Reader Question: Foiling regular eyeshadows

Q: How do you use shadows (not pigments) wet? I put my wet brush on a MAC eyeshadow once and it made the eyeshadow harden, making it completely unusable [and ruins the eyeshadow]. Do you put your wet brush directly on the shadow? How does that work? Thanks a million!!
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A: I actually ruined one of my old Milani eyeshadows doing this (gotta love trial and error!). MAC eyeshadows (as well as other eyeshadows) are not really meant to be applied wet since they are very well pigmented as it is, but what I do is spritz a tiny bit of water or mixing medium (whichever you prefer) from a spray bottle onto my sponge tipped applicator or brush (it's not wet, or too damp, but just sprinkled with water) and LIGHTLY rub it on the eyeshadow gradually picking up more color. I know some gals also scrape a tiny bit of eyeshadow from the pan to work with...another thing you can do is to do it oppositely, apply your eyeshadow like you normally would, then spritz your homemade mixing medium on your brush and gently and lightly tap it across your eyeshadow to make it more vibrant as well as "sealing the deal", (I highly recommend the glycerin/water mix over just pure water for this because water will dull the color, think watercolor paints how it looks runny when you add water).