Pictures of a pigment bench by a window: a heap of blue powder, four colours poured beside it, a pan pressed flat, six pans set in a compact, and a pressed pan cracked by a palette knife back into powder.

  1. Brighton · loose and pressed colour

    Lustermere Pigments

    Every colour starts here: loose, ground fine, heaped on the bench at its own slope.

    Colour on screen is illustrative. Rendered, not photographed.

  2. 01 · Poured

    Each colour falls on its own

    Saltdean, Sea Kale, Deckchair and Chalk Cliff, poured beside it until each finds its slope.

  3. 02 · Pressed

    A slow squeeze, not a stamp

    Loose colour is pressed into a steel pan until it holds. The top turns satin, with our mark in it.

  4. 03 · Set

    Your palette, in your order

    Pans set into a mirrored compact of four, six or nine. You choose every colour and where it sits.

  5. 04 · Loose again

    Pressed is only powder held together

    Press the knife into the middle and the cake gives way, half of it still pressed, half of it in the air.

Twenty-four pressed pans of eyeshadow in every shade, set out in rows on a pink bench.

Start with a colour

Find a shade by colour and finish, then build a compact around it.