How To Fix Broken or Shattered Makeup!

Uncategorized / March 27, 2013

We all know that moment. You pull your favorite compact of powdered makeup out of your bag and your stomach drops, because it’s shattered into a a million tiny, unusable pieces. UGH the worst.

About a month ago there was a big snow storm coming through the area and I decided to ride it out by my mom’s house. The snow started coming down faster than I expected, and I was afraid to drive once the roads got bad, so like a total idiot, I packed up hastily and just threw all my makeup into my bag willy nilly.

Well this is what I found when I opened it up…

NoooOoOOOOOOoooOO!

My favorite, beautiful, versatile Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in “Charisma” that was still almost completely full!

It was crushed, and so was I.

I have seen a few tutorials on how to fix broken makeup, but they seemed to easy to be true. Finally the other day I’d had enough, I needed this blush back in my life! So I gave it a try, and because I’m such a freakin’ dedicated blogger I documented each step for the world to see!

For the record, this should work the same with any pressed powder type of makeup like eyeshadow, face powder, eyebrow powder etc.

Ok step one, I simply used the back end of a concealer brush to break the chunks of blush up into a powder.

Oh! that reminds me, when you see that it’s broken make sure that you close it ASAP and put it away somewhere. Don’t open it again until you have time to fix it! That will minimize the amount of mess and product loss. Verrrrrry important!

Make sure that you break it apart with the brush handle gently, this can be a messy process if you aren’t careful.

When you are finished, it should look just like that. If the amount of broken blush around the outside of the packaging is really excessive, wipe it with a makeup wipe or a damp cloth. It will be much harder to clean up later.

Now take some rubbing alcohol and pour a tiny bit into the pan of crushed makeup. Just enough to make it a paste that you can stir up. Start with a tiny amount and then add more if you need it because if you overfill it, it will be really messy and way harder to fix. It’s much easier to just add more as you go!

Use the opposite end of the brush you used to crush it up and stir it around until it it’s nice and pasty.

Then smooth it down with the brush into the pan as best you can. It won’t be perfect but it should sit in the pan pretty nicely.

Again at this point I used a makeup wipe to clean up around the edges. It will be much harder to get it off when it’s dry!

And now we wait….

You should probably give it around 24 hours to dry completely before you use it again.

Once the alcohol evaporates you should be left with a product which is very very similar to your original!

And here is the finished product! It’s not exactly as pretty as it was with the original stamping, but it works!

It works PERFECTLY as a matter of fact. Same texture, same color pay off, same pigmentation. I’m sure the results will vary slightly by product, but this seems to be a very effective process. I guess it wasn’t too easy to be true after all.

If I had known how easy and effective this was a long time ago it would have saved me a lot of sadness, and a lot of money on replacing broken eyeshadows. Live and learn right?

I hope this helps bring your favorite broken makeup back to life!

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Nicole Quinn

Blogger, face painter, regular painter, self admitted crazy dog lady and lover of snacks.

2 Comments

Fixo Bug

May 05, 2013

It’s just a great in addition to helpful item of information and facts. I’m pleased that you embraced this useful info about. Remember to continue being us current in this way. Many thanks giving.

How to Save Damaged Makeup Products

Mar 29, 2017

[…] some tutorials suggest taking the powder right out of the original pot and mixing it elsewhere, Ms Quinn Face opts to skip that step and just make the whole process happen right in the compact to save […]