Pressed Eye shadow instead of loose

[shy417]

Could you create pressed eye shadow pots like MAC? I bet they will sell like crazy! Many of my friends agree. The SN loose version is hard to controll, carry along, and manage.

[zeebs]

....or pressed powder?....

[superwahz]

Could you create pressed eye shadow pots like MAC? I bet they will sell like crazy! Many of my friends agree. The SN loose version is hard to controll, carry along, and manage.

I bet they'd sell like crazy too! But I think most who prefer pressed shadows that buy SN press their own... I remember reading some of the shades don't press as nicely as others (has to do with the shadow's texture I think?). Pressed shadows WOULD be nice for ease of use, but I can't even begin to imagine how much extra work it would take to create and maintain a line of loose shadows with a duplicate of each color as a pressed shadow.

It would be a cool idea for a limited edition release though! Kind of like a holiday palette? Or one per season with the season's "key" colors? Though I think I've seen mention before about it being hard to find the right palettes in small enough amounts for purchase since SN doesn't buy in as big a quantity as, say, MAC does!

For what it's worth, I open my shadows on a micro-fiber cloth when I can remember to. It catches any fallout, plus is handy to clean the brush off in between colors!

[missyjean]

I don't feel like it's hard to manage,it just takes a bit of getting used to. With the right brushes and technique they work really well. I put my eye shadow on after I do my foundation,so if any falls to my cheek it wipes away quite easily.

You should look up tutorials on youtube for pressing! It actually looks pretty fun to do yourself.

[ChristineLynnP]

Could you create pressed eye shadow pots like MAC? I bet they will sell like crazy! Many of my friends agree. The SN loose version is hard to controll, carry along, and manage.

I can't really add anything to the pressed discussion, but I just wanted to make another suggestion re: fallout and portability. It really helps not to pull the entire little plastic cover off the holes. Just poke through one hole with a pin, that way a very controlled, limited amount comes out only when you want it to. I take my shadow choices of the day to work with me every day in my make-up bag, and I store all my shadows on the side in little drawers at home when not in use, and I never have uncontrollable fallout thanks to the pin-prick method. At most a little is in the cap when I open it, but never massive amounts of product everywhere.

[karen]

I completely agree that they'd probably be very popular. There's a few reasons we don't make anything pressed- there are the practical things like getting the packaging and tools- but for me it goes a bit deeper. I'm actually planning a blog post about it one of these days.

Right now every ingredient in everything that we make is in there because it benefits YOU in some way- usually enhancing the performance of the product, or the appearance of it. I like that about minerals, and it's kind of the only way I know to think about formulas.

If you look at the ingredients in a typical pressed eye shadow it's usually something like this:
Talc, Zinc Stearate, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Isostearyl Neopentanoate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol, Phenoxyethanol May contain: and then they list various pigments

Zinc stearate is usually about 10% of a formula, so from that you can see that talc is at least another 10%, and then the rest of the ingredients are probably another 5% of the formula. So, in pretty much any pressed eye shadow about 20-25% of the recipe doesn't really do anything for you- it's pretty much just there to hold it all together. That seems like a lot to me. On top of that there are some pigments and ingredients that just don't like to be pressed so it restricts some of the pigments we can use which kind of feels too confining to me as a formulator. Jen pressed Vineyard when she was here, and it just lost a lot of its oomph, and I know things like Rebel, Blackheart, Coal, and a good portion of the WOW colors just don't press at all.

Oh, and I've broken a few pressed palettes and I've never really gotten over that. It's heartbreaking to have a giant pressed palette break apart on your bathroom floor. I'd rather sweep up a few mineral crumbs than have a whole palette become useless because of a little tumble. I actually like loose minerals more than pressed because they're a lot more durable for traveling. If you drop a bag of minerals nothing bad happens, but if you drop a bag of pressed makeup you have a real mess.

I completely agree that there is a bit of a learning curve with them, and you do need to switch to synthetic brushes, but other than that I think there are a lot of advantages.

[happyhiker]

For what it's worth, I open my shadows on a micro-fiber cloth when I can remember to. It catches any fallout, plus is handy to clean the brush off in between colors!

That's exactly what I do and it works beautifully. I keep a micro-fiber cloth with my swirly bowl so it's always there when I need it.

[JenW]

ChristineLynnP...thanks for the reminder about leaving the stickers on and making pin holes.... Another thing that might help is to put half a cotton ball in the top of the eyeshadow jar when you need to transport them. You might lose a little in the puff, but it will be much less messy than having the product all on top of the sifter.

Another thing I like about loose over pressed is the shelf life. If I am sanitary about the way I use my mineral products (by not touching a brush to the jar), the shelf life of them is pretty long. Siginficantly longer than pressed.

[superwahz]

I can't really add anything to the pressed discussion, but I just wanted to make another suggestion re: fallout and portability. It really helps not to pull the entire little plastic cover off the holes. Just poke through one hole with a pin, that way a very controlled, limited amount comes out only when you want it to.

That is brilliant! And exactly what I'm gonna to with my shadows from now on...in fact, I might go get clear stickers to do the rest of them with!

Even without the stickers though, I've traveled a LOT with my SN products and never had much problem... I just make sure their lids are on snugly, then pile them into this hang up makeup travel bag I have. It keeps them laying flat. I've broken almost all the pressed e/s palettes I've owned at one time or another and totally agree with Karen, it's heartbreaking! I recently had someone ship me a ton of loose e/s from overseas (not SN brand, but similar packaging). The box was super roughed up in transit, and though a few of the jars leaked a bit, all I had to do was dust them off!! I'm 100% positive had they been pressed shadows they'd have arrived in crumbs.

Jill-- That's exactly what I do, gotta love the swirly bowl/microfiber set up! Plus I have a spray bottle of brush cleaner nearby, makes keeping things clean so much easier!

[ChristineLynnP]

I can't really add anything to the pressed discussion, but I just wanted to make another suggestion re: fallout and portability. It really helps not to pull the entire little plastic cover off the holes. Just poke through one hole with a pin, that way a very controlled, limited amount comes out only when you want it to.

That is brilliant! And exactly what I'm gonna to with my shadows from now on...in fact, I might go get clear stickers to do the rest of them with!

This isn't a very eloquent suggestion because I can't think of what they're called, but you know those little white circle stickers, that are used when the hole rips in a sheet of paper in a binder, so you can put the sticker around the hole and the binder ring will go through it again? They work well to cover the sifter holes if you need them. Sometimes I peel back a little corner if I'm in a hurry and can't find something to prick through a hole of a new jar. That's almost always a bad idea because the more I use the color, the more the minerals loosen the sticker til it falls off. Then I need to pop the lid off, dump the excess product back in, and put a "ring sticker" for lack of a better word over the holes and prick one, like I should've done all along.

You can also use those little round stickers that are meant for marking prices on things at yard-sales. They're the perfect size to fit over sifter holes. They, too, are found in the stationary section or the aisle that has "For Sale By Owner" and other signs in a department store like Wal-Mart, Target, etc.