a little silly I waited so long to do it. C'est la vie.

Do you prefer your eyeshadows in individual pots or in a palette?


Note: it is not recommended to depot MAC eyeshadows as there is a risk they will crack or shatter in the process. I did not ruin any of mine but I feel I should mention there is the chance of ending up with a table full of powder and that. would. be. SAD.