Pressing Pigments : Help please!

[Megnolia]

Alright, so I decided to finally press my CS Mica's that I bought ( I purchased the Ez-press pressing medium from them ).

I followed the instructions and everything, and everything seemed fine.
But for some reason, mine aren't drying!
They've been sitting out on my desk to air-dry for about 2 and a half days now, and they're still a cake-batter-y consistency, about the same as when I first laid them out to dry.

I can't do the oven-drying method, because I'm in China, and the apartment I live in doesn't have an oven.

If you have any advice at all, please tell me!
I'd be oh-so grateful.

 

[blazeno.8]

I had that the first time I tried "pressing" pigments, but I also had very small sizes so that probably ended up working in my favor. Try a smaller batch maybe?

 

[Megnolia]

Maybe..
I guess there's not much I can really do at this point, but wait a bit longer and see if it dries then.
):

 

[blazeno.8]

Are you looking to travel with them? If you're not then it might be slightly advantageous as wet pigments have higher payoff. I'm getting ready to mix up a color from my chipped parrot e/s.

 

[Megnolia]

Yeah, I am.

The odd thing is-- I've pressed broken eyeshadows before, just with rubbing alcohol instead of the CS pressing medium, and it turned out fine.
But I'm not sure if the results are different because either
a) The first time I did it, I used an eyeshadow, not mica's, so the texture is different or something.
or,
b) The pressing medium I'm using is different.

Tonight, I'm going try pressing it with rubbing alcohol instead, and I'm gonna see if I get better results this time.

 

[Shanible]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megnolia Alright, so I decided to finally press my CS Mica's that I bought ( I purchased the Ez-press pressing medium from them ). I followed the instructions and everything, and everything seemed fine. But for some reason, mine aren't drying! They've been sitting out on my desk to air-dry for about 2 and a half days now, and they're still a cake-batter-y consistency, about the same as when I first laid them out to dry. I can't do the oven-drying method, because I'm in China, and the apartment I live in doesn't have an oven. If you have any advice at all, please tell me! I'd be oh-so grateful.

That tutorial video on the coastal scents site seems much more complicated than the one I used from Koren: Koren. I did this with mine and everything worked perfectly. I have never used the EZ-Prez, but I have seen many recipes for making your own pressing medium. Most look something like this.

When you layer your e/s, try using a paper towel instead of the saran wrap. It helps absorb some of the excess liquid. You can also pick the pans up (I assume you are doing this in metal pans) and drop them from a short distance onto a hard flat surface to force the liquid to the top. Other than this, I'm not sure I can give you any good advice. Good luck!

 

[Megnolia]

Youtube videos don't work here, it was blocked by the Chinese government...
Thanks for trying though. c:
Hahah.

 

[Shanible]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Megnolia Youtube videos don't work here, it was blocked by the Chinese government... Thanks for trying though. c: Hahah.

I completely forgot about that! Here is basically what he says to do:

1. Disinfect your items with your alcohol. Put some drops of alcohol on everything you'll be using and dry with a tissue.
2. Put a little drop of the alcohol in the pan to make the pigment adhere better. Take a little pigment with your measuring item and place it in the mixing jar.
3. Add one drop of alcohol. Stir it again. Add another drop. Stir it again. Get it to the consistency of "cake frosting", then transfer it into in your pan. He suggests doing the "pick up and drop" I mentioned every 5 minutes or so. It takes about 20 minutes for the pans to dry, mine dried in as little as 10 minutes this way.
4. Take an piece of fabric, wrap it around a quarter (I don't know the equivalent in China) very tightly. Firmly press the quarter on the shadow and hold it there for about 10 seconds. Press HARD.

I hope this helps for round two!

 

[Megnolia]

Awesome, thank you so much.
I'll try pressing them again when I get home using that method.
I actually still have a quarter leftover from when I came here from Michigan in my jeans' pocket.
Hah!

 

[Shanible]

Just wondering how Koren's method worked out for you. Did it come out as expected/better?