Loose Powder

After I received my z-palettes, I started to research ways to depot my eyeshadows. But I was having trouble finding out how to depot bareMinerals READY Foundations.

So I decided to write up my own tutorial for it. Figuring it shouldn’t be too hard, right? Famous Last words.

Tools:

• bareMinerals READY compact

• X-acto Knife (or anything flat and sharp)

• Halogen Lamp (I got the lamp idea from Beauty Vibes, like her, I don’t have a flat iron.)

• Tissues and/or paper towels

• Nail Polish Remover or Rubbing Alcohol

Basically all you need to do is place a tissue paper over the lamp face and place your compact on the lamp. Since my lamp doesn’t turn upside down easily. I had to lean it on its back, balance it between two boxes, and work very hard to not burn myself.

I let the compact sit for about 2 minutes since my lamp gets very hot very quickly. If after 2 minutes and the pot still won’t budge, I’d put it on for another 2 minutes. But usually after about 5 minutes the pot is already very hot, and you don’t want to melt the container.

When the container is hot enough, take a X-acto knife and wedge it into the gap between the pot and container. Then carefully try to wedge the pot out. This takes some patience. If the pot is still being stubborn, let it heat on the lamp for another minute and try again. Eventually the pot will pop out. Depending on the contents, there is a possibility of it cracking a bit. For the READY foundation, bronzer, and blush, I didn’t have any cracking problems at all. However, for the the READY Touch-Up finishing Veil, I did have minor cracks along the side. But not enough to be considered damaged.

I used the same method to depot the bareMineral concealer as well. You don’t have to worry about that cracking since it’s a cream. Just be aware that it might melt a bit from the heat. Just let it sit for a bit to “harden” before you start working on wedging the pot of the container.

After struggling with the container to pop the pan out, I placed the product face down on a paper towel and used nail polish remover on another paper towel to rub the tacky glue from the bottom of the pan. You can use rubbing alcohol, but I found the acetone in nail polish remover to be much more effective in removing all the residue.

Once the back is clean, you can pop your depotted makeup into your magnetic palette of choice. I highly recommend z-palettes.

WARNING: Halogen lamps are VERY HOT and once you remove your compact from the lamp face. DON’T FORGET to also remove the tissue you place between the compact and the lamp face. You don’t want the tissue to burn and start a fire. I may have left a tissue for over five minutes once and it started to smoke.

I recently went on vacation and I found one of the hardest thing for me to do was pack my make-up. At the start of my packing attempt, I had about five palettes of eyeshadow, in addition to, all my other face make-up, which basically filled up a train case. Since air travel is a pain and having to make weight doesn’t make air travel easier, I manage to narrow down my shadows to two Kat Von D palettes, but I still had a bunch of scattered compacts for my foundation, bronzer, finishing veil, blush, concealer, and etc.

Ever since I came back from vacation, I’ve been looking for an “all-in-one” travel palette that wouldn’t take up a lot of space. Many brands have been coming out with a bunch of face palettes lately, but these “all-in-ones” never seem to contain everything I want. Even the bareMinerals READY To Go Complexion Perfection Palette didn’t have the colors I wanted. Furthermore, I have all of the items in that palette in their full sizes. So I don’t need to buy anymore foundation to clutter my vanity table. I have too much makeup as it is!

I figure the only way to have a perfect palette for me, is to customize it myself. I had thought about making my own magnetized free-style palette, but I’m lazy. Also if I customize things myself, I always end up spending more for some reason. Also lately I just don’t have time to do any craft projects..

I had thought about picking up the free-style palettes from Stars Makeup Haven since I’ve purchased from them before, but I decided to pick the Z-Palette because it has a window on top. I have several palettes from Stars Makeup Haven and they are well made, but it gets annoying that I have to open the palette each time to see which colors are in each palette. I don’t label these palettes because I interchange shadows in those palettes periodically depending on my mood.

So I bit the bullet and ordered three Z-Palette 4U sizes (Black, Aqua/Yellow, and Faux Blue Leather)  since I was looking to make customized palettes for traveling. Also Beautylish had the Faux Blue Leather palette which was not available at Z-Palette.

These Z-Palette are made of cardboard, but they are very well made and sturdy. They also have a nice glossy finish that allows you to easily wipe off any loose powder along the edges with a damp towel. The glossy finish also gives the palettes a sleek and cute look. The plastic window pane on the cover is also very sturdy and strong. Lastly, the magnets hold the cover down securely, and I’m not worried about the cover popping open when I sleep the palette into my purse.

Basically, these Z-palettes are very well-made and sturdy. They are definitely something I don’t mind depotting my precious makeup for, and I am someone who prefers leaving things in their original packaging.

The black palette ($17) is perfect for a sleek and professional look. The Aqua/Yellow palette ($17) is a cute and fun pattern for us gals who don’t love pink. The Faux Blue Leather z-palette ($20) is slightly bigger in thickness because of the pleather and a bit more expensive than the two “regular” palettes, but the Faux Blue leather is beautiful. The material has a soft feel to it and the color has a metallic sheen to the baby blue color. It is probably my favorite of the three colors. I kind of wish there was large version of this color.

All of these palettes also come with 15 metallic stickers for any of your depotted shadows that don’t have metallic pots. Of all the things I’ve depotted so far, only one shadow had a pot that didn’t stick to the magnet.

At first I thought $17 was expensive for magnetic palettes made of cardboard, but these palettes are so well made that I’m now a fan of these palettes. If z-palettes comes out with more designs that aren’t animal prints or hot pink, I’d spring for the larger size. I wish I had knew about z-palette when they had their limited edition Cherry Blossom palettes earlier this year. I hope they make more next year! I definitely would love to try out the sizes of their larger palettes.

Now, if only Bare Minerals recycled their eyeshadow pots, I would be closer to having a manageable makeup stash.

Dimensions of the 4U Palettes:

Outside 6.25″L x 4″W x 0.56″D
Inside 5.56″L x 3.25″W x 0.25″D

I fit full-sized bareMineral READY foundation, bronzer/ luminzer duo, and blush into one 4U palette, and I still have room for a several eyeshadow pots at the bottom.