You know that moment when you you go to take out your old favorite eyeliner or cream eyeshadow and you open it only to discover that its dried out? Ugh, terrible. Dried out eyeliner is the worst. Luckily I seem to have found a solution.

I was creeping in the comments of either Sephora’s website or Beautylish the other day, as one does, and someone mentioned that you can buy something called Isododecane and it will rejuvenate any cream eyeliner or eyeshadow. It’s amazing what you can learn just reading comments online. Of course I immediately went on amazon, bought a bottle and decided to give it a go.

Spoiler alert: It works!

I bought a 4.2oz bottle at $5.50 plus shipping, which is really good value. In case you’re wondering what Isododecane is, it’s not as menacing as it sounds. It actually just one of the main emulsifiers used in the production of many cosmetics (including mascara, eyeliner, creams, lotions, hair care, conditioners, hairsprays and perfumes) which explains why it works, you’re basically adding the original juiciness back in the the product because odds are it started out with some in there anyway.

The process is pretty simple, put a few drops into the dried out pot of eyeliner or eyeshadow, let it soak in for a good few hours and then mix it all up. I let this one sit for around three hours, but I also tried this on a pot of mac blacktrax cream eyeliner and I let it sit over night, and it took a lot less stirring to get it to come together. So either way works, but longer is easier if you have time.

You don’t want to use too much, or you will end up with something thinner than the original formula. A few drops (around the amount that I showed in the pot in the photo) is plenty.

I stirred mine with a makeup spatula because I’m fancy like that, but you can use a stiff brush or the back of a pair of tweezers or anything that suits the task. It doesn’t come out pretty looking, but it works like it’s brand new. That’s what really counts anyway right?

It seems to have all of it’s original properties too. Same staying power and all that jazz, unlike some other methods of rehydrating products like using eye drops and things along those lines. Those work to get the product to be moist again but I find that it screws with their formula a bit too much. Like yeah great, I can apply it but then it sits weird and wears off in an hour, cool. Pfft no thanks.

At such an affordable price, having a bottle of this stuff will probably wind up saving you quite a bit of money in the long run. Give it a try if you have some dried out eyeliner or cream shadow that you just can’t part with!