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To depot or not to depot?


To depot or not to depot? Do you keep the majority of your stash in pots or do you depot and keep everything in palettes? Why/why not?

I depot MAC eyeshadows into palettes, but I don’t depot anything else. Although, I’m way overdue on depotting!

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Carrie Avatar

I’ve only depotted once – my UD Book of Shadows III because I was getting the 15th Anniversary palette and needed the drawer space. It worked well enough, I guess, but I just don’t have the motivation to depot much more than that. Then again, my stash isn’t huge and I’m not buying much anymore *and* I periodically go through and find new homes for things I’m just not using – all things which make the stash manageable.

Nichole Avatar

I prefer to depot. The only shadows I haven’t depotted are Nars and LMdB. I’ll depot Mac, Urban Decay, Rock & Republic, MUFE and theBalm. I love MUFE large magnetic palettes.

Lulee Avatar

i depot everything. im a total depotting addict. it’s just saves so much space and encourages me to use products i wouldnt normally reach for

buntewollsocke Avatar

I don’t depot anything – not even my MAC eyeshadows. I prefer single eyeshadows and don’t like big palettes. The thing that I most dislike: palettes with round and foursquare pans inside. It looks too inharmonic for me.

Becca Avatar

I’ve never depotted anything because I love packaging and it looks better. The only reason I haven’t depotted MAC shadows though is because I buy them in pan form and almost never buy shadows from collections…

RF Avatar

I am SUPER for de-potting!!I’ve found that since I de-potted my MAC and UD eyeshadows, I’ve actually used all of my colors much more often! It’s easier for me to see what I have and this allows me to work the formerly seldom-used colors into rotation! It also helps me to much more easily take stock of what I have, so I don’t double buy or lust after colors that are similar to what I already have. It has also shown me just how many eyeshadows I actually have, and this has helped (albeit ever-so slightly), me to not hoard as much makeup!! 🙂

GlowyJen Avatar

I’ve just recently started depotting and this is exactly the benefit I’m seeing – being to see what you’ve really got. Also, I buy a lot of palettes, and depotting them lets me rearrange them and mix them together to come up with whole new color combos.

Kathy S. Avatar

Every powder shadow gets depotted to save space and for cleaning and organizational purposes. I’m behind in my depotting as well, because I need to get more palletes. I love the MAC and Z palletes, but I’d like something that’s the size of the Coastal Scents 26 and 28 palletes because then I could have more shadows together. I know that I can just chuck out the plastic pan holder, but it still doesn’t hold enough pans for me.

Ryou Avatar

Nope! I actually don’t like palettes much. ^^; I mix and match colors a lot, and I find that having eyeshadows grouped in a palette makes it more difficult to do so. Also, if I want to travel, I’d rather just grab several individually-packaged eyeshadows than having to rearrange palettes or bringing some shades I probably won’t use (since it’s included in a palette)

Maria Avatar

Does anyone know of a palette that works for depotted MAC larger eyeshadows, like the mega metals, pro long wear, or diameter of a mineralized eyeshadow? I’ve deputed a few but can’t find a palette for them 🙁

Dinitchka Avatar

The Uni and Z palette fit them. They do not have pre-designed ‘holes’.

I have the old style Uni palettes (which I LOVE but they have a new style) and I don’t even cut the magnet sticker sheet that comes with it. I just lay the entire magnet sheet on the bottom of the palette and then stick my shadows or blushes on top.

WARPAINT and Unicorns Avatar

MUFE eyeshadows are the same size and Japonesque makes a shadow/blush palette that fit those sizes. You can also go with a greestyle palette that is metal like the Unii ones or MUFE Empty Magneted Palette.

MAC pans are not magnetized so another option for them is to metal grips that both Z-palette and Yaby sell to adhere to the bottom of the pan for a freestyle magnetic base palette like the Z-palette or the Japonesque ones.

Victoria Avatar

After depotting all my eyeshadows (the ones I could get out anyways, still haven’t figured out UD) I use them all SOOO much more. It took forever to depot everything but it was really worth it. I like to make my own palettes using cute flat asian pencil tins 🙂

Veronica Avatar

No. I generally like the packaging they come in, and I admit that I find de-potting somewhat intimidating. I’d have to kick myself if I accidentally destroyed an eyeshadow in the attempt to depot it.

Amy Avatar

I’m a fan of depotting my eyeshadows. I find that I am more inclined to use them if they’re all in one place. I hate having to go into three different palettes to create one look.

mumtaza Avatar

I want to badly. I have way too many singles and I do duplicate buy or just not profit fully from my color selection/ potential for look inspiration because I can’t really see (or sometimes find everything). Any suggestions for good tutorials on depotting? Also what palettes should I buy? I’d love to have a mirror in there but it’s not necessary. The palette would have to take every different shape and size pan. I’d love to be able to have an ultimate mattes palette, color families, brands, finishes, etc. I think it would really help me get the most out of my makeup. Can anyone help me with suggestions?

