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.

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.

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.

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

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

@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.

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. ;-)

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: 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.

Yes, I'm a guy.

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

@GitEmSteveDave: rotflmao

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?"

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

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

@magic8ball: LMAO! That is very tragic!

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

Kinda of a stretch.