Eyeshadows - collect or create?

[Cupcake]

We all have colours that either didn't work for us, or we have too many that are so alike that we're over-stocked. I'm curious - what do you do with your "spare" minerals? Hands up who keeps every colour as it is, like a collector's item! Or does anyone like to dabble at playing 'mad scientist' and try blending a few things together for fun?

I'm a blender! And a rehomer... There are some eyeshadows too beautiful to mess with. If they don't work for me, I find them new loving homes. Sometimes, if I get too many the same - and I do seem to acquire a lot of antique gold-taupey beige brown shimmers - I might add a little something extra like a scoop of Fire to punch up the shimmer. Or I might throw it into a less-than-special plainer colour to make that more wearable.

Are some colours too precious to mess with? No-one touches my Idolize, Pop or High Beam... Do you collect every colour in a brand, or every colour you can find in a colour range (like, say, purples).

What are your colour closet confessions??

[karen]

I gotta say seeing the colors on people- blended, mixed, matched, paired, and brought to life by the women who wear them is pretty much my favorite part of the job. I love seeing the special touches you add to each look, and the creativity that *you* bring to them. So many of the shadows look downright boring in the jar, but when you put them on and they warm up, and blend with your skin tone they really take on a special uniqueness. It's a beautiful thing to see.

Some of the things I've done with minerals??? I've used them for various craft projects- pigment is pigment (at least chemically speaking), so you can make them into a lot of things. I've made them into nail polish. When I took the picture for the front page of the site with all of the spilled minerals I made quite a few glass magnets by coating glass marbles from the dollar store with some white glue, and then dipping them in minerals. After they were dry I added a backing of aluminum foil, and a magnet- they're really pretty! I've added them to melted ultra thick embossing enamel (little plastic pellets that you melt) and made some experimental jewelry. I'm not a great jewelry maker, and the embossing enamel isn't really durable, but it was a lot of fun. I've also used them to tint some home made Fimo like clay. You take white glue, add cornstarch until it forms a dough, and tint it the color that you want. You can also tint it with acrylic paint. It doesn't take much to do any of those projects- just a few of the small scoops, and it's a fun exercise in creativity.

[JenW]

I got rid of quite a bit from the first MMU company I tried extensively. I rehomed some of it, and pitched some. That was back in the day before the synthetic brushes were sold..... The natural hair brushes became the best cat toys ever!

A few years ago, I mixed some from bulk micas and raw materials, then sold them or gave them as gifts. I still get requests for a few of them from friends and family.

Lately, I usually keep mineral things on hand for reference.....

So, I guess I have created in the past, and rehomed or pitched in the past, but now I mostly collect.

[Xarata]

i used to do a lot of swapping with makeup from other companies- and anything i have duplicates of...but i generally just collect. I'll send samples out of my jars but i always keep a pretty decent portion. There isn't a whole lot i can't wear and sometimes i kind of like the challenge of figuring out how to make a color that "isn't for me" work.

I haven't done it recently but plan to revisit something like what karen does for jewelry, you put pigment in epoxy and it makes a colored stone, you mostly use it to fill channels, like engraved metal, thick rings, relief bracelets (the kind with an outer silver outline and silver shapes inside- they're usually an oval shape). It's inexpensive and pretty and quite durable (it's basically resin). Come to think of it you could probably use the same principle for a stained glass effect...and you do use pigments pretty similar to these when you make plastic (i had to make plastic in college- there were color pigments and pearl pigments)

i've also used pigments for lipcolors, dusted over paints and facepainting (puts a great shimmer on a mermaid's tail or a fae face), hair glitter or cheekbone highlighter, to tint my latex elf ears for blending in. Have never tried the nailpolish thing but mostly because i only paint my nails 2 ways anymore- blood red with silver shimmer or french tip. (I did the crazy nails thing in high school and it was fun, but "i'm a big kid now")

[lilychemgirl]

Mostly I re-home (I do a reasonable number of RAOKs, and the odd swap), or if it is something less desirable (like a bright electric blue eyeshadow I once bought, lol) then I will give it to my 6 year old to play with, or if I have a friend IRL who I think will use it I give it to them. I don't really use them for crafts, although I have done quite a bit of face painting of my kids
e.g. This is my 6 year old as a mineral makeup pussy cat:


That's pretty much the most creative I get.

I mix micas to make different colours and have blended blushes and have made lip glosses (with versagel and various oils and micas, but I don't generally mix finished eyeshadows, it feels kind of sacrilegious to take these beautiful creations and then re-mix them!

[superwahz]

Ummmmmm... *raises hand* Yep, I collect...usually. If I really don't like the color I may take a generous sample of it to set aside for swatching or to remind myself why I didn't like it, then swap the rest or give it away to a friend. But for the most part I keep them. I do give out a ton of samples though, both to people IRL and swapping. I think both my mother and sister have a substantial MMU collection purely through taking portions of my stuff!

I haven't made much of anything else with them other than sometimes I combine samples and such into new blush or eyeshadow colors. Oh, and I have made lipglosses and body dust. I just can't resist playing mad scientist every once in a while, though normally I get that itch scratched in the kitchen!

I gotta try adding some to nail polish though! I used to create new polish colors all the time, or buy lots of clear polish and mix random things into it. Unlike Xarata, I didn't get to paint my nails crazy colors as a teen (to my parents, lavender polish was a stretch) so my nails are often all sorts of random colors.Toenails, that is...can't keep polish on my fingernails. I have a feeling I'll be painting my nails pale blue even when I'm 70, I'm a color addict! Right now they are a bright, very opaque lime green! Bet it would look cool with shimmery Fairy Dust layered over it!

[sewwies]

I collect and collect and collect... then when one of my friends is having a big night out or comes to stay and my collections got a bit out of hand, they get buried under a heap of minerals lol...