Have you ever heard of the term ‘hitting the pan’ being used in a makeup tutorial and wondered why they’re talking about kitchen appliances in a video about makeup? If this is you, carry on reading to find out what ‘hitting the pan’ and other eyeshadow terminology really means.
Pans
Pans are little metal tins that hold single eyeshadows. They often come in a circle, but can be square shaped too. Typically, pans are made out of metal and are durable, magnetic and dense.
At Unhidden Beauty, we use tinplate plans to store all of our eyeshadows in. These little pans are great for slotting into your custom palette, are magnetic, and are fully recyclable when empty!
Hitting The Pan
“Hitting the pan” refers to the moment when you begin to run so low on a product that you can see the bottom of the metal pan that the makeup product is stored in. A lot of people view hitting the pan as an achievement - it means that you have used up the product and aren’t wasting any of that precious pigment!
Quick tip: once you hit the pan on your Unhidden Beauty eyeshadows, the metal pans can be recycled once the base label is removed! You can replace your favorites by buying single shades from us too!
Packing
No, we’re not talking about the best part of preparing for a holiday!
Packing in makeup terms means building up the color of a particular shade in a particular area of your eye. For example, you could use a bright blue shade all over the lid and ‘pack’ it on across the eyelid to achieve a vibrant and bold color.
Depotting
Again, we’re not talking about gardening here. Depotting refers to the process of removing the eyeshadow from its original makeup palette and transferring it into a new palette or holder.
Depotting eyeshadow pans can often be complicated - but due to the already customizable nature of our eyeshadow palettes, you can easily depot and replace your eyeshadow pans. We recommend carefully using a cocktail stick to lift the eyeshadow pan up out of the palette and sliding it out using your fingers.
Cut Creases
If there’s one eyeshadow term you would have heard before, it’s got to be the cut crease.
A cut crease eyeshadow look is one which defines your eye crease to add extra depth and dimension around the lid. Most people tend to use a concealer, foundation or a very light eyeshadow to carve out the crease on the bottom of the eyelid, adding a darker shade above the crease to accentuate their eye shape.
If you’re worried this sounds a little too technical for you, then fear not! Check out our blog post on eyeshadow hacks to discover a no nonsense way of creating beautiful cut creases.
Terminology of the eye
Now that we’ve tackled some of the most confusing eyeshadow terms, let's look at the anatomy of the eye, so you will never feel lost when reading an eyeshadow tutorial again!
Brow bone - the area just underneath the arch of your eyebrow
Crease - the folded area of skin just above the eyelid
Upper lash line - the area of skin just above your upper lash line
Lower lash line - the area skin just below your lower lash line
Tear duct - the inner corner of your eye
Waterline - the area that sits above the lower lash line
Outer V - the outer corner of your eye, opposite your tear duct
Lid - the outer skin that covers and protects your eye
We hope that this guide has helped you understand the wonderful and weird world of eyeshadow that we love (don’t worry - even we’re confused by it sometimes!). Let us know if we missed anything out. Until then, keep on experimenting and creating your custom palettes!