I know this is an old thread, but...I've now depotted 7 MES and all of them are in perfect condition. (I'm pretty klutzy, but I do have steady laboratory hands so maybe that helps). I'll take a picture when I'm not too lazy to get my camera out, but I actually find them EASIER to depot then regular eyeshadows. Granted, I am super careful while doing this, but honestly it's not that hard to do. Literally, this is all I do:
-Take the desired MES and pop it out of the plastic container (I find this works better when angling your small knife into the edge of the plastic container and not directly on the "lip" like you usually would with other eyeshadows - take it at an angle and make sure you don't push up too hard)
-Slice away the lip with a pair of wire cutters (I believe EnKore does this in his depotting tutorial :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o--oPgjo43o) carefully
-Wedge your knife (I use a small CutCo knife - it's tiny and just folds into itself, like a Swiss army knife) in between the bottom of the plastic container and the bottom of the terracotta disc
-Slowly push the knife forward (this will help to loosen the glue) and once you hear the glue coming apart and loosening, lift the knife upward to free the eyeshadow from the pan.
-The pan is out! I then hold it by the edges - a little pigment will get on your fingertips, but no biggie - and I lay it facedown on a clean piece of paper.
I then keep the glue on the bottom of the ES to use for my magnet and label. I cut my own labels out of a magnetic sheet (I peel the label off the bottom of the container and slap that onto the sheet, then cut that piece of the magnetic sheet out and put it onto the bottom of the disc). Also, I have small tins from my Dr. Hauscka face sets that are perfect for about 6-7 of these puppies. I plan on getting plain tins for the rest of my eyeshadows just b/c I'm not very picky about what my palettes look like. Tins = palettes, as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't have to say MAC on it for me to want to use it
I just want less clutter in my drawer because I have about 25 MES at the moment, and they are all just kind of sliding around in their little Container Store containers, while the rest of my eyeshadow are sitting pretty in their palettes.
This is also a great video (all of his vids are great):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lw8v_yIhMo and this link is great too:
http://pinchypea.ch/2010/10/how-to-depotting-mac-powders-cremes-mineralized/
Happy depotting...
