Project Pan

I’m late to the Project Pan party. What is it, you ask?

Simply put, it’s a personal challenge to finish or “hit pan” on the beauty products one already owns, thus enabling us to become mindful of what we consume and to shift focus onto the things we already have.

I’ve never really been one for waste anyway, BUT…

I am a sucker for trying new things (blame it on ESFP tendencies). I cannot escape my Taiwanese roots – where bulk buying the things you love is de rigeur. And I am compelled to obtain “back ups”. This I can blame on my hard-to-match colouring and finicky skin. Being “pale and interesting” with neutral undertones usually means I have to buy two foundations and mix them to get the right colour or undertone. Hence the panic back-up buying when I found a foundation that actually matched. And the finicky skin… well I suppose I am a “delicate flower”, much as I wish to be a robust nature woman! The end result is I tend to accumulate “back-ups” of the products I love, but simultaneously acquire new and shiny products like a magpie.

How to Project Pan:

1. Choose only one item from every category.
2. It should be an item you love (if you hate the item, you’re better off repurposing it or giving it to a loving home).
3. Prioritise “panning” items that will expire first.
4. Decide whether to finish the item or “hit pan”.
5. Consider holding off buying a replacement item until you’re finished the Project Pan item.
6. Consider setting a deadline, to make it more tangible. (Endless interview practice courses have drilled into me that a goal should be “SMART”: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely).
7. Spread the love to other non-beauty items if you feel so inspired!

These are the items I chose to Project Pan:

Going left to right, and top to bottom:

• Waitrose Pure Body Lotion
• Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant
• AromaPure Luxe leave-in hair treatment
• Suuqu eyebrow pen in 04
• Charlotte Tilbury Rock ‘n’ Kohl eyeliner in Bedroom Black
• Formula X nail varnish in X ♥ Rouge
• RMS Wild With Desire lipstick in Masquerade
• Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Cherry Truffle
• Melvita Nectar de Roses Organic Rose Mask
• Derma-E Scar Gel
• The Ordinary Mineral UV Filters SPF 30
• Deciem Photography Foundation in Golden
• IT Cosmetics Illuminating CC Cream in Light
• MAC Magic Dust Powder in Yum Yum Yum (Limited Edition)
• Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream in Opal
• Burberry Beauty Fresh Glow Luminous Base in Nude Radiance 01
• Burberry Beauty Wet & Dry eyeshadow in Gold Pearl
• Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick in Pink (Limited Edition).

I’m giving myself 1 year to do this. Admittedly I strayed a wee bit from the above rules, in that I’m using Project Pan as a motivator and reason so finish up a few items I have outgrown, and a few I don’t really love but can’t bear the thought of waste. And there are a couple items where I’m nearly almost finished, but just holding onto for too long out of love (*cough* Dermalogica Gentle Cream Exfoliant – discontinued). I shall explain.

• Suuqu Eyebrow Pen in 04 – Love this colour (an ashy greyish-blackish-brown – I have difficulty with brow products as black is too harsh for me, but browns are usually too warm). Love the natural looking brow it gives. But it contains parabens, and after much consideration into the matter, I have decided that on balance, parabens are something to avoid in the long run. It would be easy for me to buy a new brow product, but as I have this one, which is good, I will finish it up first.
• Charlotte Tilbury Rock ‘n’ Kohl Eyeliner in Bedroom Black – Loved this, it was a staple, I re-bought a few times. Great inky black colour, soft but not too soft, and sets well (for a kohl – I think with a kohl liner, you have to accept a degree of smudginess is part of the look!). Why I am panning it – well I kind of forgot about this one as I went through a phase of using liquid eyeliner. Yes it is probably expired, but I can’t bear to waste it. Happily it does not contain carbon black pigment (CI77266 or D&C No 2), so I will likely come back to this again one day after I have finished panning it. But for now, there are some new kohl eyeliners I want to try.
• Mac Magic Dust Powder in Yum Yum Yum – Loved this, but these days I tend to wear more cream blushes. Also the gold sparkles in this blush make it hard for me to wear in the winter… I shall see how I get on.

As for the items I don’t truly love… well they were duds (don’t you just hate when that happens!) This seemed like the perfect opportunity to finish up these products once and for all! I’m looking at you:

• Waitrose Pure Body Lotion – so thin and watery and utterly disappointing after the creamy unctuousness of the Body Butter
• It Cosmetics CC Illuminating Cream in Light – sadly wayyy too dark a colour for me, and this tube had even temporarily gone to a new home.
• Bite Beauty Amuse Bouche lipstick in Cherry Truffle – just a fraction too brick red for me, but determined not to let this go to waste, as the formulation is amazing (too bad they’ve discontinued these Amuse Bouche lipsticks).
• Bare Minerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream in Opal 01 – a disappointment mainly because by the time I actually got around to purchasing this (after lemming after it for years), technology had advanced such that this product just seemed to be a little bit lacking in oomph. (I had a similar experience with Chantecaille Future Skin Oil Free Foundation).
• AromaPure Luxe Leave-in Hair Treatment – I thought I was buying a hair mask not a hair treatment (I use hair masks as conditioner). This product is good in itself, with fairly minimal fillers, but not what I was looking for! Hair treatment is not something I particularly need as frizz and dryness are not really issues for me. (Sadly I have 2, at least in different flavours, due to Taiwanese Bulk Buying tendencies)
• Burberry Wet & Dry Eyeshadow in Gold Pearl – just a little too yellow-gold for my finicky skin tone… The difficulty with buying things online – and one of the reasons I decided to blog! I am still searching for a dupe for my perfect gold eyeshadow – the gold colour in the Dior Rosy Nude quint (long discontinued).

I’ll be posting progress updates on my Instagram stories @theartbeaute.

Hope this has inspired you also! Happy panning x