Sunday 18 April 2010

Depotting NARS Eyeshadow Duos

I love my NARS but the black rubber packaging seriously annoys the hell out of me. It's super sleek and smooth when you first purchase it, but once you start using it, you realise that it attracts powder particles and gets messy very fast. And in a hot and humid climate like Singapore, it degenerates into this sticky mess that leaves icky black residue all over my fingers that I literally have to scrape off. At US$32 for a duo, I certainly expect much better packaging!

I've written earlier about depotting my NARS blushes. Today, I decided to depot my three NARS eyeshadow duos as they had similarly gotten too gunky and gross. All I needed was a candle and a tweezer with a slim flat tip. It took only 10 minutes to depot the three duos.

I held the duo over the flame for about 10 seconds to soften the glue between the plastic pan (holding the two eyeshadow metal pans) and the rubber case. Then I held the bottom right corner of the duo over the flame for about 20 to 30 seconds and then I slid the flat end of the tweezer into the corner and lifted up the plastic pan from the rubber case. The plastic pan pops out quite easily and once you get the hang of it, the entire process takes less than 2 minutes.

I did nick the corner of the blue eyeshadow in my Rated R duo, but fortunately, it wasn't too deep.

Here are the '"liberated" duos. The green duo is Cleo and the beige/orange is Méditerranée. You can also remove the eyeshadow pans from the plastic pan if you wish (just hold the pan over the flame to soften it and then pop the eyeshadow pans out) but since the plastic pan does not get sticky, I left it as it is.

I keep my depotted NARS blushes and eyeshadows in CD cases. It's not the most glamorous setting but it's easy to see all the shades at one glance. I also tend to use these more frequently after depotting as I no longer have to deal with the sticky cases.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Had the same problem with my Bloom's lipgloss =/ Philippine's weather is humid too and it makes the rubber icky after a while...

Unknown said...

Wow.. I live in Canada so thank god I don't have to worry about it getting sticky and gross.. But I agree, the packaging does get dirty VERY fast.

Tracy said...

oh dear! It's definitely a pity to have to depot expensive eyeshadows. Hope it doesn't do the same to my existing Nars stuff.

Jessying said...

Yeh totally hate the Nars casing, such a nice colour but bad packaging. I am thinking should I depots my Nars now.. :(

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this tutorial! I was thinking how to depot them once they get sticky!

shopaholic said...

it has to do with the cheap plastic used in the packaging. there are bettr plastic in the market suitable for all-weather/climate. NARS has evidently used the cheaper alternative that does not match its product quality/reputation.