Why is this on Consumerist? This is Lifehacker stuff, Jezebel even, but consumerist? Jeez :/

It's on the site because it helps people save money.

I think the eye shadow is his.

@meghannmarco:

Kinda of a stretch.

His favorite tool is a microspatula. I just ... I have no response.

I'd be willing to bet money with Nail's like his, he is a drag queen!

@magic8ball: LMAO! That is very tragic!

It's the consumerist version of chick-lit. Only I've learned something. And it didn't have a purple cover. So really, nothing like chick-lit.

What's wrong with cracked eyeshadow? Really people... it's powder on the little makeup applier. Who cares whether the powder comes from cracked eyeshadow or not? Not me. If nothing else, then there is certainly no need to leave the linen imprint .. first application and it's much less pretty..... For some reason though, now I want a microspatula....

You know if i was going to do this I'd probably just prefer to have a dead president in my eyeshadow. Fun!

@JKinNYC: Enjoy your full refund.

@meghannmarco: Thanks! When do we learn to fix broken lipstick? here's a link to my mom's favorite magazine on how to fix all sorts of broken beauty products: here

Pretty oversensitive. If you are going to post beauty fix it links, you should expect some gentle ribbing...

@DjDynasty: Until he started talking, I thought it was a chick with man-hands.

Lol, this was quite random...

@MystiMel: It makes a huge mess every time you open the compact! Plus, you don't really want a bunch of loose powder on your applicator, because it'll get all over your face and won't go on as well...

And Meghann, you're totally right that it saves money. When you spend $15-20 per shadow, this sh*t is serious :)

just be sure to clean everything before it touches the eyeshadow, you gotta be really careful about anything that's gonna sit in a little pot like that for weeks or months then go on your eyes. Don't want germies growing in the pot.

Broken eyeshadow can be fixed with a hairpin, alcohol, a quarter, an old t-shirt, a ziplock bag and a rolling pin.

"That's great MacGyver, but is that REALLY going to help us get out of here?"

@GitEmSteveDave: rotflmao

@meghannmarco: Is that you Ben? Should you really be getting into Meghann's account, hmm?

I've done it before and it changes the texture of the eyeshadow...boo...

more lifehacker really and i dont do makeup but hey it saves money. though in the time it took one might have been better off buying a new one but hey to each his own.

When I heard "shattered eye shadow" I thought he was going to talk about how to remove shards of glass from a paste

Yes, I'm a guy.

@JKinNYC: Why should she expect that? I don't see how fixing makeup is any different from fixing or preserving any other nice-but-not-essential product.

Oh, right, I forgot. Makeup is for giiiiirrrrlllss.

We've all got to cut Meghann some slack here. I mean, think about it: she admitted that she's such a klutz that this hasn't happened just once but MANY TIMES (the dropping it on the floor thing). I bet she squealed with glee when she found this article and just had to share it with a quarter million of her closest friends.

Apparently he's a makeup artist. Those people can be a trifle obsessed about their tools and supplies. Which is really a good thing when you think about it.

This post saved me money another way. I am going on another business trip and I'm sick of having to put perfume in the ziploc baggie (the little containers leak like hell), so I was in the market for solid perfume. I wondered if there was a video for making your own, and sure enough, there was (the Instructables is the best one). I had made lip balm before and still had a bit of beeswax and a couple pots left over, and I had some professional-quality fragrance oil that I liked left over from a from a melt-and-pour soap making party. A bit of hazelnut oil from the pantry and a few minutes in the microwave, turn around twice, and it's cooling on the sideboard as I speak.

@JKinNYC: Yes. Read a post you think is worthless, and, instead of just ignoring it, bitch about it.

This was great, thanks Meghann! Wish I knew about this before I tossed a bunch of eye shadows out a few weeks back. Not everything needs to be about fixing some doo-hickey on a PS3, even if mine is a little dusty. ;-)

I still love meg marco

@CumaeanSibyl:

I agree, thanks for pointing that out. Meg, I found it it very useful, and will file it away for future use.

The people bitching about this have probably never saved up to treat themselves to a nice product only to have it break before it is used up. And for those of you who wonder what the big deal about broken eyeshadow is, it flops out of the tub when you try to brush it on. Also, too much sticks to the brush. Basically, it turns into a big waste.

thanks for posting this - and I -always- drop my fancy makeup. Buying/using quality product, and finding a way to fix it if it's busted, is way more consumerist than just chucking out the plastic it comes in and buying a new one.

Thanks, Meg. I haven't dropped them, but several of my Nars eyeshadows spontaneously cracked a couple of weeks after I got them. It's not worth it to take back to the store and hope they will give me a replacement, but it's good to know that I can now fix it on my own.

This, to me, was a useful post, and represents the diversity of topics that keeps me coming back to Consumerist.

Oh WAAAAHHHH! whine, whine, whine.... "Why is this on Consumerist!" whine, whine, whine... "eye shadow isn't a product people consume!" whine, whine, whine...

ANYway... Thanks Meg, I'm always at at loss when the shadow cracks --and as much as I travel it happens often.

obviously you need to restore your eyeshadow to one contiguous piece so it doesn't get sucked into your PS3 while you are putting on your makeup

You can totally skip the ziploc bag part and just drop the alcohol directly into the container. I'd never pressed it like he had, but I guess it adds a nice touch.

I am a consumer, this is a product that I consume and it is an issues that I have faced before thus causing me to purchase more product and now I won't need to. Thank you Meg, it was a very helpful post.

This is a great post! I will definitely be saving money--quality eyeshadow is expensive!

It's tough to fix a broken lipstick, but it's salvageable.

You can buy empty lip palettes at some beauty supply stores, or an empty pill box. Scoop the lipstick into the little well/pill box, and use a hair dryer from maybe a foot away to gently melt the lipstick without blowing the melted lipcolor all over the place. Then wait for it to harden. You'll have to use a brush to apply the lipstick, but if you buy the pillbox with multiple compartments, you can have several lipsticks on hand in a much smaller storage space. This method also works for lipsticks that has a bottom cap that shows the lipcolor, e.g. Sephora brand. That's actually lipstick in the bottom cap too, the bottom cap comes off pretty easily and you get a lot of applications from that little bit.

Oh yeah, as far as the eyeshadow salvaging, the part where they use alcohol to make the paste should sterilize it somewhat.