Depotting Illamasqua Eyeshadows into a Z Palette

I love my Illamasqua eyeshadows, Like really love.  I rarely use just a quad for a look though, I like to mix and match between the quads and monos and it can all get a bit cumbersome and finnickity and so I find I don't use them as much as I would like to.  Enter the Z Palatte (and all others like it of course).  It's a magnetic palette with a clear top which you can store your eyeshadows in.  You can buy pans at MAC, Inglot, Makeup Geek etc but for other shadows it's a case of digging out of the packaging, or 'depotting'.  I had read and watched many tutorials on how to do this but was still daunted.  I tried it a few months ago with not the best success but last night felt determined to try again.  Armed with slightly different tools, it was a breeze...almost.

Read on for how I did it and what my final Z Palette looks like.

What you will need:

* Empty palette (not pictured, it looked too grubby ha)
* Straighteners or another heat source (not pictured)
* Your eyeshadows
* Magnetic stickers
* Permanent marker
* Palette knife / spatula / thingy-ma-bob
* Baking paper or something similar if the straighteners aren't crappy old ones like mine

I found that I needed no heat to depot the smaller shadows (just as well as most of them are cream anyway).  I used the palette knife to prise out the shadow.  When you're doing this you'll normally notice that there is more space on one side of the shadow than the others.  Try to jam the palette knife down the larger gap so there's less chance of slipping and damaging the product.

The palette knife/spatula thing was the breakthrough item for me.  When I'd tried depotting in the past I'd tried a metal nail file, small scissors, tweezers etc but none of these were thing enough and often bent the metal pans.  This knife is extremely thing and also very sturdy so it doesn't bend with the force.  I got mine from Monda Studio through Love-Makeup here.

At this point you should use something like nail varnish remover to try to get the glue off the back.  I was lazy and scraped as much as I could off and left the remains.  Z Palette small rectangle magnetic stickers were the perfect size for these smaller shadows.  I wrote the shadow name on, along with which palette is came from, in this case the Reflection palette.

The solo shadows took a little more effort to depot.  The shadow is in a plastic part which is stuck in to the larger case.  You want to stick your palette knife (or whatever you're using) into the line just above the groove you can see below.

It takes a bit of wiggling (or in the case of Succumb, a LOT of wiggling) but suddenly the inner plastic part just pops out.  A few times I actually had to catch the shadow because it flew out suddenly. 

My straighteners are actually my sister's ones from her early teens and their only use now is for depotting so I didn't both to use any baking paper to keep them clean.  Mine only have one heat setting but if yours has multiple then I suggest trying on the lowest heat and increasing it if you find it doesn't work.

I left each shadow to heat for 30 seconds to a minute.  Don't leave them for any longer as they could crack.  

I've seen other methods for heating online, such as over a candle or, if you're doing lots of items at once, in the oven on a low heat.

The heat melts the glue under the metal pan.  The pan should come out easily now.  Again, look for the edge which has the most space between metal and plastic.  If you have to force it too much, try heating it for longer or on a higher heat.  Too much force could bend then metal which will crack the shadow.

If your shadow does crack then it's not the end of the world.  Pinterest is full of tutorials for fixing powder products,  I've done it to eyeshadows and blushes and they apply just like before.

The larger, circle Z Palette stickers are just the right size for the mono shadows.

Here's my finished Extra Large Z Palette.  There were only a few casualties which were easily and quickly fixed.  I arranged it so that powders are away from the creams.  I have fitted in 20 smaller shadows and 9 larger ones.  I reckon there's enough space for another quad in there too (I'd quite like the Fatale palette at some point).

I don't think palettes like this are the prettiest things.  I am a sucker for nice packaging, especially in a palette, but for the practicality of having your shadows all together and taking up less room then I can get over the way it looks.

Illamasqua shadows in an Extra Large Z Palette

Have you had any depotting successes or failures?  I'm hoping to get another Z Palette to depot some of my large, bulky Urban Decay palettes.  They might be a bit trickier as some might involve breaking down the cardboard packaging.

I got my Z Palette from Love-Makeup but they are also sold at Makeup Geek, Beautylish etc.  They range from £8.99 to £21.50.  You can buy them cheaper on US stores but then have the extra import and shipping costs.

I hope this is helpful to some of you!

Rachel

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