DIY Freestyle Palettes

I was doing some last-minute Christmas shopping at WalMart, and I happened to see a display of gift card tins. I have been on the lookout for tins that would make good freestyle palettes, and these were definitely it! I was happy to find one that didn't have a Santa or snowman plastered all over it too. The colors are still a bit Christmas themed, but it doesn't scream Christmas to me.

Here's what you would need:

• The gift card tin (Original price: $3.50; Clearance price: $1.75)
• Magnetic sheets (This was a 2-pack for just under $2)
• Ruler
• Pencil
• Scissors

There are two different ways you could set your palette up. The first way is to leave the tin as it is and place magnets on the back of any pans you want to put in your palette. I actually ended up doing this with a depotted Tarte palette (no pictures of that yet) because the Tarte pans were aluminum and wouldn't stick to a magnet.

The other way is to cover the bottom of the tin with the magnetic sheet like this:

I haven't come up with a perfect method for getting the magnetic sheet to fit exactly, but my favorite method right now is to measure the interior of the palette, mark out the outline on the magnetic sheet, and cut it out. Because of the rounded corners, I had to cut off the corners before inserting the sheet into the tin. Thankfully, the sheet is quite thin and flexible, so a minor excess due to poor measurements or not getting the sheet completely centered easily roll up the sides, so it still fits well.

Here's a look at my tin with a few eye shadows added. My particular tins are around 4 1/2 x 6 inches, and I can squeeze in 23 shadows in 26mm pans. If you are curious, the shadows shown were loose mineral shadows that I pressed myself.

Here's a couple of shots to show you a size comparison. I have Urban Decay's Book of Shadows IV, and it's HUGE and the drawer is a pain to pull out because it sticks. I could depot all of the shadows from it and fit them into one of these little tins. You can see in the bottom picture that the tin is much thinner than the BOS too (it's actually about the same height as the Naked palettes).

Now I just need to convince myself to depot the BOS IV from it's special packaging. As much as it annoys me, I'm still hesitant. Convince me, please!

With these new freestyle palettes (I do already have a couple from StarsMakeupHaven), I've put a Z Palette (or 2, or 3....) on my wishlist. I like these little ones, but I would like more larger ones that make it easier to see a lot of shadows at once.

Do you have any freestyle palettes? Do you depot your shadows?