I am so excited to share this cool trick with you today!! I’ll admit it, I like to buy the good stuff when I buy makeup, and it is beyond frustrating when one of my kids (okay, or me) knocks down one of my MAC eye shadows, powders, or blushes, and it breaks into 10 million little tiny crumbles all over the counter.
I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me, and as much as I want to salvage it, it’s such a big mess, so I end up throwing it all away, and throwing away my money in the process!
- Broken powder makeup (powder, eyeshadow, or blush)
- Rubbing alcohol (the higher the concentration, the better- I used 70)
- Plastic wrap (optional, but keeps your fingers cleaner!)
2. Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol to the compact, and let it soak in. Use your finger, the back of a spoon, or anything, really, to rub and smooth down the makeup.
I used my finger (which is still stained bright pink after about 10 hand washes!) at first, but I found that I got better results by placing a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the makeup, and then rubbing the plastic wrap to smooth out the makeup. If the mixture is still too dry, then add a little more alcohol, and rub again.
3. Once your makeup is all smooth again, all you have to do is wait, preferably overnight. The alcohol has to dry out, and once it does your makeup will be totally back to normal, and the alcohol smell will be gone!
My blush was perfect the next day, and you never would have guessed that it was a crumbled mess the day before!
Is anyone else as excited as I am about this?!?
And if you’ve ever had a problem with your underwire poking out from your bra and stabbing you, be sure to check out my easy tutorial for how to repair a broken underwire bra.
Another DIY scrub that smells amazing is this Rosemary Mint Sugar and Salt Scrub.
I love you.
Half my make up is actually in that devastated shape (I’m a bit of a klutz)…and if I can make it work…you’ll have saved at least my favourite cyclamen eye shadow. <3
It works, I promise. And it will save you so much money! Yay for saving your favorite eyeshadow 🙂
I’m waiting for the eyeshadow to dry!
It’s a bit messier than yours, but I’m pretty satisfied with the result!
Yay for good ideas that save both money and perfectly good materials! ^^
Love that I could help you Arianna! Thanks for letting me know your results!
Love this tip! I use powdered eye shadow every day and I’ve thrown away my share of crumbled shadow. No more!….Thank you so much!
PS – to keep excess eye shadow powder off your cheeks, try CUES – Clean Under Eye Shields 🙂
You’re welcome Melanie! I’ve thrown away tons too, thanks to a toddler who loves to throw my makeup on the ground- not anymore! I’ll have to checkout CUES… never heard of them. Thanks for the tip!
Genius!
Thanks Heidi!
I’ll be trying this today on my favorite face powder that my kids decided to play with and proceeded to crush. I couldn’t bear to throw it away and now I don’t have to! Thanks so much!!!
You’re welcome Carolyn! Hope it worked well for you. Thanks for stopping by!
Im gLad i look this site up because i just knew someone had a great idea for crumble makeup.problems?thanks ladies
You’re so welcome, I’m so happy this tutorial has been so helpful for you and everyone else! 🙂
I’m so excited to show this to my mom! I dropped her blush last week by mistake… she still hasn’t thrown it out!
– Emily
Oh good, maybe you can help her fix it! So glad I could help!
And sometimes you can buy new make up on sale that is still sealed but has been dropped and crumbled! This would be a great idea for saving money that way too 🙂
Yes, that’s true, I hadn’t thought about that!! Thanks for the great tip!
I think I could use this trick with loose power to refill my favorite compact.
Yes, I’m sure it would work! Good luck!!
Amazing idea and so easy. I can’t wait to try it!
You’ll love the results, be sure to come back and let me know how it goes!!
After reading I thought about how I am constantly mixing two different shadows to achieve my favorite color. I smashed them up, followed you tips and I LOVE my ‘new’ eyeshadow! Muah
Oooh, GREAT idea! I need to try that!! Thanks for the tip!
I wish I would have known this long ago..thanks for the tip!
No problem, glad I could help!
Oh my goodness, I SO GLAD I found this! Thank you!
You are most welcome!! It is so satisfying to restore those sad crumbles back to their powder form 🙂
Wow! This is brilliant! Thanks so much for this great solution, also the underwire repair tips. I’ve sewn them back too, but didn’t know about the duct tape and clear nail polish! You’re amazing!
Hugs, Linda @ Grandmalay’s Daydreams
umm.. i Love you ??? my FAVORITE eye shadow trio broke and every time I go my make up I get gold dust all over my fingers and clothes but I couldn’t part with it. Im SOO happy i found this. Im telling everybody about this. your a life saver. !
OMG! I just did it with my all time favourite purple eye shadow (MAC)..I’m letting it dry out, so tomorrow I’ll see the result. Thank you so much!!!
your totally amazing!!!!!!! my kids have smashed so much of my makeup god i love u 🙂
Omg thank you your awesome!!!!!!!
Hey I was wondering if you substitute the alcohol for anything else?
You have any ideas? Or anyone else for that matter?
Although this one is fantastic. And thanks for the bra tip. You don’t know how much money I’ve wasted over the years and how much I’m going to save now.
Love you and thank you again..
Great idea. Question: When it’s in the drying stage, does it matter if you leave it covered or open? It probably dries faster open, right?
I left mine open so that it would dry faster. Good luck!
Oh my goodness my HD Brows palette just smashed! I’m so glad I found this post – I need to get some surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol) as soon as possible. Thanks for sharing this tip!
You’re so welcome! I’m still using this same MAC blush a year later, and it workes perfectly! That bright pink color has lasted me years now 🙂
Laura,
Your ideas are amazing. Thank you!
