By Anastasia Burton
Waste is a huge issue in the beauty industry. Every year, millions of makeup products are discarded without a moment’s thought, further contributing to environmental issues and global warming. Now, a new influencer-driven initiative is here to tackle this issue: Project Pan. To those of you unaware of what it is, Project Pan is a trend on Instagram where beauty enthusiasts take their favourite products and try to use them up within a few months or even years. This initiative helps to prevent unnecessary beauty waste and also prevents people from spending their money unnecessarily on more and more makeup bits that they just don’t need. Many #ProjectPan followers also implement a “no beauty spend” rule to help them in their quest to hit pan. After all, if you implement a ban on purchasing new beauty products, you’re more likely to use up what you already have. I’ve been dedicatedly using only a handful of products for the past year and most of them are now completely empty. In this article, I will talk about the different products I hit pan on and whether or not I will be repurchasing them.
Primer:
First up: primer. I had been using the Primark Liquid Illuminating primer drops (the ones that look like the fancy primer drops used in all those Instagram tutorials). I used this primer for about eight months before I ran out, which is pretty good longevity for a face product that I used every day. However, this primer just did not help my foundation to sit more smoothly on my skin. If anything, I loved how it gave me a nice dewy look and a bit of a healthy glow, but my foundation still revealed my pores. Safe to say, I won’t be purchasing again.
Foundation:
My #ProjectPan base was the Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation. It took me about seven months to get through this foundation. And I have to say it was brilliant. Not only is it hydrating and really beautiful on the skin, but it was also super easy to apply and had a divine smell. It’s super affordable too and never clung to my fine lines. I will definitely be repurchasing.
Eyeshadow:
For eyes, I used the Penneys Nude Addiction palette. It took nearly 18 months to hit pan on six of the nine shades with everyday use. This was a great palette for everyday eyeshadow looks. It has nice nude colors with amazing shimmers, though the white shimmer shade was a bit patchy and not easy to work with. This palette was affordable, but I feel like I have other, more expensive but better-quality palettes that I need to use and enjoy before I repurchase this one.
Concealer:
For concealer, I chose the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind concealer, which took me about five months to get through. I did not like the finish it gave me and honestly it made me crease like crazy. Therefore, I was not a fan of this cult product, it just didn’t work for me, so no repurchasing.
Eyeliner:
Rimmel Scandaleyes was my eyeliner of choice for this experiment and took me about three months to finish. It has a super thin tip, which gives you more control over the wing, but it gave me difficulty with pigment. I felt like my liner was never dark enough, but to be fair, I never had a problem with it bleeding and messing up my eye looks. I feel like I have plenty of eyeliners to go through before I repurchase this one, it just wasn’t good enough for #ProjectPan.
Highlight:
For glow, I used the Catrice Baked Highlighter, one of the most affordable and high-quality highlighters on the market. I had actually been chipping away at this for almost two years. This highlighter is very pigmented and utterly beautiful; and I have already repurchased it. However, the downfall was that it was super glittery and would transfer onto everything unless blended profusely. However, using proper techniques, this product is stunning, and most importantly, affordable.
Mascara:
Benefit’s Roller Lash mascara is often praised by beauty gurus, but it took me less than two months to use up and, honestly, wasn’t that great. It didn’t make my lashes any darker and didn’t do much in making them look longer either. Honestly, more affordable Essence mascara worked much better than its expensive counterpart and I would prefer repurchasing that instead of Roller Lash again.
To say that my Project Pan went well would be an understatement. I used up most of the products I purchased within the allocated time, apart from Catrice’s stunning highlighter, which lasted an amazing 24 months! It was an interesting experience to limit myself to one palette, plus it saved me a lot of money because I was no longer buying make-up that I didn’t need. Devoting myself to only the products in my Project Pan bag made me realise how important it is to use up what you already own. I would recommend that you try this project, even if it’s just for one month, to see how much product you can get through. For more, see the hashtag #ProjectPan on Instagram, and get posting to help save the planet.
