Everyone who own at least one cream eye shadow or gel liner has experienced this problem. The product always tends to dry up faster than it can be finished, which is a real pain! This is especially true for the MAC Paint Pots and Gel liners, I use these almost every single day and in fact I use them more than the average bear (using black gel to paint shapes on my face for photo shoots etc) and yet they STILL dry up on me!
Rather than throwing them out and buying a new one, I’ve been experimenting with different ways based on my findings online to revive them so I can continue to use them till they are completely finished.
I put together a very short DIY video to explain how I revived my MAC Paint Pots, but the concept can be used for any number of cream / gel based products. Essentially the steps are:
1. Add in MAC Studio Fix+ to your dried up product (I’ve seen articles saying that using very watered down moisturiser too, but as I happen to have Fix+ on me I just use this)
2. Put the product without a lid into the microwave and heat till the product has softened. For me I usually microwave at 10 second intervals. For this paint pot I needed to do it twice.
3. Remove the product and gently either using clean fingers or a cotton bud, press down. For this product I just pressed it down to seal up the sides so no additional air could touch it. Sometimes you will need to mix the product up so that the moisture is evenly distributed.
4. And that’s it! Product revived π
Another quick and simple way which I’ve found only works for gel liners is simply scrapping off the top layer to reveal the underneath product which has yet to touch air and is still creamy. It does mean you go through your product faster, but it’s much more hygienic and it’s better than throwing the whole thing out and buying a new one.
Hopefully you found this simple post helpful π
wtmontana says
LOVE IT! Thanks for sharing π
gio says
This is so useful! Thanks for sharing.
emmabovary says
That is so strange, I have the Painterly Paint Pot and use it daily but it hasn’t dried up at all for me-and I’ve almost used it all up? Maybe it’s luck of the draw, but it is good to know how to fix it if my next one doesn’t fare as well as the first.
nessbow says
Thanks so much for this! I was just about to toss out my old dried-up gel liner pot, but now there’s no need!