Project Pan, aka products you’ll be seeing a lot of in my routine

I don’t know about you, but I’ve definitely been caught up in this year’s sales. There have been so many releases that just sucked me in. I am testing so many new products I can barely keep track of them. As I’m trying to make room for some of these new products, I realized I have a bunch of products that I’ve hit pan on or am close to finishing.

I think now is as good a time as ever to focus on products that I’ve loved and shine some light on products that have been used and loved in my collection for years. Yes, a lot of these products were limited edition or discontinued now, but I’m willing to bet that some of you have used these products as well. 

A lot of these products are already in my daily rotation, but now that I’ve put everything together, I am inspired to keep using them to the end. I know some people do project pan and not buy anything until they’ve hit a certain threshold, but I know that is something I’ll never stick to. Instead, I’ll just commit to using them as often as possible to just finish them. 

You’ll notice that I don’t have any foundations in here, and that’s only because I don’t think I’m close enough to finishing any of them to really put them in here. I also don’t really keep a lot of concealers on hand so I don’t feel the need to really focus on finishing them.

Instead, we’ll start with powders. I’ve had the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette for years, and it’s one of the rare products where my love for the product has grown with more use. When I first bought this palette, my skin was a little too oily to wear it every day since these powders have no oil control properties, but in the past year or so, I’ve been able to wear it more often without worrying that it would get too oily on me. And the finish of these powders is truly unlike any other. It’s exactly the flawless airbrushed look that it promises to give. Anyway, I’ve been using this a lot over the past couple years, and they just seem to keep going. Now that I’ve finally hit pan on Dim Light and Radiant Light (which works great as a bronzer, by the way), I’m going to try to finish them completely, plus Incandescent Light – which is a great winter highlighter for me. 

For my next face product, I have the Wet n Wild MegaGlo Contour Stick in Call Me Maple. It’s a little too orange for me to use as a true contour, but I’ve enjoyed this as a cream bronzer. It blends well and stays on all day. Since it’s really kind of an extra step in my routine, I’m going to focus on finishing this up. 

But for a bronzer I do find essential in my collection, the Too Faced Milk Chocolate Bronzer is exactly that. I have used multiple of these compacts up (including the full size). It’s one of the few Too Faced products I love, because it’s the perfect neutral tone to work as a bronzer and slight contour all in one. Plus, even the little sample sizes last forever – I think I hit pan on this 6 months ago and I use them 3-4x a week. 

I have a couple of cream blush products – first is the Vincent Longo Water Canvas Blush in Clover Mist, which is one of the most tragic discontinued products. The whole brand seems to be gone now, but the beauty of these blushes is that they were like a spongey watery texture, and water canvas was the best description for them. They also last forever on my skin, and were one of the only blush products that used to last on my super oily skin. I’ve used this shade for a few years now, and I’ve obviously made a good dent on it, but I’m eager to move this out on my collection (especially since I still have 1 or 2 of these blushes lying around in my collection as backups!)

The second blush product is the Kjaer Weis Cream Blush in Blossoming, which might be one of my top cream blush formulas and shades, ever. It’s a delicate rosy pink shade that isn’t too bright or too neutral, but still manages to give me a bit of life. Since KW is a natural brand, I want to use this up before it goes bad, and I will definitely be trying out a different shade after this is finished to put into my refillable compact. 

For a powder blush, I managed to hit pan on the Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush in Splendid, which came as part of a kit I got a few years ago. It’s not my go to shade – it’s a pink shade with a good dose of gold shimmer and glitter, but I’ve kept it in my gym bag for a long time and have FINALLY hit pan on it. I recognize that it will probably take another year, at least, to completely finish this.

The little highlighter pan is yet another discontinued product, this time a mini pan of the Lorac Perfectly Lit Spotlight Highlighter. It’s a champagne highlighter that gives a bright, but not too metallic glow. I have so many highlighters in my collection, and the Nars Fort de France highlighter probably comes closest in terms of shade and finish, but I will still miss this Lorac one when it’s gone. 

Moving on to eyeshadows, I’ve been using the MAC Paint Pot in Vintage Selection as a base for years, and it’s still one of my favorite cream bases even after all this time. Paint pots last a notoriously long time, so I’ve got a ways to go with this. 

Raise your hand if you still own the Urban Decay Naked Palette..original. Although it doesn’t look like I’ve used this palette a ton, I have. But these pans are super deep, so while more than half the shades have a dip in them, I have only hit pan on Sin. I’m hoping to intentionally use this palette a little more and hit pan on Half Baked and Naked in the next couple months. 

I also have a few MAC eyeshadows that have been in my routine for eons, including Blanc Type for a matte highlight, Rich Flesh (discontinued) as a transition, and Grand Entrance (discontinued) as a shimmery lid of inner corner highlight. I use these basically every day so I hope I’ll be finished with them soon so I can use other shades. For good measure I have a Majolica Majorca shadow that has been in my collection for a long (even longer than the others…) that I seem to use obsessively for a few weeks, and then forget about for a few months. I’m taking it out and putting it front and center in my collection so I remind myself to use it more.

For some pencil products, I have the Ofra Cosmetics Universal Eyebrow Pencil. I received this in a subscription box awhile ago and have enjoyed using it since. The tone works well for my eyebrows, and it’s easy to use. I find that sometimes it doesn’t stay on all day if I don’t set it right. Still, I’ll enjoy using this till it’s a tiny little nub. 

My current daily liners are the Marc Jacobs Highliner Eyeliner in Rococoa, a perfect mid-tone brown with a slight shimmer that gives me a perfect smoky liner without a harsh line, and the Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Lucky, which is a copper shade I’ve used for years as a lower lashline liner. I’ve finished at least 2 of these and already have a backup waiting. 

Finally, for lips, I only have 1 product for now. I have plenty of lip products that are halfway finished or on their way to being finished, but I wanted to just focus on this YSL Glossy Stain in #9, a bright warm leaning red that I adore. This formula is one of my all time favorite lip formulas, so I want to use this shade up and replace it with some other shades. 

I’ll be sure to keep you all updated as I finish these products, but I hope this gives you an idea of the products you’ll be seeing a lot of in my routine over the next few months. Chances are, if I’m not testing something new or am too busy to think about and decide which products to use, I’ll be reaching for one of these. 

If you have products you’re trying to finish, let me know! These are some of my favorite posts to read so if you enjoyed them as well let me know. 

As always, thanks for reading.