Introduction: Pressing Powdered Pigments and Loose and Mineral Eye Shadows

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About: I spend most of my time writing and listening to music. Occasionally I break out the make up and start playing. When I'm not doing any of the aforementioned I'm baking new treats for my niece. My last baking e…

You can press cosmetic pigments such as MAC or loose powder eye shadows such as NYX or mineral eye shadows. You can also use this method to fix broken and crumbled eye shadows. (The ones I drop constantly.) I found that the mineral eyeshadows tend to stay a little bit soft after you press them, but will still work. I keep some of my eye shadows powdered and press some of them to have around if I'm in a hurry or don't want to mess with the fallout that you sometimes get from powdered or mineral eyeshadow or pigments. It's easy and doesn't really take that long except for the drying process. It takes anywhere from 1 hour to 24 hours to dry depending on the amount of shadow and thickness that you want to press.

Step 1: What You Need

A bottle of rubbing alcohol.

An eyedropper or an empty bottle of eye drops to put the alcohol in. I usually just pour a bit into the lid.

Eye shadow pots or palette tins. I used a 3 gram eye shadow pot because that's what I have handy.

Loose powder eye shadow, mineral eye shadow, cosmetic pigments or broken eye shadows. (A teaspoon of loose powder will fill a 3 gram pot halfway when all is said and done.)

Toothpicks.

A makeup or small paint brush.

A piece of fabric.

A couple coins that will fit in whatever you're pressing your eye shadows into.

Tiny bowl or cup to mix it in. I usually just use the eye shadow pot or a piece of foil.

Newspaper or the like to cover your work surface if you don't want to have to wipe everything down when you're done as this can get messy. (Which is half the fun.)

Rubber gloves if you don't want to stain your fingers.

Step 2: The Fun Part.

After arranging your work surface, I used an old Christmas bandana to cover my surface and I will also use it later on to press the shadow, you can begin mixing your shadow. I started out mixing it in the eye shadow pot because it's easier. I had about a teaspoon of loose powder and it filled the pot halfway once completely mixed. It will take more or less depending upon the size of your palette tin or eye shadow pot.

Start out with a small amount of powder in your pot, tin, cup, plate, etc. and add a drop or two of the rubbing alcohol. This is where the dropper or eye drop bottle would come in handy, but I just pour a little bit of alcohol into the lid from the bottle. Stir it well with a toothpick then add a bit more of the powder. If it's too dry add another drop or two of alcohol and continue mixing.

Step 3: Transfering the Paste.

After you get the little bit of shadow mixed, it should be paste that sort of resembles a lumpy, sort of melty, lipstick. This is the consistency you want. Just make sure all of the powder is wet and there's no actual lumps in it. You can keep mixing in your pot, if that's what you're using, but I move it over to my foil piece and finishing mixing it there.

Add the rest of the powder to your blob and mix in. Be careful with this step, use rubber gloves or similar if you have them because some pigments can dye your skin. The blue eye shadow from the intro pic stained my fingers for two days.

Add more alcohol as needed to get back to the melty lipstick consistency.

Step 4: Back in the Pot

After you finish mixing it on your foil, if that is what you've used, transfer your blob back into the pot or tin and use the makeup or paint brush to help pack it in. You can tap the tin or pot on the table and it will help also. If you can't get it level try putting a little bit of alcohol on your brush and smoothing it over the eye shadow. The extra alcohol won't hurt the shadow and will evaporate soon.

Now you wait.

Let it sit with the lid off for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you try to press it.

Step 5: Pressing Details.

(Make sure to click on the last four photos on this step to enlarge them as the captions are not showing up otherwise for some weird reason.)

Now, when you check your eye shadow to make sure it's ready to be pressed you should be able to touch it with your finger and it be a bit dry. It could take less than an hour and it could take more. It depends on the density of your shadow.

As long as it's not tacky and doesn't stick to your finger you should be good to go. It should feel kind of like a mix between a cream and a powder.

Now, take your coin and fold your cloth over it and twist it. I'm using my bandana from earlier but you can use any cotton fabric as long as you don't mind it getting stained though most shadows will wash out.

After you twist your fabric around your coin press your coin firmly against your eye shadow. I'm using a penny because it's the closest I can get to fit in my eye shadow pot. The fabric will wick away the extra moisture and gives the surface a pretty weave texture.You may need to move your coin around in your fabric.

After you press it into your tin or pot you can let it sit out up to 24 hours with the lid off to let it continue drying or stack some coins in your fabric and set a heavy book or two on top. Either way works, the latter just packs it in tighter. 

Step 6: Finished Product.

After waiting the allotted time to dry, you can put your lid on or start using your pressed eye shadow, pigment, etc.

I hope you enjoyed this and if you have any questions let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

Comments and pointers are appreciated and I hope I did well on my first ible. Let me know what you think.