Josefina Avatar

I find that it depends WHERE you go, some counters/stores are very picky and some dont mind as long as you keep the plastic holder where the metal lifts off from. Compact and the holder should be fine, if not go to another place. Other than that, wouldn’t hurt if you attempt to make friends first. 🙂

May Avatar

I’ve never had a problem turning in depotted eye shadows to MAC stores or MAC counters at Nordstrom. I’ve heard of some salespeople actually requires the metal part but from my experience the salespeople rather not touch the containers to check. I once was 2 products short and the MUA allowed be a 2nd lipstick but then I did purchase a lot of stuff from him.

Dinitchka Avatar

I depot for the sake of storage and convenience. I’m a bit OCD and like to see everything at a glance. Having 10 or more single eyeshadow pots being used on a daily basis kind of nerves me. I like to open a palette and see all the colours. The only thing I don’t depot any more are lipsticks and gloss’. Well, all lip products for that matter.

I own the Uni palettes, which I love!

Mariella Avatar

I don’t depot, though when I can, I purchase eye shadows in pro pan form to put in palettes. Depotting is just too time consuming and I’ve seen far too many eye shadows that have been gouged and broken by depotting. I wish it were easier (I don’t see why the “ring” holding the pan in place can’t just twist off.

Chester Avatar

I’m all for depotting. I live in a tiny one room apartment where space is scarce. Every eye shadow, no matter the brand, has been depotted and has been put in either a MAC palette or metal pencil cases. Plus, I love to rearrange my eye shadow to customize them for a trip or to rebuild a quad / palette I’d love to have. Recreating them with what I have in my stash has actually saved a lot of cash.

Jaime R Avatar

I depot my shadows into palettes and I just recently started de-tubing my lipsticks into round, stackable containers in an effort to keep my makeup collection from taking over my entire apartment. I also decant my pigments into stackable round containers because having both the new and old containers in my makeup drawers was a storage nightmare.

Yazmin Avatar

I depotted all my mac eyeshadows because i was convinced i wasnt using them in the pots as much as the pallettes. I wish i didnt. i still dont use them as much in the palettes and my little brother knocked over a palette and three eyeshadows fell out and broke yesterday 🙁

The only upside is i got like 50 eyeshadow pots for b2m.

Joan Avatar

I depot my MAC eyeshadows for ease of use. in fact I’ve already depoted recently purchased ‘Robins Egg. For weekend travel I simply put 4 shadows in an empty quad that I maintain just for this purpose. I stow my palettes neatly in a sloted CD holder atop my makeup table. I’m way too pragmatic to just toss them in a drawer and not use them maximally. I have numbered my palettes 1-8 and keep a running alphabetized list of the shadows (120 so far) by name and color description. My Naked and other palettes are in their original packaging but I resist purchasing products that might languish inaccessible & unused at the bottom of a drawer.

Jennifer Avatar

I usually only depot my single shadows, it’s just too annoying and long to go back and forth between each shadow. I usually never depot palettes unless the packaging is too large (urban decay book of shadows) or inconvenient to use.

Ashley Tatton Avatar

I depot everything I can just to keep it all conveniently in palette’s. I’d like to do my mineralize eye shadow’s soon but I need to find a palette deep enough first. I was thinking of trying art stores for metal tins. I currently have a whole drawer dedicated to them and that’s just too much room.

Lee Avatar

I depot all MAC (even special packaging) and MUFE and that’s the bulk of my eyeshadows. I have a few UD palettes (the Nakeds, etc.) I just keep in the original palettes (I don’t have any as cumbersome as the Book of Shadows).

francesca Avatar

I do not depot anything.I bu mac eyeshadows in pro pan. I do not have any limited edition shadows.
Ibuy most things loving the packaging as much as the product itself. Depotted blushes etc. do not attract me at all.

Stargirl Heuser Avatar

Depot everything! If it’s not in a palette, it ends up in a drawer forgotten. I have a handful of DIY palettes that stand up in a small box where I can easily find and grab them. There are a couple baked shadow that I haven’t depotted. I destroyed my first attempt and decided not to try again.

Cassy Avatar

I’m like you, I only depot my MAC shadows (and only the normal size ones, not mineral shadows or any of the other bigger ones) I don’t have enough individual pots from any other brand that they’ve become obnoxious yet.

