The Scraping Technique - An Experiment, An Interview and My Two Cents

As a community grows and attracts more people, it will naturally also attract more opinions. The hottest topic in the panning community these past few weeks (if not months) has been the scraping technique and whether or not it counts as cheating. If you want to know my opinions on cheating you can read this blog post I wrote a while back, because we don't have time to go through everything today.

First we need to clear up what the scraping technique is. The scraping technique (ST from now on because fudge and gingerbread it's annoying to write!) is when you scrape off a bit of a powder product before you dip your brush in so you can use it more like a loose pigment than a normal eyeshadow. It was popularized by the panner Courtney K (IG: @courtneykbeauty) in her youtube video "How to Pan Eyeshadows FAST!" she uploaded 4 months ago in July.

I really fell into the middle of the "scraping discussion" the day I asked for unpopular panning opinions in my Instagram stories and ended up being overwhelmed with responses about so called fake panning, the scraping technique, digging for pan and a lot more eyeshadow and pan related problems. I had been aware of the scraping technique for a while, but I didn't really know who used it or why they did. Everything I knew about it was what it was and that it made people hit pan quicker. So when I got a lot of different opinions sent my way, I decided to dig deeper and actually ask the people who use the technique what the benefits are and why they use it.

When you've read the post, I'd love for you to leave a comment below and add your two cents to the mix, but please be respectful. Don't attack anyone I've interviewed. Keep it clean and to the point.

What products do people use the scraping techniques on?

When I asked what products ST:s use the technique on almost everyone answered only shimmery and/or metallic eyeshadow. Only one person I interviewed used this technique on mattes (except for one exception that I'll get to later). Why? Well, my friend Katy (@powerpanner) may have the answer to that. She joined me and our friend Zina (@zilovesmakeup) in a little experiment to try out the scraping technique ourselves. When Katy used the scraping technique on a matte she found that her entire brush got filled with way too much pigment and that it was really difficult to work with. She concluded that it was impossible to blend out the shadow with the same brush, like she does normally. 

This is the amount of product that was left in Katy's brush after using it.

The few people who answered that they do use the scraping technique on mattes said they only do it on patchy and unpigmented shadows. Lauren over at @bnbylauren and Liz at @liz_plans_and_pans both pointed out that a lot of old eyeshadows that have developed hard pan are extremely difficult to use without the scraping technique. When Liz's metallics have developed hard pan she prefers to use the ST instead of the tape technique where you remove the top layer with a piece of tape. 

"It removes hard pan and it makes the shadows more foiled in my opinion, because you are scraping a few layers off of the shadow to unveil new layers off the formula. Unlike the tape method where you lose the product on the tape by removing the hard pan, you are still using that product."

Liz however doesn't use this method on any mattes. She only uses the scraping technique on her "stubborn" metallics that are hard to work with. 

Lauren said that she uses the scraping technique on her older, dense shadows that aren't very pigmented anymore, which includes mattes. She also touched upon why she prefers the scraping technique over using her fingers.

"I actually find it more wasteful if I rub my finger into it to try and get a better color payoff, when the pigment is going on to my brush I know most of it is making it onto my lids." 

The only people who use the scraping technique on other powder products were Bre from @makeuppans, who sometimes uses it on highlighters and Sofia from @sh_projectpanner who only uses the scraping technique on face products with large pans because she doesn't want to repress them and it's difficult to reach the product without scraping it out.

To scrape or not to scrape?

What do people scrape with?

A concern some people, myself included, had was the hygiene aspect of it all. I had heard rumors about people scraping the eyeshadow with their fingernails and the alarm in my brain went off after remembering that primary school biology class when we talked about all the bacteria hiding under your fingernails. Luckily not a single person I talked to said anything about using fingernails. Everyone uses some kind of tool. Most use the handle on their brush, but other people use other tools like toothpicks. Bre said she uses a safety pin sometimes, because the finer the tool, the finer the eyeshadow crumbles. It makes sense. I imagine its a lot easier to work with a product that doesn't have a lot of chunks in it.

Tried using a pin needle myself and this does seem like the best tool for scraping. It doesn't take off a lot of product in one go. This is multiple scrapes.

Is it easier to hit pan using the scraping technique?

No one denied that it is easier to hit pan when using the scraping technique. You don't swirl your brush all over the pan evenly when using the ST. You can pic exactly where you scrape product, which means you can decide to only scrape in one spot until you hit pan. Liz also pointed out that it is easier to scrape on an edge, which makes it easier to expand a pan once you've already hit pan.

