Monday 5 March 2012

Filling a Vintage Compact

Today's post comes thanks to Solanah at Vixen Vintage who did a tutorial on how to fill a vintage compact which I thought I would try and show you. If you don't follow Solanah, why not? Her blog is just gorgeous and quite frankly so is she!

I've been meaning to try this for a while I have one vintage compact that still has the mesh so you can fill it with loose powder and that's great but I have a couple of other compacts that are not complete and I just haven't been able to use them.

Anyway here's my little tutorial, or you can follow Solanah's, she does have prettier pictures!!

First thing you need is loose powder (my choice is Coty Airspun but I've had to import from the US you can't get this in the UK, any loose powder will do) and surgical spirit. Solanah states rubbing alcohol, I assume this is the US equivalent. You will need something to mix it in.


Then of course you'll need a compact to fill! I have two that I wanted to fill. You will need to make sure they are very clean before you start. The one on the right I've had for ages, my husband bought it for me and I've never wanted to part with it but couldn't use it, so it's so nice for this to have new life!



Next start mixing powder with surgical spirit, you will be able to tell the correct consistency, it needs to be firm enough to be binding together, if it's too liquid then add more powder, too thick add more surgical spirit. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the mixing together, just the bowl afterwards but you can see the remainder of the mixture so you can see the texture from there.



Once you've filled the compacts, level the powder with a knife or a piece of fabric. Solanah used a piece of textured fabric but I didn't think ahead of time and so just levelled with a knife.


I did neaten it up a bit after this picture was taken!!

Then leave overnight, depending on the depth of the compact, one was dried after a couple of hours, one took longer.

This is the end result.


Really impressive eh? I was so bowled over when I first saw the tutorial, such a great idea and as Solanah said, if it breaks up in your bag as powder often does, just repeat the stages again! Genius, sadly not my genius but I'm passing it on!

10 comments:

Vix said...

How clever! Loved your tutorial. I have a couple of vintage compacts but never use powder so I just tend to use them for the mirror but I know a couple of friends who'd find this really useful. x

Perdita Tinsel said...

This looks a great idea! I use pressed all the time (Max Factor Creme Puff) which fits many compacts but this will be idea if/when I find one which is an unusual shape!

Roxie Roulette said...

Ingenius!

Unknown said...

Wow that is a great idea ;-)) thank you. dee x

Jo Waterhouse said...

I've had a go of this recently too and it does work really well, but one downside I found is that your new powder smells really strongly of surgical spirit which put me off using it! I thought it might make me smell a bit too medicinal! If I try it again I might have a go at adding something to help cover the smell, like a drop of essential oil etc. I don't know how that would effect the powder but it might be worth a bit of experimenting!

Straight Talking Mama! said...

Hey Jo, yes I agree it does smell a little medicinal, however once on the smell isn't there at all. Might be an idea next time to try essential oil, let me know how that works out!

Jo Waterhouse said...

Will do! That's good to know the smell disappears though, thanks!

Anonymous said...

This is just fabulous! Thanks! xo LaurenMurphie

Lauren Mocny said...

Love the trousers! I wish I could make myself some, seeing as how I don't want to pay 200 dollars and I'm so tall! You look fabulous. Love the poodle brooch as well :-)

doradadama said...

what a clever idea!
I want to try when I find a bigger compact.
love your square compacts.

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