What is this…a non nail polish related post???  Never fear, I’m not moving into the more general beauty blogging realm, this is just a one off because I couldn’t find a post anywhere about how to depot the new Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.  So as I was hell bent on pulling mine apart this morning, I took some photos while I did it.  My reasoning behind the depotting?  I don’t like to waste time in the morning putting on my makeup, so switching between my z palette and both my naked palettes was really annoying me – that is time I could be using to eat my breakfast and catch up on some blogs.  My bathroom is also horrendously short on space so I have to put away one palette before grabbing another one.  Depotting is the obvious solution for me, regardless of how nice the palette might be.  And honestly, the mirrors in the Naked palettes just reflect in my face while I’m doing my make up which is rather irritating.

So for anyone else contemplating depotting their Naked 2 palette – here is how I did it (and just to be warned, the pretty tin can’t be reused as the hinge is attached to the plastic insert tray)

 1. Separating the plastic insert from the outer tray

This was the bit I was most worried about – when I received it, I had tried just pulling it apart but the insert was clearly attached with something.  After a bit of brutality I could see it was slowly pulling apart so I grabbed a knife and used it to separate the two – the bottom part of the tin got slightly bent in the process but as I’ve already mentioned, the hinge is attached to the plastic insert so the tin isn’t going to function again anyway.

2. Cleaning up the glue

Turns out it’s held together with some form of evil foamy double sided sticky tape which is what I sliced through.  I tried my best to clean this up a bit using cotton wool and acetone so the plastic would be clean to melt but it wasn’t going anywhere fast.

3. Melting the plastic tray

I use my hair straighteners to heat up the inserts around eyeshadows for depotting (please try to overlook how grubby they are).  I covered the bottom plate with a piece of baking (greaseproof) paper to protect the plates from any unwanted melted plastic/glue/foamy stuff.  I ended up having to do this in four stages because the plastic insert has a really thick rim that is deeper than the pan area.  The majority I could get quite easily but the end ones were awkward and I had to hold it on the plate at an angle to get heat on the pan base rather than the deeper edge.  In the end, I found it easier to do this with the lid open so I could get more of the pans near the end onto the plate.

4. Removing the individual pans

This was a breeze – they virtually fell out and there was no awkward loosening where I feared I might slip and damage the eyeshadow.  There was no need to melt the plastic all the way through, once it warped slightly the pans just popped up.  I use a stitch picker tool to remove eyeshadow pans.  Apart from the risk that it’s extremely sharp at the end, it’s the perfect tool.  You can see it in the second picture here if you’re not sure what a stitch picker is.  You should be able to get one for a couple of dollars anywhere you can buy sewing supplies.  It’s much easier to use than a knife which I find too big.  You can see in this photo below how well it works to level our a pan (this was when I was trying to get my Inglot eyeshadows out of their magentic palette).

 5. Label the pans

I didn’t take a photo of this – I use cotton buds and acetone to clean off any left over glue, then labelled the back of the pans with a sharpie so I would know where they came from as I wasn’t planning to keep them in order.

6. Reshuffle my Z Palette

I originally planned on getting a second Z Palette before I did this but I’m still waiting for Crush Cosmetics to get the new versions with the magnetic stickers into stock.  Eventually I want to separate it out to have one palette for neutral eyeshadow and another one for coloured eyeshadows and blush (I still have about 10 eyeshadows waiting for depotting plus another 15 or so that got ousted from here to make space!).  This is a pro size palette for reference.  And for those who are curious what else is in here:

Underneath my UD eyeshadows are three CoverGirl eyeshadows from their Country Woods quad.  Below that are three mini Benefit blushes in Dandelion, Dallas and Hoola.  Next to that is an Almay blush in 110 Natural.  On the right hand side, I have four Inglot eyeshadows in 63 AMC (black matte), 409 Pearl (dark brown shimmer), 327 Matte (dark brown matte), 395 Pearl (pale beige shimmer).

My only casualty in the whole process was Verve which accidentally got swamped with acetone.  Apart from running the “brand new” texture on the shadow, it was just fine.

So there you have it.  Hopefully this is useful to anyone else contemplating depotting their Naked 2 palette as well.  It was surprisingly easy given the quality of the packaging so I say go for it if you’re considering it!