How to Make A Brazilian Clay Eyeshadow Palette

I learned how to make eyeshadow because big name brands are unnatural, and the natural brands are expensive. This DIY eyeshadow is amazing!

There is nothing more fun than making your own makeup.

Experimenting with colors, ingredients, and styles is a great way to develop your own custom makeup.

I have been wanting to learn how to make eyeshadow for some time now. Between the cost savings and the ability to customize my palette it was a DIY no-brainer.

However, I was a little nervous about how to make a DIY eyeshadow. Some of the ingredients were foreign to me and I also needed to make sure all the ingredients I used would be safe near my eyes. I wear both glasses and contacts, so I was especially concerned about how those ingredients would wear.

Note: here’s a bonus recipe on how to make eyeliner.

Natural Clay-Based DIY Eyeshadow

A cosmetic brand that I love released a clay-based matte eyeshadow palette that I absolutely adore, but I don’t really want to spend $40 on eyeshadow at the moment.

Instead of buying that palette, I decided to get a sampler of Brazilian clay from this company. It came with 0.2 ounces of five shades of Brazilian clay (natural, purple, yellow, pink, and dark red). That was just enough variation and substance to experiment with how to make eyeshadow, plus $7 was a great deal!

How to Make EyeShadow: Choosing A Base

Brazilian clay is great for DIY eyeshadows because it is slightly oil absorbing (like most clays), but not overly drying. Brazilian clay is also a fine powder like kaolin clay, so it blends well with other eyeshadow additives.

I also wanted to add a bit of sparkle to my DIY eyeshadow (but not a lot of shine). I chose a merlot sparkle mica that was eye and lip safe. Not all natural micas are safe for eye and lip cosmetic formulation, so take care to find out if yours is before using it on your face!

Experimenting With Color

If you want more variety, you can choose many different types of micas. From deep red to purple to green and blue, there are so many gorgeous micas.

Finding the Right Binder

When learning how to make eyeshadow, it is important to have a binder. This helps all the ingredients blend and stay together. It also helps your eyeshadow colors go farther. Since I have lots of arrowroot powder on hand, I decided to use this. Other binders include titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and magnesium stearate.  Some of those add extra sheen to eyeshadows.

Pressed vs. Loose DIY EyeShadow

I’m not a huge fan of loose eyeshadows because I am afraid loose flecks of powder will irritate my eyes. That is why I chose to make a pressed eyeshadow palette. This also required the addition of oil which can greatly shorten the shelf life of your shadow.

I chose to use red raspberry seed oil because of its stable nature and long shelf life. Red raspberry seed oil is also very light and has a nice subtle, fruity scent.

Finally I needed an empty, sterile eyeshadow palette. I bought this one because it has a magnetic base with individual metal tins. It was easy to sterilize the metal tins with 91% alcohol before filling them with my DIY eyeshadow.

These instructions for how to make eyeshadow are a little more involved than most of my recipes, but definitely worth it! I encourage you to experiment with colors to find your own perfect palette!

Now that you know how to make eyeshadow, go get the ingredients and get started!

Be sure to share you experiences in the comments below.

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