CHECK OUT MY PIGMENT PRESSING TUTORIAL HERE!!
Clockwise from top left: L'Oreal HIP pigment in Valiant, Lumiere mineral shadow in Chameleon, Lumiere mineral shadow in Allure, MAC pigment in Pink Pearl
It's now 1:58 AM, but since I'm having trouble sleeping I thought I'd conduct a little pigment-pressing experiment. I had some empty eyeshadow pans as well as the remnants of random mineral shadow samples and MAC pigments and L'Oreal loose shadows lying around, so I though I'd try pressing all these different types of powders to see what's pressable and what isn't :)
So far I've mixed up a few Lumiere mineral shadows, a L'Oreal HIP pigment, and a MAC pigment. They're now sitting in the pans, and I'll be pressing them in the morning. Results to be posted in the AM!
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So it's now morning! Well later in the morning than it was when I started pressing my shadows. How cool do my new pressed shadows looking in my mini MAC palette?! I'd have to say I'm feeling very pleased with myself this morning :)
I'll be doing a more in-depth post on pressing MAC pigments in a few days, so no worries if you've never done it before!
As for the results:
The two Lumiere mineral eyeshadows I pressed are a huge mess! They look fine enough until I run a brush across the top-then it's a crumbly dust explosion. Loose shadow clouds all over the place! I also inhaled a good bit of powder and choked :\ Mineral shadows definitely need some sort of binder to hold them together (glycerin or the binding liquids you can find online).
The MAC pigment I pressed of course turned out absolutely beautifully! It was the easiest to mix up, consistency-wise, and it pressed to a much smoother finish than the other shadows (see the beautiful cross-hatch from the denim I used to press it above?). Overall I'd say I'll probably be sticking to pressing MAC pigments in the future!
I also had a L'Oreal HIP pigment in a lovely blue that I never used because I found the packaging to be cumbersome, so decided this would be the perfect opportunity to try pressing it. I know a lot of people have been curious as to whether pressing works for the HIP pigments, and I'm here to say that it does! The mixture was a bit lumpier than the MAC pigment, and it actually didn't look like it was going to dry properly, but once pressed it makes a nice solid eyeshadow. So if you've been considering pressing your HIP pigments but have been afraid to do so, I'd definitely go for it! Although I have to warn you, the pressing process ate through more than half my tiny little container of pigment!
I hope you found this pigment and eyeshadow pressing to be helpful! I'd love to hear about your pressing experiments in the comments!
See my illustrated pigment-pressing tutorial here.
See an EOTD using my new pressed pigments here.
10 comments:
Wow! The pressed pigments look great! It's a shame that the mineral eyeshadows didn't work out, because the bright pink one is beautiful. I can't wait to get my Pink Pearl sample now, it looks so pretty pressed in your palette!
About how many samples do you think it would take to press one pigment? I only ordered 1 sample of each pigment from the site you ordered from, but depending on which colors I end up liking, I'd want to order more to have enough to press a few.
BTW, do you receive some sort of shipping confirmation or anything once you place your order? I have my Paypal receipt, but haven't heard anything regarding the status of my order.
Oh, and where did you get the empty pans to use for the pressing? You definitely need to post a tutorial on how to press pigments soon!
Thanks!
What a cool idea, Jen!!!!! :D I need to do this with some of mine...
Wow MACs Pink Pearl looks gorgeous. How about some swatches??? I'd love to see whether the colour pay off is good. I really should go to another MAC counter since the one I usually go to doesn't sell either pigments or paint pots, nor empty pans and that stuff. And I need them!!! LOL. See ya around Jen!!!
Hey Nicole!
I'm really sad that the mineral shadows are crumbling too, since the colors are really lovely and it would've been great to have them in cake-form!
Pink Pearl really is gorgeous-you're going to love it!
As for how much pigment to use, you can't really tell from the photographs but for the mineral eyeshadows, I actually used 1/4 teaspoon samples that I'd ordered and they filled maybe 1/8 of the eyeshadow pan! I ordered 3 samples of each pigment in order to press them, but I'm thinking you might need 4. I'll definitely let you know once my samples arrive and I've tried it out, but I'd say probably 3-4 (aka 3/4-1 teaspoon of pigment).
A few days after ordering I received an e-mail from Cheryl saying that she'd shipped my order via USPS, and requesting that I let her know when my package arrives. I think you should be getting your e-mail soon :)
I'm at SO's right now and don't have the website that I ordered the pans from in front of me at the moment, but I'll definitely post later on. The pans are perfect and the transaction went perfectly so I'd definitely recommend the person that I ordered them from. I'll be sure to include all the info in my pressing post too!
Thanks Candace!
Pressing makes life so much easier! I hate dealing with the pigment jars. I love the way they look but they're just a major accident waiting to happen. I'm ridiculously clumsy so highly pigmented loose powders in full jars are no good for me :)
Thanks Marcela!
I'm definitely going to be doing swatches of the MAC pigments in a few days or so, when I've pressed all of the others, so I promise if you're a little patient I'll have swatches for you soon! :)
Pink Pearl really is so versatile and pretty! I thought it might be a little too purpley and shiny at first, but it's quickly becoming my go-to shadow for my eyes.
And just so I don't keep you in suspense, I'd have to say the color pay-off with the pressed pigments is just as good if not better! Since you're able to get just the amount of shadow on your brush that you want, it's a lot more precise. I'd say it's definitely worth pressing your pigments if you have the time and inclination!
It sounds like you definitely need a different MAC counter ;) How's a girl to survive without pigments? I honestly never thougth I'd be a pigment girl, but I'm in love!
LOL Jen, we're all addicts...The thing is, here in Argentina there are only 4 MAC counters if I'm not mistaken; I'll probably go to a different one on Friday. Yesterday I went, and the NN has finally arrived!!! Yay!!! But they're only going to start selling it as from next week...Oh well...If piggies got shipped too, I'll def be getting at least one!!!
Hmmm Marcela-you're making me think I may have to do a pigment giveaway for those of you who don't have easy access to them! Any color requests/suggestions? I LOVE my pigments and I know I'd be so sad without them :)
Yay for NN finally reaching you!! The pigments are definitely worth checking out! They're nothing uniquely fabulous, but they are very pretty.
I heard for mineral pigments you can use alcohol and biosilk or alcohol and chi silk infusion or alsohol and ion silk drops. Or you could buy easy press from coastal scents
Anonymous I've never heard of any or those methods over than the Coastal Scents pressing stuff--thanks so much for filling me in! I may just try the Biosilk and Alcohol since I have both of those sitting around the house.
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