DIY Magnetic Makeup Palette

I have to tell you how excited I am about this DIY Magnetic Makeup Palette only because it is something that I desperately needed.  I’m so happy that I can make an endless supply of them!  I buy a lot of palettes but it always ends up that I like some colors better than others which is fine, except when I travel, I have to take the entire palette with me just so I can use those 2-3 colors.  My makeup bag ends up bulging with 3-4 different palettes and I know that I don’t need to bring all of them but I really like those specific colors.  I did end up buying this large magnetic palette and depotted quite a few of my shadows but at $25 for each palette, they certainly aren’t cheap and I’d almost like to spend that money on more make up, know what I mean?

You can find inexpensive palettes easily by shopping at stores that sell makeup geared towards tweens and teenagers. Forever 21 has this palette for under $9 that would work great. I got mine in store at Forever 21 for around $5 and got lucky since these have a mirror built into them.

Here’s my finished product!  And of course I glittered it too. 🙂

You want to know what my secret ingredient is?  Magnetic Paint!  I didn’t even know they made such a thing I just googled it, hoping something like that existed and indeed there was!  Just a tip, if your local craft store is small it’s going to be impossible to find it as I found most places here didn’t carry it (even my local Jo-Ann’s).  I just ended up ordering it on Amazon. 

Even though I wasn’t sure it was going to work, I documented the process.  So thank goodness it did work!

First your tools:

• Makeup Palette to use as the holder
• Your depotted eyeshadows, blush, etc…
• magnet sheet with adhesive backing
• Magnetic Paint
• Foam Brush
• Mod Podge/Glitter mixture (optional) – see my Glitter Everything Tutorial for instructions on how to glitter anything without getting glitter everywhere!

1ST STEP: REMOVING THE CURRENT MAKEUP PANS

• With your palettes, take out the entire part that is holding the current pans.  In most of the palettes, you can usually find where it’s glued together and with a little strength, it’s easy to pull off or use a tool to get it underneath and pop it off.
• Clean the glue residue off the inside of the bottom of the palette.

2ND STEP: PAINTING AND ADDING MAGNETS

• Paint the inside with the magnetic paint (it took me about 4-5 coats before I was happy with the magnetic-ness.  I tested my magnets to make sure it stuck.  You can paint coats every 2-3 hours but once it’s done, let the paint dry overnight.
• Take your palette and depot the pans.  This palette was easy as it popped right off.  It was just a bit of glue on cardboard but some are harder to depot.  (I’m not going to get into depotting as that it’s own animal but google “depot eyeshadow” and you’ll find tons of tutorials)
• Cut the magnet sheet to the size as needed.  Stick the adhesive side to the bottom of the pans.

3RD STEP: ADD YOUR CUSTOM COLORS AND GLITTER!

• Fill your pans to see how it looks/fits and if the magnets are sticking well.
• You could stop here if you didn’t care what the outside of your palette looks like.
• I have so much glitter left over from my previous glitter projects (here and here) so I wanted to use it and make my palettes even prettier.  (ha! I just love any excuse to glitter!)
• I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the mix of glitter to mod podge.  You want to make sure that all your specks of glitter are covered in mod podge.  This is how you ensure the minimal fall out.  1 parts glue to 2 parts glitter is what I aim for.
• If you have your pans still in the palette, take them out before doing any painting.
• Coat in glitter and let dry between coats.  Paint until every single area is covered in glitter!
• Instead of glittering it, you could also just paint the case and it would look just as cute.

And there you go!  A glittery, magnetic case that you can change out the pans to suit your different looks!

*If you are wondering about my makeup palette that I depotted, it is this Hello Kitty for Sephora palette.  I loved the colors but hated how big and clunky the case was so I rarely took it out to use it.   Now that I’ve depotted all the makeup, I’ve got a fun case to hold other stuff and am actually using the palette now.

If you liked this post, check out my other glitter DIY posts!

• Glitter Everything – instructions on how to glitter anything without glitter fall out!
• DIY Glitter Clutch