Easy Way to Remove Hardpan in Less than 2 Minutes
March 17, 2020Oh, no! You’ve just started playing with your newest eyeshadow palette, but you noticed a strange-looking film on your favorite shade. Suddenly that pigmented shadow you loved, doesn’t quite seem to be applying correctly on the eyes. Chances are high that your eyeshadow palette is experiencing hardpan. Although hardpan is a total pain to experience, there is is a quick and easy way to remove hardpan in less than 2 minutes.
My Natasha Denona Camel Palette in Arrosto (shade #1) & Copper Stone (shade #4)
What is Hardpan?
Hardpan refers to a dense layer of soil that appears impervious to water. However, within the makeup community, hardpan refers to a stiff, dense layer product that forms over the top layer of a powder product such as eyeshadow, bronzer, and blush.
Hardpan is common for shadows that are hard-pressed in the pan, as well as shadows that take a lot of pressure to build pigmentation on a brush or finger. Often times the oils from our finger or face contribute to hardpan occurring in powder products. And hardpan sucks.
In addition to looking nasty, hardpan in pressed powder products is beyond frustrating. Hardpan makes it difficult to apply the product to the face.
Easy Way to Remove Hardpan in Less Than 2 Minutes
1 | Gather Your Supplies
When I need to remove hardpan in powder products, I first gather my supplies. This includes the powder product in question and some translucent tape.
Step #1: Gather Your Supplies
2 | Dab Your Tape & Remove
After I gather my supplies, I begin to remove the hardpan in my product by gently dabbing the clear tape over the top of the affected powders. I gently press the tape on the top layer of powder and lift up. This removes the hardened layer of the shadow with ease. Using tape is the simplest way to remove hardpan.
Don’t be alarmed if the fresh powder layer looks a little strange after removing the tape. The texture often looks odd after the hardpan has been pulled away.
The metallic shade looks strange, but the hardpan has been removed!
Final Thoughts on How to Remove Hardpan in Less Than 2 Minutes
Although my tape technique is a quick way to remove hardpan, this method is not perfect. Removing hardpan with tape will waste product given that the top layer of shadow will be pulled away.
Additionally, this removal technique does not prevent hardpan from reoccurring in the same product. Curious at how the palette featured in today’s ‘how-to’ has held up? Read my review on Natasha Denona Camel Palette.
Should you lack clear tape, it is possible to remove the hardpan by using a pointed edge to scrape away the top layer of the product. This method is another easy way to remove hardpan; however, I find that it requires more cleanup than using tape.
Want to learn more makeup hacks? Check out this post that details how to repressed a shattered eyeshadow or powder product.
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Have you tried this quick, easy way to remove hardpan? Have you dealt with hardpan in your powder products before? Please let me know in the comments below.
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Brilliant, thanks for sharing this.
I have experienced this a few times and just presumed that the product was faulty or expired and stopped using it. Your tip will save me wasting product in the future and I’ll be putting it to the test later on a couple of products that are hardpanned.
Thanks again
💋
Same – I didn’t learn about this tip until last year, but it has been helpful. I don’t like throwing out products prematurely, so its nice to have another option to try. Scraping off the top layer can sometimes work, too.
Tried it, it really does work – thanks so much 💋
Yeah, the same thing happened to my eyeshadows. I thought they were expired or altered after I tried to disinfect my shadows with alcohol spray.
I legit didn’t know this, thank you for the tip, I’ll definitely try it
I didn’t learn about this until last year, but I wish I had known earlier. There have been so many products I tossed that I thought were expired but had really just gotten hardpan!
Yeah same!
Really great post I didn’t even know about this till I just read your post!
Love your blog 💕
I didn’t even know about this! I have a palette like this and I’d try what you said. Thanks for the post.
This is so helpful – I didn’t realise something could be done about it – you’ve saved me money! Thank you x
I didn’t realize this could be fixed either – I always assumed this meant the product had gone bad! But that isn’t the case
It’s fab that it’s so easy to remove! I tend to just fluff up the surface with a clean stiff natural brush xo
Makeup Muddle
That method totally works too – tweezers or a tiny metal spatula can work, too!
I never knew what that annoying layer of film was called but as soon as you used the word hardpan, I instantly knew what you were referring to lol. This is such a helpful post as I can think of a few beauty products where I desperately need to get rid of the hardpan lol, so thank you so much for sharing!
I never realized what this was either – I used to think it meant that the product went bad. Some formulas are really prone to this and it is quite annoying! Like the palette featured in this post gets hardpan all the time, which is frustrating.
Oh, I didn’t even know about this at all. This was a very informative post for me, thanks for sharing girl!
Wow! I didn’t even know there was an actual term for this. I notice it happening to any shadows I use a wet brush with & didn’t know it could be removed. I don’t mind the small effects of this method at all. Will def be trying it next time I have a hardpan issue. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your little trick with us! ♡
Isn’t it such a pain when it happens? It can happen with shadows that are applied with the fingers too (due to the oils on our hands). But its good to have a method to remove hardpan!