To De-Pot or Not?

Haha!  This post is a revision because YES, I did my math wrong, thanks for pointing out my error, Eternalmi! 

After having de-potted 18 eye shadows to turn them in for three free lipsticks, I wondered what would be more economical: buying the six potted eye shadows to get a free lipstick, or buying the six palette refills and buying a lipstick separately?  I hated math all through school and I still do now, but here is my second lame attempt at finding out the answer to this mystery.

If you buy six potted eye shadows for $14.50 each, your total would come out to $87.00.  And after you've de-potted them and turned the empty pots in for a free lipstick, you would still have a total of $87.00, because the lipstick was free.  So the math would look something like this...

6 x $14.50 = $87.00 + Free Lipstick = $87.00

On the other hand, if you buy six palette refills for $11.00 each, your total would come out to $66.00.  There is no free lipstick with this kind of purchase, so you would have to buy your lipstick separately, which means you must add the value of the lipstick, $14.00, to your total, and this would turn out to be $80.00.  So the math would look something like this...

6 x $11.00 = $66.00 + $14.00 = $80.00

Therefore, if you buy the potted eye shadows, de-pot them and turn six in for a free lipstick, you would actually be spending more money, namely, $7.00.  Not to mention, de-potting those eye shadows was pretty hard work and it took quite a bit of time.  I can't think of any pros to buying the potted eye shadows, because even if you are able to recycle the pots through the Back to Mac program, you wouldn't have to recycle the pots to begin with if you never bought them in the first place, right? 

Personally, to save myself the hassle of having to deal with all that sticky glue and breathing in the alcohol fumes and breaking my hands to rip into the plastic, I am going to buy only the palette refills from now on.  My answer to the question: To De-Pot or Not? would have to be NOT.  Just buy the palette refills because it's cheaper and easier.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

Love,

Geneys  :o)