Mandi over at @makeuplover.projectpanner decided to try the ST  and confirmed this in an Instagram post. She said she won't be using this technique anymore, because she felt like hitting pan this way wasn't as satisfying. Katy and Zina, who I mentioned earlier, had the same experience. However, this is not the case for the ST:s I interviewed. Lauren, for example, found the pans very motivating.

"There’s something to be said about the motivation and momentum I get when I see pan! I’m way more likely to use a product that has pan in it than not."

The fact that some of Lauren's pans are hit using the scraping technique doesn't make a difference.

Katy's before and after pictures. It took her four days to hit pan on the matte "Shooting Star" and three days to hit pan on the shimmer "Moony" both from ColourPop's Dream St palette. The shades had only been swatched prior to the experiment.

Why use the scraping technique? What are the benefits?

When I asked people what the benefits were I got a variety of personal answers. Bre mentioned that since the scraping technique helps her hit pan on shimmers, it motivates her to work on matte shades. Bre also added that it has made her fall in love with matte shades, previously having been a shimmer type of girl.

Lauren made an interesting point about why she uses the scraping technique. She has a background in working as a makeup artist where she used the technique on products for hygienic reasons, and now it has become a habit of hers. She said it feels natural.

The only recurring answer was that it's easier to work with shades with hard pan, as mentioned earlier.

Is the scraping technique wasteful?

The main concern among people who oppose the scraping technique seems to be the waste aspect. If it is easier to hit pan when using the ST then it must be wasteful too, right? The ST:s I interviewed agreed that it can be wasteful if you haven't yet figured out how much product you need. If you scrape off more than you end up using it does go to waste. You'll have to figure out exactly how much you need and it's better to scrape off too little than too much. Liz confirmed this is how she started with the ST.

"If you go overboard, you’ll lose a ton of product.[...] When I first attempted it I did an experiment with just a little of shadow, realized I needed a little more and went from there to find my perfect ratio."

Zina and Katy both experienced a lot of fallout when they used the scraping technique, which turned them both off from using the technique in the future. Zina clearly stated that her main reason for not using the ST in the future was the waste aspect.

Would people using the scraping technique prefer to use loose shadows in general?

To this question everyone said no, for several reasons. Loose pigments are more difficult to work with. The ST only creates a tiny bit of loose pigment, which in turn creates less fallout.

Bre also mentioned that she collects eyeshadow palettes and enjoys beautiful packaging and Liz said she still prefers pressed eyeshadow when it comes to mattes.

Is the scraping technique cheating?

Then we get to the question you've all been waiting for. Is it cheating to use the ST when you try to pan your products? The people I interviewed don't think so. Bre made the point that all product is used if you scrape only what you need and therefore it shouldn't be considered cheating.

"I dont think its cheating, you are loosening up the product but you're still using it."

Liz said that she's aware that some people use the ST as a way to an easy pan, but that most people who use the ST don't do that. She said that the people who do make everyone else look bad. A technique that was once considered okay and helpful for difficult shadows has gotten a bad reputation and people have started to judge all panners who use the technique no matter their intent.

My two cents about it all.

So, after spending way too many hours researching this blog post, interviewing people and writing it, I can't say I'm a lot wiser about the subject than when I started. Do I consider the ST cheating? Well, just like everyone I interviewed said, if you don't use the product and you just scrape for the sake of scraping, then yeah, sure, you're "cheating". You'd be lying about using the product and that's, well, not cool. Still, if you have a stubborn metallic that doesn't want to show up on your lid, then isn't this the best approach? Decluttering it would be more wasteful, right? The most difficult thing for me to wrap my head around is how the ST can allow you to use up eyeshadow faster while still not using more product than you normally would. The math doesn't add up in my head. I suppose it is because you just have a thicker layer of product on your lid (to get the pigment) and that's where the "excess" goes. I guess this is just something I'll have to ask the people who use the scraping technique.

I see why people use this technique and I see why people hate it. It is all about what you believe panning is or what you think it should be. I got a buttload of messages about scraping not "being the point" of panning and I think that's where this discussion really is, or where it should be, if anyone ever wants to come to a conclusion here. You can't have a discussion about what's considered cheating during a match where the teams are playing different sports. We'll just have to leave the discussion here until we've figured that out.

To take on the discussion about what panning is or should would double the length of this blog post so I won't include it here. It'll probably show up on this blog in the future though so don't fret!

Your two cents?

What did you make of all this? I welcome any and all thoughts in the comments. Just keep it respectful and to the point!