Sticky Nars Case? How To Clean It (Without Ruining It)!

A long time back (almost two years back, in fact), I made a post on how to clean a sticky NARS case. Basically, this involved the use of alcohol to remove the rubberized part that has disintegrated. While it worked, this method of cleaning the case results in any logos or printing on the rubberized surface being removed as well. So unfortunately NARS logos on the compact will be affected, if the part the logo is printed on has deteriorated so much that alcohol cleaning removes the print. However other brands that don't print designs or logos on the rubberized portion of the compact, like Smashbox or Becca, should be unaffected.

Thus, begins the problem - how does a girl with NARS products clean them, without removing the logo? That time, a commenter on my blog mentioned that using a silicon-based lubricant instead of alcohol to clean the casing helps to solve this problem. Then a brainwave struck - I may not have silicone lube, but I do have silica powder! And if the silicone is indeed the magic ingredient, then it shouldn't matter too much whether I get it in a powder or liquid form. Ergo, with my silicon powder, I should be able to de-stickify my NARS compact! So, I set to work.


First, I started off with a NARS case. This here is my NARS Tokyo Eyeshadow Duo. It's been cleaned to remove most of the debris and dust that was stuck to the case, but it's still very sticky to the touch. Yuck.


Then, I got out my secret weapon - silica powder! Mine is decanted into the MUFE HD Powder container, among others, but I really just get mine from Coastal Scents, and I get a huge bag for quite cheap.

I was worried I'd ruin my case even more, I won't lie. But I figured - hey, if it works, it's a great thing, and if it doesn't work, then, well, lots of things I've tried before haven't worked - water, soap, wet wipes, so this will just be one more on the list. So I began, rather cautiously, putting a bit of silica powder on the case. I decided I would go slow, and test a small surface first. So I started with the backside of the case (noone except me is going to see that part), and I rubbed some of the silica powder onto the case.


And then, I inspected my work so far, looking at the back of the casing. Not bad. It actually works! The case may feel a little powdery, but at least it's not sticky and gross anymore. Good thing I used silica powder, since that is transparent. If the powder was coloured, it might have coloured the case too! You can see the right side of the case (which was treated with silica powder) isn't sticky anymore, whereas the left side of the case (which hasn't yet had silica powder applied to it) is still sticky.


Emboldened, I finished powdering over the base of the NARS case. I waited for the world to explode. Nothing happened, and my NARS case was safe. So I put it on the front of the NARS case. And then I began spreading the powder evenly over the casing:


And viola! I had a non-sticky NARS case! And the logo is still intact! And it feels just like a new NARS case too!

The importing thing to note is that you have to remove as much of the debris from the case before you spread powder on it. Any remaining debris will get trapped when the powder is applied and show up on your finished product. I'm not sure how exactly this method works - I'm guessing the silica powder sort of absorbs the stickiness and forms a coating over the deterioriated packaging that restores it to its previous state. And I'm also not sure if you can use just normal powder. I used silica powder because the suggestion by a reader was for silicon-based lube, so it seemed like the right ingredient to use. I imagine some types of normal powder could just cause more dust on the casing, but I can't verify it until I try it out one day.


So there you have it - the most aesthetically pleasing solution I've come across for cleaning up a sticky NARS (or Smashbox or Becca) packaging so far! This doesn't remove the rubberized packaging unlike the alcohol method, and it won't wipe away your NARS logo that's printed on the packaging. I'm so glad the experiment worked out - I would have hated to ruin my NARS duo!