Thursday, October 28, 2010

How to Refill a Vintage Compact

Get your materials together. You will need a bowl, a spoon, a knife, rubbing alcohol, your powder, your pan to fill and a few paper towlels handy. This can get messy!

Be sure to clean out your compact VERY well to get rid of any bacteria. The compact I'm filling is quite big (four inches across) and the pan was missing when I got it. I was just going to fill it without a pan but then realised that the little latch to open it pushes in and would disturb the power (or perhaps just not be able to open). Even though it is half the size, I popped a pan out of an old MAC compact (it did not come out easily!). So it's going to look a bit silly inside but oh well, it will work! I think the next time I fill it I will use something as a barrier by the latch and fill the rest of it.

Combine your power and rubbing alcohol in your bowl and mix. It takes a bit of work it get it just the right consistancy and it wants to dry very quickly. Using an antique spoon helps. Transfer your mixture to the pan and use a butter knife to scrap the top even.

On my first try it was WAY too watery.

Second try was better but still not quite ideal however I was out of power by this point so I went with it. If you want to press a pretty design on the top with lace or cloth this is the point where you would do so, assuming that yours isn't too wet like mine. If it is, wait 30 minutes to an hour for it to harden a bit (but not all the way) and then press it down. If you do it when it's too wet you will just have a mess. Wait 24 hours for it to dry completely then glue your pan into the compact. I like using Tacky Glue because it holds well but you can still remove the pan later by popping it up with a butter knife.

Once dry, my powder had cracked quite a bit, I'm assuming because I didn't have the consistancy perfect. Still, it is functional and much nicer to pull out of my purse than what I had been using. Give it a try!

2 comments:

  1. This is brilliant, I've always wondered how to do this and now I know.

    Great post.

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  2. What a great idea.Never thought I could do that.always went out and bought new makeup.well now i can save it yay.thanks.

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