Depot MAC Eyeshadows → Pro Colour X 4 Compact

This Christmas I got a great, great gift--a MAC Cosmetics gift card! Woohoo! So naturally I was browsing their website to see what kind of goodies I could score and discovered their empty palette section. I didn't give this much thought until I remembered hearing about people depotting their MAC eyeshadows. I don't have a lot of MAC eyeshadows (3 total), but they're a right pain in the patoot because they're so hard to store. The circular case with rounded lid makes them impossible to stack and arrange, so these 3 little guys take up much more room than they should. With a free shipping code (double awesome), I ordered a Pro Colour X 4 Compact and prepared to depot my MACs (and an Urban Decay because it is only a teeny-tiny bit larger and still fits the palette).

Top Row: Greensmoke, All That Glitters, Beauty Marked
Bottom: Midnight Cowboy

These adhesive magnets are perfect to stick to the back of the depotted pans ($2.99 from Hobby Lobby--look for their 40% off coupon, too!). They look like they were made exactly for depotting--they are the exact width of the pan and they are just the right thickness to put the pan flush with the palette.

I used this tutorial on YouTube to deconstruct the eyeshadow in a way that hopefully allows me to Back 2 MAC the packaging (I don't see why it shouldn't). This method also worked for the old packaging of Urban Decay eyeshadow.

How brilliant do these shadows look in the compact? For $9 (+ magnet cost) this is a pretty easy upgrade and it's going to save me so much space! The quality of the palette itself is top-notch. It has a matte finish on the black plastic with a see-through top that closes smoothly with a strong magnet. I don't see the palette popping open in a purse anytime because the closure is strong enough that you need two hands to get it open (but it's not difficult to open by any means). Another great feature of the palette that differs from MAC's traditional packaging is that it is very geometric. There are no curved edges which makes it great for stacking and saving space.

This is probably going to be one of my top purchases of the year, and it's only January!