Laura, your ideas and tips are amazing. Your website is a breath of fresh air. Thank you!
Wow, thanks so much Sonya! What a compliment… you made my day!
Im always saving those compacts you cant get all the stuff out of it…hoping for a miracle to be able to make them work someday! Can’t wait to combine all my like type blushes into onr new one. I have 5 almost gone berry blushes! You’ve made my day. Thanks!!
Do you have any tips about restring a broken melted lipstick ?
My revlon colorburst lip balm is really hating the heat .
Keeping it in the fridge is a partial solution because I really like to take it with me in my makeup bag
Oooh, good question! What I’ve done in the past is to put the lipstick into an empty MAC palette that you can buy at the MAC Cosmetics store. Press the lipstick inside one of the empty holes, and then use a brush to apply the lipstick. It will still work just fine, and you won’t have to throw away your favorite lipstick! Hope that helps, and thanks for reading!
My teenager & i just went on a eyeshadow fixing spree ~ HOORAY ~ it worked!! Thank you so much 🙂
Yay!! It’s a pretty cool trick, isn’t it? So glad it worked for you! Isn’t it nice to not have to throw it all out now?
Can you substitute the alcohol with any non alcoholic liquid?
Can you substitute it with out alcohol?
Can you use something non alcoholic instead of rubbing alc?
whats rubbing alcohol pls
I’m so glad to find this…
I literally JUST threw away an eye shadow because my husband threw my make-up bag up the stairs and broke 2 of them!!!! Will try this in the future. I’m so thankful for pinterest and for you posting this!! Thank you 🙂
There are SO many helpful tips in your blog – thank you! I googled how to fix a broken underwire in a bra, and your wonderful post about the duct tape and upholstery thread came up (genius), and that brought me here, and now I’m hooked! So many broken bras and blushers that shall shortly be whole again . . .
I have a blusher which is muliticolured, will it work on this? I just keep trying to use it and it ends up on the bathroom floor so i pick up the bits n put them back in the pot and bluc0sh up again and it falls out …. well you get the idea of my repeated frustration!
Also rubbing alcohol, anyone and idea where you can buy this in the UK
Yes, it will still work on a multicolored blush. As to the rubbing alcohol, I’m not sure about buying in the UK. Here in the states you can buy it at any grocery store or drug store. I’m sure you could even find it on Amazon if you can’t find it locally. Hope that helps! Good luck, this really is a pretty cool trick!
Laura, i have been keeping my large Sephora SunDisk in a box for the past month since i totally dropped it (truth being said it wasn’t my first time dropping it, those of you who don’t know what i am talking about is a bronzer made by Sephore that is lie rally the size of a compact disc (cd, blue ray, whatever generation your a from its a 4 inch circular bronzer) so it I sack ward to store. Anyways it finally cracked but for some reason i couldn’t bare to toss it. As I was about to finally let it go i decided to google how to repair cracked make up and then there was you. The tip is amazing and totally works. I didn’t know that rubbing alcohol came indifferent strengths. Mine was 50% Isoproply Alcohol amd worked totally fine. I think i had to add more than when working with 70% like you used but this is what i had in my house so you know i had to make it work which it did. I used the plastic wrap, i didn’t even want to make a mess of my hands added until the powder was moist enough to put back together and then used a marker to smooth out the top. I found that the spoon left small lines in the makeup. Other than that your tutorial is by far the best hack I have ever read. And it totally works, for those of you trying to follow along there can be no exact amount of alcohol to add as each powder size is different. And you have to use alcohol bc most make up bases are made up of alcohol this is a genius idea. And for sharing this tip with me, here’s another great tip for fellow make up lovers
FYI NEVER THROW OUT ANY MAC MAKEUP EXCEPT THE LINERS. MAC RECYCLES WHATEVER THEY CAN: THE LIPSTICKS EYESHADOWS BRONZERS BLUSHES MASCARAS POWDER CAN ALL BE BOUGHT BCKTO MAKE EMPTY ONCE YOU HAVE 6 AND CAN BE TRADED IN FOR ONE NEWLIPSTICK (IN DEPARTMENT STORES) AND OR AN EYESHADOW (EYESHADOWS AND LIPSTICKS OPTIONS AVAILABLE AT MAC STORES
It’s a pretty incredible hack, isn’t it?! It’s so frustrating to drop your favorite makeup, especially when it costs so much. This trick has worked to fix mine every. single time. Thanks for sharing your experience! And a big YES to MAC recycling! I save up my packaging and have been recycling it there for years and trading them in for new lipstick. It’s so nice that they do that, isn’t it?
OMG – how am I only seeing this now? I have broken blush in my bathroom right now that I use anyway (i figure the blush gets picked up on my brush in micro beads anyway) but I hate that I have to tap so much off my brush before putting it on so I don’t look like a clown. I am desperate to try this!!
does this work on makeup highlighter? And can you use peroxide instead of rubbing alcohol?
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I just bought some $10 Hard candy blush for clearance at $5! I dropped the entire compact as i was opening it and it was the very last one! You saved my life!!!
Happy to help! I’ve used this trick more times than I care to admit, haha… It works so well!
I just dropped my favorite eyeshadow and thanks to you it’s fixed!
That’s great Anna, I’m so glad I could help you! It’s such a great feeling not to have to go out and buy new makeup, especially if you still had a lot of it left. 🙂
It’s a lovely idea to repair my blush on Thanks a ton!
You’re so welcome! It’s been life changing to be able to fix my makeup that I drop!