Repair Broken Makeup and Create a Travel Makeup Palette

Do you get frustrated when you drop a compact or your eye shadow, and your makeup shatters? Me too! I also get frustrated with "all in one" makeup palettes that have too much of one type of makeup, and not enough of another.

That was the problem I had with this drug store makeup palette. It had way too much eye shadow, a little too much lip color, and most of the blush had broken out of the palette.

I loved the size of the palette, and the convenience of having everything in one place. I travel quite a bit, so having an easy travel makeup solution is really important to me.

After doing some research, I discovered that broken makeup can be repaired with alcohol and pressure. Considering the dire state of my makeup palette, I had nothing to lose by attempting a makeup makeover. The great thing about using alcohol to repair the makeup is that it kills any funky bacteria that your makeup may be harboring.

I started by scraping out all of the makeup from the metal pots. If I were to do this again, I would try to remove the metal pots to refill them. To refill the eye makeup, I ground up the powder with the back of a spoon, then spritzed it liberally with rubbing alcohol to make a paste. The paste was then scooped back into pots in the palette and pressed in really, really well. It's important to use a lot of pressure for this step, so that your makeup holds together.

For the blush, I used some inexpensive drug store makeup, and repeated the same steps used for the eye shadow. You can see that I didn't get quite enough alcohol in the blush mixture. I ended up spritzing it a bit more before pressing it down into the pot.

When pressing powder makeup into the pots, it's helpful to put a piece of tissue between the makeup and the tool you are pressing with (I used the back of the spoon). 

I decided I wanted to include some cream foundation, to make the palette truly "all in one." For this, I literally just scraped some foundation out of a compact. While I don't prefer to use this style of foundation daily, it's perfect for traveling, as I don't have to have it scanned separately by airport security, since it's not liquid. It can be used as a foundation, or to cover blemishes or under eye circles.

For the lipstick, I used a makeshift spatula made from an old credit card to mix three similar shades. I used the lipstick that had been in the pot, plus some tube lipstick that was almost empty. Then I spread the new lipstick mixtures into three of the pots.

For the last two pots, I pressed some loose face powder into one pot and spread the last of a favorite tube of bronzer into the other. Because I am pretty pale, I seriously need my bronzers! I didn't stress over getting everything pressed down perfectly evenly, but you certainly can, if that is important to you.

For applicators, I used dollar store eye makeup wands for eye makeup and for lip color. I cleaned the old blush applicator with alcohol and reused it. It fits nicely on top of the two smaller wands. For the foundation and face powder, I used a trimmed down sponge applicator, also from a dollar store.

I've already traveled with this made over makeup palette, and I LOVE it. This and a travel sized tube of mascara are all I need! As I've gotten older I travel with less and less stuff, not wanting to be weighed down and slowed down by heavy and bulky bags. 

I hope this post encouraged you to look at your old makeup palettes with new eyes, and to attempt to repair broken compacts, etc. What have you got to lose, after all?

You might also enjoy this Eco Natural Soap review.

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Thanks so much for stopping by!
Amanda