Actually pressing pigments! A tutorial (ish)
I've seen a number of people solidifying pigments, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in as well with a quasi-tutorial (quasi because I'm not actually showing the process of a single one, but rather pictures of the method and results - damnable real life prevents me from doing the full whammy).

I'd issue a wee word of caution to those solidifying pigments and not actually pressing them. If you have the opportunity, I'd strongly encourage pressing them too. I've found that when I merely reconstitute/solidify them, they run a higher chance of shearing, breaking, or just having large chunks come off when you run a brush across the top. Some of mine broke, or I'd lose a lot of 'crumbles' with a single swipe until I stumbled upon actually pressing them. This works marvelously! They seem to have the same strength as a regular pan eyeshadow. The only one I've had break was basically the result of an inadvertent drop-kick. And to be honest, I think any regular shadow would have tossed it's cookies at such treatment.



Some finishes work better than others. Mattes will easily turn into a strong solid block, but frosts (or broken lustres) take a lot of pressure before they'll turn into a strong, pretty, uncrumbly block.

Apologies for the steps I don't have pictures for (there's a few tutorials out there on how to do this part). I've been trying to get to this for months, but between thesis writing and finding employment (real world? what's that?), I've not gotten to it. I do have pictures of the pressing part though.

You can do this in any container of choice, with a broken eyeshadow or pigment. For the purposes of this tutorial I'll use an empty MAC pan (because I'm anal and everything must go into palettes), and go with a pigment.

1. Fill the pan about 1/4 full with pigment. Add a few drops of rubbing alcohol and swirl with a toothpick to make a bit of a paste. Ideally it should be rather liquidy to avoid air bubbles, but not swimming - too much alcohol will end up giving you a tiny cake. Add pigment to half full, and repeat. Do the same with 3/4 full. End with the pan completely full (you'd be surprised how much these things compress). I like to smooth out the top with a popsicle stick.

2. Dry. OPEN FLAME IS BAD. Remember this stuff is flammable. I lucked out - I have a food dehydrator. I can put my pans in there and they will be completely dry in less than a day. You could probably put these in an oven (on a cookie sheet or something) on the lowest setting possible (think WARM). And in a few hours it will probably be dry. Remember that rubbing alcohol also contains water, so it'll take some encouragement/time to get totally dry.

Now to press....


(pretend the empty pan is full of dried pigment)

I use a mini flower press (such as this one from B&N). Any small press works, so long as it can provide a lot of pressure. If you can distribute the weight effectively, you could probably do this with a stack of books/weights/whatever.
Edit: You can also get mini flower presses at Borders

Any swatch of material should work - I like denim because it's a bit thicker, and any additional moisture will be sopped up nicely.

Remarkably, a quarter is the perfect size of fitting over a MAC pan:


Like magic!

There is a teeny gap around the edge, but if you use a swatch of thick material (like denim), there isn't any room available on the edges, giving a complete press setup.

I load up the press with the pan, the swatch, the quarter (be careful when lining up the quarter with the pan, you want to get it inside the pan edges perfectly so that when it sinks - as it will - it sinks into the pan. If it stops on the edge, you don't get a complete and even press), another quarter on top (because I've had stuff sink so dramatically that the first quarter went all the way in), and a half dollar on the very top (to distribute the pressure a bit).
With the swatch on, you can usualy press the quarter into the pan a bit with just your fingers, so it's quite easy to get the perfect alignment with that first quarter.


Ready for pressing

Then crank down. If you have a larger metal object to replace the half dollar with to distribute the weight better, then do so. I've had to rotate my wooden boards because they've started to warp a bit, but then they just warp back in the correct direction - so long as I flip them every few pans, they stay pretty straight. Crank it down as much as it will go. Crank it a few more times a few hours later. Try again the next day. Eventually you won't be able to crank much more. I usually let these go for about 2 days, because I'd rather take the extra day then have it crumble.
Pull the whole apparatus apart, and voila:



Pressed pigments/repaired eyeshadows that won't crumble, shear or fall apart! (at least, won't crumble, shear or fall apart any more than a regular eyeshadow would). You can get a tinier hetch marking with a smaller weave swatch - the denim I used has the big fat threads.

Note: both pans, when the alcohol-sludge mix, were totally full - see how much they sunk?

As far as color payoff and difference, this hasn't altered any of the finishes (and it shouldn't, in theory), and they act just like regular eyeshadow pans. I can get a light wash or a heavy brush full, depending on how I load.

I love it!

If you don't have access to a flower press, or some alternative, I'd encourage you to at least load up the denim swatch/quarter combo, put a big hardback on top of it, and then press down as hard as possible. I think it'll help it stay together much better.

GOOD LUCK! :D