Hi, I'm new. Need E/S advice

[EleanorMcC]

Hi,

I'm new to Silk Naturals. I think they might have popped up when I was looking for DIY recipies for cleansing oil.

Any way, I ordered a couple of E/Ss to try them out. They are really beautiful! I have never used a mineral E/S before. I really love the way the micas shimmer in the sunlight. Also, they seem to look more natural as compared with many other E/Ss.

Since I am not sure what I am doing, do I need to use a special E/S primer with my new shadows. I have some UD primer potion. And I have heard of pixie epoxy. Please let me know what to do.

The other question I have is can I press these shadows, and if so, can I use the usual method, with alcohol, such as is seen on http://www.youtube.com/user/EnKoreMakeup? I really prefer to keep my shadows in a palette, such as a Z-palette.

Thanks very much.

[egerandi]

Hi and welcome to the world of pretty pigments

You don't need any special primers, some ladies can get away without any primers at all as long as their lids is nicely hydrated (aloe serum!) and not oily.
I used to use UDPP until I ran out at which point Karen (the owner of SN) came out with something even better, which unfortunately I can no longer find on the site, but it could be that I'm blind
In any case, UDPP will do just fine.

As for pressing, yes they can be pressed. I used to be a presser myself, but gave up about a year ago, because I'm a bit clumsy and made a lot of mess and lost pigment, which hurts even more when it happens to a limited edition shadow. It's up to you, it's question of preference. I used to use Coastal Scents pressing medium. You need more than just alcohol, because the shadows don't already have the other binders. Alcohol only really works with broken non-natural shadows that were once pressed, and maybe with MAC pigments.

[EleanorMcC]

Thanks. That's really helpful to know. Since you don't press your shadows now, how do you keep them organized? I'm not sure how to keep track of all of these little jars.

[zeebs]

Any quality primer works great with SN. I have used Bare Escentuals Prime Time, UDPP, and TFSI as well as the SN primer. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but they all worked just fine. I can't wear e/s without primer so I have tried many. Usually, I get what I pay for. SN's is good quality for the price and has better ingredients IMO, but Prime Time is my favorite in terms of performance even though it is ridiculously expensive.

Never tried pressing but others have.

[karen]

Welcome! You're getting great advice about the primers- it's really a matter of personal preference, and we're sort of "between formulas" at the moment with ours.

For pressing, I generally don't recommend it. There are gals that do, and love it, but for travel and storage I still like 'em loose. I currently keep mine in a little plastic set of drawers from the local discount store, and they easily hold one of everything. For travel, I just put the ones I want in my makeup bag and go.

[egerandi]

Thanks. That's really helpful to know. Since you don't press your shadows now, how do you keep them organized? I'm not sure how to keep track of all of these little jars.

Well, I'm in the process of reorganizing them. Someone else did this on this board and I figured it could work for me too (sorry, I don't remember the originator, but would like to credit them as it's making my life so much easier): I bought a three ring binder and a set of coin collector sheet protectors. They are 2"x2" and there is 20 of them on a sheet. I also bought 200 (don't judge me, heh) 1.5"x1.5" baggies and cut Avery self-stick labels to size for easy marking of contents. I am pouring my blush samples, and my loose shadows into them, and just inserting the already pressed ones in their pan into the baggies, then sticking them into the protective sheets.

So far, the blushes are done, two pages. I use an empty pan to tap a little blush out and the pan is the perfect size for my fiber optic blush brush.
Will organize the shadows by colors and will use an empty pan for those too and perhaps a mini scoop for easier access.

This means that I can just stick the binder into my drawer instead of having to sort through the containers that needs to be stacked, and turned over to see color and name.
I feel bad about the empty containers, but I needed to reduce clutter. Also this will make them more portable for travels along with the already pressed ones.

I counted about 150 shadows, 95% SN, but I've been only using like 5-6 in rotation, as they were on top. Hoping to get back into colors again

[zus]

I started pressing my shadows a while ago, I was travelling a lot and it was just getting messy and cumbersome to take my shadows everywhere, and I ended up not bothering anymore. SO in an attempt to wear more eyeshadow, I decided to press them so I could carry them in a palette! I used the Coastal Scents pressing medium and also their palette + pans. It's a shame that their pallete has their huge logo on the lid because I only have SN shadows in it though. I'd like to get a Z-palette some time, although I'm not sure how sturdy they are.

My experience in pressing SN shadows: First, I was too scared of what might happen if I used too little medium so I used a bit too much to some of the shadows. I actually have no idea what would happen if you used too little medium; I just kept having visions of opening my palette one day and finding a huge pile of multicoloured crumbs. The ones that I pressed to the right consistency turned out excellent, and the ones to which I added those extra couple of drops turned out a bit hard, which means some effort to get the colour on the brush.

