Adventures in Depotting

When I went to IMATS, I picked up a black z-palette with the intent of depotting my Sugarpill quads. I finally got around to doing just that, and I decided to document my process! I've only ever depotted one other palette before (the super clunky Urban Decay Vice palette) so I thought it would be neat to see the process once it's all done. Please excuse the crappy carpet, we rent.

I have a large z-palette, and twelve shadows I want to depot. I was unaware of whether or not the Sugarpill pans would be magnetic (they are!) so I kept the magnetic stickers that come with the z-palette. Here's the tools you'll need for depotting:

• Hair dryer
• Tool to pry the pans from the packaging (I used tweezers...)
• PATIENCE!

I decided to start with a shadow I wouldn't miss tooooo terribly if I screwed it up - Tako, from the Sweet Heart palette. The first step is to warm up the glue holding the pan in place in the palette. You do this using the hair dryer.

Once the back of the palette is warmed up, you can go ahead and try to gently pry the pan out of the palette. You want to go slow here, as you don't want to rush it and bend the pan, or crack the shadow, or screw up in general.

I accidentally gouged this one - this is why I started with it! Thankfully, I didn't do any other damage to this pan, and it was the only casualty. Also, don't use tweezers...I should have sprung for the neato depotting tool that the people from z-palette make.

Success! Thankfully that one gouge was my only screwup and this popped out pretty easily. Slow going is your best bet with depotting, gently ease pans out of their packaging. Sugarpill quads have cardboard packing, so they give pretty easily, letting you pop the pans out with ease.

Managed to get the entire Sweet Heart palette done in short order once Tako was done. The pans are magnetic, so they pop right in, no stickers needed!

Mission accomplished!! All four palettes depotted, with only one slightly marred shadow after all is said and done. I'm super happy with my new depotted palette, especially now that I can shuffle the pans around.