My pressed mineral shadow experiment

Makeuptalk.com forums

Help Support Makeuptalk.com forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
May 8, 2008
Messages
196
Reaction score
0
I thought I would share with you all my experiment with pressing my mineral eyeshadow samples. I started reading about pressing MMU about a month ago, and thought I would give it a try. I did some right away, but I just finished pressing ALL of my e/s samples this morning and I figured you'd all like to hear how it went and how they perform.

Here they all are:

l_0cd5ca8112bba551f6ce637f4540f3ae.jpg


You'll notice that I used LA Colors lip palettes to press in - I got them from the dollar store, cleaned them out with a nail brush and some degreaser, then wiped them really well and cleaned them with alcohol. The well sizes in these compacts are PERFECT for the baggie samples sent from most companies. I also got my pressing medium from the dollar store - hand sanitizer. And a box of toothpicks for mixing, scooping, and tamping. I used an old bandana for my pressing cloth, and just pressed with my thumb rather than trying to find something flat to press with.

Once pressed, the colors are ready to use in just one day if they've been put in a dry, well-ventillated area.

One thing I noticed about pressing the colors into pallettes - I'm WAY more likely to use them! The colors look far more true-to-shade when pressed than they do as loose powders in pots or baggies, so I have a much better idea of how it's going to look on my skin now.

The colors still apply the same as the loose shadows do, both wet and dry (I use the spray-the-brush method for wet application). However, you end up using a lot less shadow per application, because there's no possibility of overloading the brush or tapping out too much powder.

I've only had trouble with a couple colors crumbling on me in the pallette - one SheSpace color and one Signature metallic. It seems like the metallic-looking ones are the most likely to crumble.

I also discovered a way to get really dramatic color payoff with my mineral colors. I had bought some Cory Eye FixSation eyebrow wax a while back, and decided to try using it to prime my eyelids before putting the shadow on. AMAZING!! I don't have to foil my colors anymore - I just apply them dry over the brow wax, and they stick tight and SHINE!! It does take a bit more shadow to get really good color saturation, but the payoff is amazing. I did a really cool peacock eye look a couple nights ago as an experiment, and used mostly SheSpace colors. They usually crease on me like crazy after an hour or so when foiled....but with the wax, the colors stayed in place for hours, and lost no intensity at all. After about 5 or 6 hours, I noticed some vague creasing, but that was it.

So, overall, I've been really pleased with my color-pressing experiment, and will continue to press all eye shadow samples I get so that I will be more likely to use them and I'll be able to take them with me when I travel.

 
Wow! They look great. I read a tut on pressing but I was afraid to try. I think I my follow your lead and try it on my samples, it is a bit of a pain to use them out of the bag.

Thank you for sharing.

 
Ok now THAT is impressive!! I can completely see how it is much more convenient to actually use them in this way without having to sort through baggies. Excellant!

 
wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its amaizing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the colors is so beautiful, I want to do it tooo.. but I don't have many eyeshadows like you do..

and I want to ask you something. when you make the pressing, its not distroy the power staying?

did you try to use them yet?

 
I've used them a lot, and the pressed shadows have the same staying power as the loose powders did. As always, a good eyelid primer works wonders.

I did fairy makeup for my 9yo. daughter yesterday, and her wonderfully froggy eyes stayed put from 4:00-9:30 PM. It probably would have lasted longer, but it was bedtime and she washed her face
smile.gif


I posted closeups with shade listings for each pallette in my notepad, if anyone is curious about a shade
smile.gif


 
That's so beautiful! I love the one under your brown palette. The dark shimmery colors remind me of NARS' night palette.

Thanks for letting us know how you did it!

 
ooooooh i'm so gonna try that! i have a bunch of mineral e/s and the little jars are a pain to tote around when i go out of town.

 
how pretty!!! but i enjoy mine loose...problem really is during transport of my makeup!
smile.gif


 
I never thought I'd like them pressed, honestly - I just wanted to see if I could do it, and see how the colors and application differed. Once I did it, though....wow. I keep my full sizes loose (and will unless I run out of a pressed color, which is when I'll take some from a full size to refill the compact well
wink.gif
), so I have my favorites in both forms. But I really do use more of the colors now that they're all so easily accessable.

The brow wax is easy enough to wash off - a good eye makeup remover, or some soap, water, and a microfiber washcloth. It might not be worth it for everyday makeup....but for dramatics, it works amazingly! I'm going to see Nine Inch Nails tomorrow, and plan on glamming out my eyes to the max with the stuff
wink.gif
That's what all those awesome pink shades are for
biggrin.gif


 
wow, thank you so much for that. it looks amazing. i think that you just convienced me to go ahead and do that myself... so thank you!

 
Stella...that is a great job well done. I am thinking abt doing it but I am hesitant...prob afraid that I will spoil my shadows. Hopefully I will try it.

Thanks

 
can you please post the exact link you used to do this? It looks amazing and now I am inspired to do the same, but i have never done any pressing. Hope my dollar store has the palettes - you really seem to have found the perfect palette for samples!!! thanks!

 
thank you very much for the link. You have really inspired me to try this!

I read through your tutorial but have 1 question. When you are pressing the mixture into the well, doesnt most of the mixture stick to and/or get absorbed by the cloth?

 
Hi! I just wanted to share my pressing experience also (I saw some youtube tutorials on it over the weekend and decided to give it a try). I also found an LA looks palette at Dollar General, but it was an eyeshadow palette with 12 colors in it (for 99 cents). I crushed them out with a bobby pin and cleaned it out with alcohol and cotton swabs. I used 91% rubbing alcohol as my wettener (not sure if that's really a word-hehe) and used rather shimmery colors- I've heard that alcohol doesn't work for finely milled or matte colors.

I also wanted to let everyone know that i found a palette at Claire's with 24 colors for 5.99 (and they have a buy one get one 50% off deal right now). When my Fyrinnae samples get here, I'm planning on pressing them into the 24 well palette. Thanks!

 
Nothing at all sticks to the cloth when you press, unless the color you are pressing is incredibly sparkly or super-pigmented. Then, you only get a few sparkles stuck on the fabric, or a bit of a stain from pigment seepage. The mixture itself does not stick at all.

As for the cloth absorbing moisture from the mixture - that is something that you want. Basically, you're mixing in the mixing medium in order to get everything stuck together well enough so you can get it tamped into a pressing pan of some sort. Once it's in there, you're then pressing out that extra moisture to pack together the powder particles. The more moisture you can get pressed out of the powder and absorbed into the cloth, the less cracking you'll get as the rest of the moisture evaporates.

 

Latest posts

Back
Top