Ursula Avatar

i depotted a bunch of random shadows like lorac, stila, and a few mac ones in a mac palette with the dividers taken out. since the pans are different shapes and sizes, and the magnet i used isn’t strong enough, they slide around and i’ve had quite a few shattering incidents. i’m kind of sorry i depotted now 🙁 too much hassle!

Zadidoll Avatar

Depends on the original packaging. I had bought a Flirt! cosmetics palette last year that came in a cardboard box but the actual shadow pans were in a flimsy plastic container. If you took the pans out of the box the whole thing would flop around but if you left it in the box the cover would constant close. It was a royal pain the in the rear so I depotted it from the plastic and put it in a case.

Sheena F Avatar

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to store MAC mega-metal e/s or Pro-longwear ones? I am seriously thinking of depotting them but have no idea on what kind of palette to store them in like the regular sized MAC shadows. I love them but they are taking up a lot of space in my drawer and I sometimes have trouble locating them. Any ideas for palettes, etc?

Sunny Avatar

I do depot eyeshadows that will fit into my MAC palette, including Urban Decay and NYX trios. I have been thinking about getting a Z palette so I can depot my other eyeshadows and blushes though. I think it will greatly reduce bulk and also make it easier to have all the options at my fingertips.

Lotus Avatar

I find that if I haven’t depotted an eyeshadow, it’s less likely to be used. I keep every MAC shade color coded in the 15x palettes except when I travel and then I use several of the 4x palettes. I love saving on space and staying organized!

Joanna Avatar

I do not depot…or ..I have nothing to depot..
All of the mac shadow I have are mineralized and…they’re too big to fit into the palettes.
I do think it’s a good storage way to depot the shadows and keep them into palettes (we can also exchange lipsticks!!)

Rosanna Avatar

Depot! Especially if I have a lot of eyeshadows from one brand. I also love that MUFE, Bobbi Brown, and Laura Mercier eyeshadows can be popped out of their individual case into their brand’s own empty palettes! They need to make them bigger than six pans I don’t travel with a lot of eyeshadows and it saves up soo much room. It’s sometimes really inspiring to just open all the palettes up at the same time and see all the colours.

I’ve never bought the Urban Decay palettes (although I do like the colours), but I would definitely depot those eyeshadows because I hate their bulky, space consuming cardboard packaging.

Although for some reason I can’t bear to depot my NARS eyeshadows (duos&singles)…

Lizzi Avatar

The only time I’ve de-potted was with my Kat Von D pallet. I forget the name of it, but it was the first one she did that looks like a book. Came with false lashes, 16 shadows, and a dual rollerball. The space it took up compared the the amount of eyeshadow was ridiculous. So I popped them all out and superglued them to this cute metal tin I found at Michaels for a buck. Works so much better now!!

Cynthia Imperato Avatar

I spent an entire day last winter during a blizzard deporting all my Mac eyeshadows into the large size Z palettes, I have 8 full palettes arranged by colors and and an empty small Z palette to pick and choose what colors to take with me every day. Works for me!

Ana Avatar

I keep them on pots I’m scared of breaking my mac shadows since they are so expensive… If I have the opportunity I’ll buy the pro palette refill version along with an empty quad… But there’s no mac pro in my city.

Safyre Avatar

For the most part I depot, I find it saves me a lot of space which is great, because I don’t have a lot of space 😛 I feel like I use some of the colors more often as well, because they’re in sight and if several are in a palette together it’s easy to just get that palette and use it. There are some palettes, like the Urban Decay Naked, that I haven’t depoted though, I feel like if I wanted to travel with them, the original packaging is generally sturdier.

Jennifer Avatar

I depot everything: eyeshadows, blush, and powder! I even press mineral eyeshadows, blush, and powders so Incan ur them in my zpalettes. It’s so much better than having bunches of pots and containers laying around.

Brittany Avatar

i only depot my eyeshadows into pre-shaped palettes (ie MAC or MUFE). there’s something that drives me nuts about the way depotted shadows/blushes look in z or uni palettes. it just looks sloppy. but that’s just me being crazy, i think!

Lark Avatar

Never. I didn’t even know this was something people did! I don’t have so much makeup that I feel a need to, though. I have my Naked palette and maybe four or five individual pots of eyeshadow. I don’t wear blush. I don’t know what else I’d depot. Also, I like pretty packaging 🙂

tduadu2 Avatar

Rosanna, Would you please answer me the question as to whether or not the Laura Mercier & Bobbi Brown shadows can interchangeably fit into each others palettes? Or do they only fit into their own brand’s custom palette? I’m trying to decide if I need to buy a 6-pan from each & where I can get the best deal from since I have to do it online (I live 2-hrs away from the closest shopping for these types of brands unfortunately) & I would greatly appreciate any help I could get beforehand. Thank you so much in advance for any help that you can provide!

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