Z Palette: to buy or not to buy?

I wrote last week that I had ordered my very first Z palette to house all of my old depotted eyeshadows from various brands that don't fit into a regular-sized palette (which usually holds 16mm eyeshadows). So I decided to embark on this little journey to make my own customized palette of random blushes and eyeshadows that I had laying around. When you are finished, your collection will look like this (but less beat-up than mine because some of my products are really used up and abused):

What you'll need for this project:

• depotted eyeshadows/blushes (if you don't know how to do this, check back to my depotting entry where I tell you how to)
• labels
• adhesive magnets (from an art store or department store)
• scissors
• Z palette or any magnetic palette that's empty and fits any size pans
• rubbing alcohol
• scrubbing sponge

Firstly, you will want to dab a scrubbing sponge into rubbing alcohol and make sure you take the excess glue off of the back of your depotted eyeshadow pan. This will make the whole process a lot less messy and keep your palette looking clean. Take your depotted eyeshadows/blushes and cut a label to write the name of the product, the company that made it and the color for your reference. Unstick the adhesive peel from the magnet and place it on the back of your eyeshadow so that you have reference if you run out of a certain color you love and need to go back and get some more. If you really don't care what the color or product is then just skip this step.

Tools you will need

Then you can cut out a magnet that measures the size of your pan, so place the pan on top of the adhesive magnet and stick it on. Cut around the pan with your scissors or an exacto knife so that you have a perfectly sized magnet. This magnet goes on top of the label to make sure your eyeshadow is securely in the pan. Some pans are magnetized and do not need to have magnets placed on their backs. It is easy to remove the magnetic adhesive strip by hand so if you need name-reference, you can simply do that and re-apply it. If you choose to put your label on the outermost side and sandwich the magnet between the label and the pan, you may not have as good of a grip and your shadows may move.

You can make a separate little paper sheet insert that you can stick to the window of the palette that acts as a guide to your colors. I chose not to do this because I don't use these colors extremely often and will certainly not re-purchase these brands when I can get my hands on MAC and Urban Decay shadows. I have NYX, L'Oreal, Maybelline, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Trish McEvoy, and Clinique products in my Z palette. Most of my stuff is from random gifts with purchases and drug-store buys when I was first starting out with makeup.

My first Z palette!

The last step is simply organizing your pans and popping them in the Z palette however you'd like! I like the concept of the Z palette because you can see everything you have inside, but the problem is that I thought they would be bigger. It turns out the Z palette PRO ($28) and the Z palette regular ($20) palettes only differ by half an inch in width and a very minuscule amount in depth. The depth is important to me so I opted for the PRO palette because I'm putting blushes and mineralized shadows in my next one. But if you're only going to put small eyeshadows, I suggest going for the regular one, as it is $8 cheaper. You can purchase them on Amazon, which is what I did and they arrive in approximately 3 business days. I like the fact that I can now stack all of my eyeshadows and blushes with my other palettes rather than investing in tons of those little Rubbermaid drawers to put them in. When you put things away like this, you risk not seeing all your products for long periods of time and purchasing items even though you already have some at home (but you don't remember because you haven't seen them in awhile). I don't like rifling through my single eyeshadows for a particular color I'm looking for, so this is going to make my morning makeup routine a lot simpler. I suggest buying these if you're a big fan of makeup and have an enormous collection like I do. I'm thrilled with the way I can see all of my colors so I know what to reach for! I give them a 9/10, only because I want more and I think they can be even bigger to fit larger products!

Depotting your single eyeshadows

Do you ever get annoyed at all the single eyeshadows and blushes you have and wonder how you can consolidate them? Are you looking for an easy way to put all of your eyeshadows together in a palette? Well, look no further because I have all the tips and tricks to do it right in this post!

All you need to depot your eyeshadows:

• your eyeshadow of choice
• a straightening iron (any old one will do)
• parchment paper (traditionally used for baking on)
• a fine-tipped knife that you don't mind getting dirty

Turn your straightening iron on and let it warm up while you're getting a piece of parchment paper and cutting it into something small enough to cover the bottom of your ceramic iron. Make sure you lean the iron down on a flat side, not with the ceramic portion actively touching your bathroom or kitchen counter. I suggest you do not put your iron down anywhere that isn't heat-proof, you may want to find a tile of granite to do this on. The purpose of the parchment paper is so that none of the plastic of the eyeshadow container will melt onto your iron and get it all gunky and gross. If you perform the steps as written, you will have nothing to clean up and your eyeshadow will be depotted!

Place your single eyeshadow compact onto the parchment paper that you have laid on top of the ceramic of the straightening iron, and let it sit for 30 seconds-1 minute, depending on how hot your iron gets. This will cause the glue underneath the eyeshadow pan, which is holding it to the plastic compact, to loosen. You can then wedge a fine-tipped knife between the pan and the plastic, along the outer edges of the circle, to loosen it out of the plastic casing. If you don't care about the plastic, you can really puncture the bottom with the knife and push the pan out very easily. But you won't want to do this if it's a MAC eyeshadow and you plan on sending it BACK2MAC (their recycling program where for every 6 containers you get 1 lipstick/lipglass of your choice). 

You can use a little bit of antiseptic alcohol or acetone to clean off the glue from the bottom of the pan, then you can attach a magnet on the back (one that has a sticker on the other side) and place it inside a Z-palette or MAC eyeshadow palette. Make sure if you do not have eyeshadows that all fit in the same size as MAC, you will want to buy a Z-palette or UNI palette from Amazon or a beauty-supply store so you can place them in. I'm currently looking for one for all of the assorted things I have depotted below. I will also be getting a MAC palette to place the tons of MAC eyeshadows I have and easily reach for them when I need them.

Happy depotting everyone!