I did ruin two colours in my process (I pressed about 20 in total). Rebel, which became a huge unsalvageable liquidy mess as soon as I added a couple of drops (I imagine because it was lighter than the other shadows actually needed much less medium), and that made me pretty sad, haha. Magnum was the other; it's not completely ruined, it just became kinda hard like some of the others, but it seems to have lost all of its oomph... It became incredibly sheer and the sparkle doesn't seem to want to get on the brush. As they were both black and sparkly, I imagine it might just be trickier to press sparklier shadows (although Intergalactic worked out super well, so maybe it's just me!). So now I have a sheer blah grey and need to buy a sparkly black... again!

Another thing: the GWP shadows don't always fill out a whole pan. In the future I might do two GWP per pan, because such a thin layer looks a bit sad! After the shadows were dry, I took off the sticker from the pot and stuck the name under the pan, so I can always switch the palette around (I don't have enough palettes). I don't know if it is of any interest but I can take a photo of the final thing. Anyway, I really like doing this kind of stuff so I had a lot of fun pressing and the mess wasn't too overwhelming

[Xarata]

Well, I'm in the process of reorganizing them. Someone else did this on this board and I figured it could work for me too (sorry, I don't remember the originator, but would like to credit them as it's making my life so much easier): I bought a three ring binder and a set of coin collector sheet protectors. They are 2"x2" and there is 20 of them on a sheet. I also bought 200 (don't judge me, heh) 1.5"x1.5" baggies and cut Avery self-stick labels to size for easy marking of contents. I am pouring my blush samples, and my loose shadows into them, and just inserting the already pressed ones in their pan into the baggies, then sticking them into the protective sheets.

So far, the blushes are done, two pages. I use an empty pan to tap a little blush out and the pan is the perfect size for my fiber optic blush brush.
Will organize the shadows by colors and will use an empty pan for those too and perhaps a mini scoop for easier access.

This means that I can just stick the binder into my drawer instead of having to sort through the containers that needs to be stacked, and turned over to see color and name.
I feel bad about the empty containers, but I needed to reduce clutter. Also this will make them more portable for travels along with the already pressed ones.

I counted about 150 shadows, 95% SN, but I've been only using like 5-6 in rotation, as they were on top. Hoping to get back into colors again

Frond does that I think she has an entire binder of just TSS shadows.

[frond]

Indeed I do... I have a whole binder full of TSS e/s sample baggies - white. (I use a binder that just has one plastic pocket each page. Then I use BlueTac to attach each baggie to the page.) Another one - yellow - full of random other brands (inc SN)... baggies full of e/s, blushes, glows, etc... I'm a real fan of baggies cos they take so much less space than pots. But that's me. The blue folder is filled with eotd ideas.

I should take proper pictures of them sometime and post them so you can see... but here's a quick look.

[EleanorMcC]

I started pressing my shadows a while ago, I was travelling a lot and it was just getting messy and cumbersome to take my shadows everywhere, and I ended up not bothering anymore. SO in an attempt to wear more eyeshadow, I decided to press them so I could carry them in a palette! I used the Coastal Scents pressing medium and also their palette + pans. It's a shame that their pallete has their huge logo on the lid because I only have SN shadows in it though. I'd like to get a Z-palette some time, although I'm not sure how sturdy they are.

My experience in pressing SN shadows: First, I was too scared of what might happen if I used too little medium so I used a bit too much to some of the shadows. I actually have no idea what would happen if you used too little medium; I just kept having visions of opening my palette one day and finding a huge pile of multicoloured crumbs. The ones that I pressed to the right consistency turned out excellent, and the ones to which I added those extra couple of drops turned out a bit hard, which means some effort to get the colour on the brush.

I did ruin two colours in my process (I pressed about 20 in total). Rebel, which became a huge unsalvageable liquidy mess as soon as I added a couple of drops (I imagine because it was lighter than the other shadows actually needed much less medium), and that made me pretty sad, haha. Magnum was the other; it's not completely ruined, it just became kinda hard like some of the others, but it seems to have lost all of its oomph... It became incredibly sheer and the sparkle doesn't seem to want to get on the brush. As they were both black and sparkly, I imagine it might just be trickier to press sparklier shadows (although Intergalactic worked out super well, so maybe it's just me!). So now I have a sheer blah grey and need to buy a sparkly black... again!

Another thing: the GWP shadows don't always fill out a whole pan. In the future I might do two GWP per pan, because such a thin layer looks a bit sad! After the shadows were dry, I took off the sticker from the pot and stuck the name under the pan, so I can always switch the palette around (I don't have enough palettes). I don't know if it is of any interest but I can take a photo of the final thing. Anyway, I really like doing this kind of stuff so I had a lot of fun pressing and the mess wasn't too overwhelming

Thanks. That's good advice. Maybe I will give it a try.

BTW, the Z-palettes are very sturdy and a convenient size. It is also nice having the glass window, so you can see which shadows you have.