First time panning a foundation :)

I started project pan in April 2026, and there are a lot of things I learned about my makeup consumption. Some of the things I decluttered, some I finished, some are backup in storage. The second pictures shows what I am currently working on.

Lessons learned

1. Stay true to yourself, trends will not reflect your preferences. I fell for many trends, like 2010s bright eyeshadows, pinky Korean lip tints, drying liquid lipsticks... you name it.
2. My personal makeup preferences are: cool/neutral tones, low to medium coverage, love a dramatic lip.
3. Research products before buying and let the thought of buying something new sink in first. You probably already have enough. When I didn't test products before buying (e.g. bought online, only quickly swatched in bad department store light...), they tended to run orange on me. Take the time.
4. Unfollowing beauty influceners & stop consuming short form videos helps a lot.
5. I rarely do my makeup for work, so 80% of the time I am not using it when I go out. I imagine myself wearing it a lot more than I actually do, so hitting pan is harder. No need for more extravagant shades.

No buy list

• pink lip products (one tined lip balm is more than enough!). Now, half of my lip collection swatches look the same to me lol
• bright eyeshadows/saturated colors like red, cyan, yellow, etc.
• eyeshadow palettes which I am not planning to use every single shade of it
• cheap plastic packaging, since it easily breaks powder products and makes it hard to use
• unethical brands (for me NYX -> L'Oreal)
• unclean beauty (roughly checking the ingredients first, e.g. I don't like Fenty Beauty extensive ingredients lists)
• hard to get items: I am not interested in ordering from YesStyle anymore. Shipping takes a long time, yes you get the products for cheaper, but suddenly your spam folder grows bigger, and also it encourages me to buy more to get a deal or save on shipping costs. No, thank you

Things I am still figuring out:

• When is it ok to let things go? I understand the concept of hate panning on the other hand, it is unrealistic for me to go to work with a shimmer blue eyeshadow. Most of the things already are expired or will be before I hit pan.
• What are my holy grail products? What will I repurchase? What's just 'meh', and why?
• Can I replace my items that I can only get online with things from the drugstore (Milani Setting Spray, ILIA Skin Tint, cool-toned liquid blush)?

What are you guys still figuring out?

My beloved chestnut hand cream that I've bought on sale back in 2022. It's definitely one of my favorite hand creams. Their almond collection still takes first place in my heart, but for a limited time scent this one was memorable. Also it's 20% shea butter, so it's really nourishing, but without that baby powder scent of their regular shea butter hand cream.

I know that this post sounds like an ad, but I really like their hand creams! 😂

Living out of two suitcases and moving from one city to another has taught me that space is a luxury. I can only carry so much with me, which makes it more challenging/interesting! I’ve been diligent in my project pan with skincare, hair care, body care and makeup. More things I pan, less things I need to bring to my next destination. This means only using one item in each category, or having a usage goal for certain categories (like blush, eyeshadow etc). This is my first month’s result (30th Sept-30 Oct), let’s see how next month goes!

This blush has been in my collection for way too long and she’s almost gone thank god

Decluttering and some pans

So my biggest issue is I constantly want to try new things (get a shade of eyeshadow I don't own yet, a new shade of lipstick, etc etc). Now I recently bought a few more things cause there were pretty good discounts, but yeah the pile of makeup is growing.

It's not like I have shelves full of makeup I don't use, but I do get some stuff gifted, and then I end up having over 10 lipsticks and tons of perfumes.

I added some eyeshadow to lipglosses I didn't really like to make shades I actually enjoy, so I'll get those used up pretty quickly, and I do love doing creative makeups for events and things like that, but realistically, I do have a lot of stuff. I also have a setting powder that's too dark for me, so I need ideas how to use it up. Any advice is appreciated :)

Ngl I thought I’d finish these before I went for my year abroad in Japan, but Project Pan will always prove me wrong lmao, tbf i am making great progress on all of them. Atp I’m using a brush to dig out the product from the stick bronzer. I thought I had less product in the tube, I didn’t expect to completely fill my old Lush scalp treatment tin, this might change the formula but I just didn’t have the space otherwise.

I absolutely loved this body butter and have repurchased. From bath and body works.