DIY Z-Palette!

Hallo Zusammen! So the other day I came across a video on YouTube about depotting makeup. I have never really been interested in consolidating my eyeshadow collection, mostly because I'm a packaging hoarder. But then I remembered a palette that I've had forever from the brand Shany. I bought it when I still lived in the states, and traveling back and fourth twice semi-damaged the box. One of the hinges broke and it wouldn't stay closed anymore. They aren't the most high-quality shadows, but some of them are pretty enough to save. I started looking at different sites to see if I could get some Z-Palettes for a little bit of a cheaper price, but I couldn't find any. So that took me to Pinterest to look up some DIY tutorials. I found quite a few, but most of them used a DVD case or something like that, and I was looking more for an original Z-Palette look and feel. So my husband and I put our heads together and came up with this idea. I hope you enjoy it!

The things you will need to make you palette are:

-A box or pieces of semi-thick cardboard

-A magnetic sheet

-Some small magnets or Velcro, I bough magnets but ended up using Velcro

-A box cutter

-Some decorative paper, or whatever you want to use to decorate your palette.

-Magnetic tape for the back of the eyeshadows

-A ruler

-Super glue

-Tape

My costs for this project broke down to right around 10 Euro, which is half the price of an original Z-Palette, and it was a ton of fun to make. I'll give you a total cost break down:

-Cardboard, free

-Magnetic sheet, €3,95

-Velcro, €2,75 or magnets, €1,55 for 12; I was going to use two, which breaks down to about €0,26. The Velcro comes in a roll with 2 meters inside, and I used 2 pieces about 2,5 centimeters in length. Broken down that adds up to 3 cents per piece!

-Magnet tape, this was the most expensive part of this project, a roll of 4 meters came up to €5,95. I used 2 centimeter pieces on each shadow, and I put about 60 shadows in my palette. That's a total of 120 centimeters of 4 meters, which is €1,80.

-Decorative paper: The monster paper was €1,85, and the orange bat paper was €0,85.

-I already had a box cutter, but you can get one at the dollar store or a hardware store for around 5 bucks.

-The ruler was only €0,85, but I'm sure most of you already have one.

-I already had the super glue and tape!

Total cost: €9,90 Cost of an orignal Z-Palette in the same size (from the Z-Palette website): 23 USD.

So the first thing I did was measure my magnet sheet and trace it onto my box. After making an error and realizing it needs to be a little bit bigger, we increased the template by 1,5 centimeters. If you match the cardboard exactly to the magnet sheet, it will be just a little bit too small and harder to work with.

Now you should have 3 equal-sized pieces. One of them will be the frame for the magnet sheet, and the other two are the base and the lid. The next thing I did was tape the lid and the base together using a few strips of packing tape going from the front to the back like this:

I would suggest placing the piece that will become the frame in between the base and the lid, so the palette will fold backward when you open it. Another suggestion is to add a strip of tape below the strips holding the palette together on each side to make it more sturdy. I then removed the piece that will become the frame and added more tape on the inside, just so it wouldn't be sticky.

Next, I cut out the center of the frame and set it aside. Be careful, this piece will be a bit fragile until it's covered with paper. After I cut out the middle, making sure it was big enough to fit the magnet sheet, I fit it to the frame to make sure it still closed.

The next part was a little tricky for me, because I chose a paper that was a little bit thick and thus hard to work with. I laid the frame down on top of the paper and traced around it, then added a bit extra so it would fold over and attach to the frame.

After I cut out the monster paper, I traced the lid on to the orange bat paper, fitting it exactly. I cut that out and set it aside so I could glue it to the inside of the lid after attaching the outside cover paper.

Next I began covering the outside of the palette with the monster paper. I had to fold the paper back and forth a few times to get it pliable enough to stretch over the palette. I tried to superglue the edges of the paper to the palette, but found that using tape was much easier.

Now that the back is covered, close the palette a few times to loosen up the paper, unless you're smart and are using thinner paper. Next, I glued the orange bat paper onto the inside of the lid. The glue shows through a little bit, but it should be less noticeable when it fully dries.

The next step is to cover the frame in your choice of paper. I used the orange bat paper because it was easier to work with and I wanted the inside to match. I just wrapped paper around the frame and glued it down in the back. The back doesn't have to be perfect because you're going to glue it down anyway.

I don't have a picture of this next step, but all you have to do is glue the frame to the base of the palette. It's really simple, just be careful not to get superglue all over your fingers like I did!

All that's left now is to stick down the magnet sheet. Mine was self adhesive, so all I had to do was peel off the paper on the back and stick it down inside the frame. Smooth it out to make sure it sticks well.

Lastly, cut two of the same sized pieces of Velcro, and stick one on the frame and one on the lid in the middle. If you're using magnet, you'll have to cut a hole in each side that fits the magnet, and super glue them inside the hole. My Velcro was also self-adhesive.

And that's it! Now you have your very own Z-Palette! Here is mine with some shadows in it:

Depending on what shadows you're using, depotting can be pretty simple. There are a ton of tutorials on YouTube, but if you're interested in how I do it, leave a comment and I'll write another tutorial. I really hope this project will save you some money and you can have some fun doing it! Send me photos on my Instagram if you make one! @Mandymbeauty, link also in sidebar!

#diy #tutorial #makeup