2024 was an unusual year for me because I had just moved across the world and only brought one quarter of my makeup collection with me. I had already decided which items I couldn’t be without, and so it became my goal to get as much use out of those items I took with me as possible.

Although I purchased way less makeup in 2024 than in previous years, and I had a comparatively smaller collection, I still ended the year with plenty of products that went untouched for twelve months! I wasn’t as hard on myself about it considering I had prioritized some makeup favorites, but a fact that I knew to be true in theory became much clearer to me:

• When I buy new makeup, it takes time away from using what I already own.
• When I focus on using neglected makeup that’s great quality, even that detracts from my ability to use my actual holy grails.

So, I came up with a different plan.

The Project Pan videos I’ve seen on YouTube centers around makeup that went unused for months or years, old favorites that got pushed to the back of drawers, products close to being panned already so the person wants to finish the job, etc. I have attempted this format unofficially a few times in the past, but I felt too restricted and ended up temporarily buying more makeup because I started to feel like there were pieces missing in my collection. I also prioritized creams and liquids (since those go bad faster) even though that sometimes meant I was using products that were just okay, instead of ones that I loved, so I could feel like “I’ve gotten my money’s worth” and could justify having purchased it.

In the US, I rarely returned makeup unless it was unusable for me in some way (like having an allergic reaction) or I really didn’t like it enough to be worth how expensive it was. Living in the EU, where I can’t return those pricey mistakes if I’ve already tried it and disliked it, changed my perspective a bit. I can do a ton of research beforehand, but I could still end up with makeup that just doesn’t work for me. At that point, the money is already spent. I don’t need to waste further time trying to use up something I like less than what I’ve already got. I don’t want to fall prey to the sunk-cost fallacy. I can’t get back my money, but my time is the next most precious thing. That time is better spent on the things I love.

I have this innate curiosity to try everything out there and to know which makeup items are of the highest tier. I don’t know what that is for every category, but I know what has worked the best for me specifically. There are certain items I feel just can’t be topped. So, why don’t I use those items exclusively?
I wondered if the quest to search for something better comes from the fact that I don’t use my holy grails every single time. I have an enjoyable enough experience using makeup, but if I felt thrilled from start to finish, could that quench my thirst to consume more?

That’s the purpose of this six month Project Pan I’m putting into action.
I have identified the top 2-5 items I consider holy grails from many different categories and I am going to try to use those products every time I do my makeup! In come cases, a product might not be my favorite formula, but it ranks at the top for being in my favorite color. This is a bit unconventional because there theoretically shouldn’t be trouble panning one’s most beloved makeup, but having a huge makeup collection is not the norm either.

In order to not feel constrained, I’m allowing myself to reach for anything I want outside of the Project Pan too. My goal isn’t really about hitting pan on specific products as much as it is about only using the things I’m craving to use. I want to feel guiltless and not worry about which products are oldest and need more attention, which products I said I liked but still haven’t used after reviewing it, or anything else that keeps me from using what I want in the moment.

I imagine that I won’t be able to avoid desiring exciting new makeup. For example, there are things I already saw sneak peeked on social media that I still want to purchase. I will buy things I want, and test them for this blog, but my hope is that I won’t be as tempted if I’m feeling fully satisfied with the makeup in my Project Pan. I also have some year long low-buys that are enacted, such as my self-imposed ban on buying cream and liquid color products, no highlighters, and only getting lip products from five chosen brands.

I’m going to show the condition of the items I chose at the start so that I can keep track of my progress until the six months are over. I will also show a few items that are not holy grails, but I already know I will want to get at least a little more use out of them before I put them away.

Foundations

My chosen foundations for the Project Pan are the Chanel N1 de Chanel, Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra, and Huda Beauty Easy Blur. The ones from EL and Chanel are the glowiest and dewiest in my collection, which is needed because this is the time of year when my skin is the driest while in Germany. I included Huda’s foundation because of the different shade options in those minis, and to layer with the others if I want extra coverage.

Some other foundation loves are the Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow, Nars Light Reflecting, Armani Luminous Silk, and Lisa Eldridge foundations, but those all require me to pair them with the Charlotte Tilbury Unreal Skin Sheer Glow Tint to look less matte, but my CT product is a bit light for me right now. I am still including the CT in my Project Pan, but under the highlighter category.

The foundations that I know I will use a few more times are from Rose Inc (Tinted Serum) and Fenty (Liquid Eaze Drops). I like those two enough that I just wouldn’t feel satisfied if I didn’t get more use out of them, though they also aren’t hydrating enough for my skin.

One other thing to note is that I’m still using the Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Serum Skin Tint until the review goes up. Depending on how much I like that one, it might or might not join the others.

As for the conditions of everything: Estee Lauder’s is my backup bottle that I opened a few months ago, Chanel’s is one of two shades that was purchased almost a year ago and was the foundation I used the most in 2024, and Huda’s are minis in three shades, but I have no clue how much is left of any of them.

Concealers

My chosen concealers are the KVD Good Apple for under my eyes and the Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Concealer for my face. I always put the KVD concealer on top of the Milk Hydro Grip Eye Primer (and there’s about half left in my current tube). I am pretty sure I finished at least 2/3 of this concealer, but I have a backup. I also have an additional shade that I use on the rare occasion to mix for brightening.

Other concealers for my under-eyes that I might want to switch to depending on what foundation I’m wearing in order to match in tone are the L’Oreal Infallible, Fenty We’re Even, and my two Prisme Libre Skin-Caring ones.

The Hourglass one was chosen because it has the most coverage of the face concealers and the tone of it acts like a color corrector. I could have picked the Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Lift and Flex or the Natasha Denona Hy-Glam for that purpose as well, but this was the best choice of the three. I have a full size and travel size in different shades. Neither were used much.

Powders

The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Powders are what I use to set my under eyes (especially with the KVD concealer). In my Powder Collection Update and Declutter post from March 2024, I showed the original Deluxe sample I was using and the travel size I had in the wrong shade. I’ve been using this new travel size (shade Medium) and the full-size (Tan) for about a year. Occasionally, I’ve used this all over my face, but the dips in the pan were primarily from under-eye setting. I’m proud of the progress I’ve made, but if I’m going to use the KVD concealer, this powder is required to be part of my Project Pan too.

The Dior Powder No-Powder is my holy grail finishing powder that I’ve talked about endlessly on this blog. In the Powder Update/Declutter post I mentioned above, you can see how much progress I made in a year. This is one of the few products that the Project Pan won’t change my habits on. My rate of usage will stay the same as always, so I estimate that I’ll be finished with this powder by the end of the Project Pan, and I do have a backup to replace it.

The Chantecaille Perfect Blur Finishing Powder went untouched for another whole year! I am determined to get some use out of it considering how expensive this product is (even though I bought it for $33). It’s technically a finishing powder, but I’m going to use it like a setting powder for my face. I don’t expect to use it much in the dry winter, but maybe in spring.

Contour

I’ve been using the heck out of this Hindash Beautopsy Palette for years, but its number one usage is for contouring. I have only managed to make the barest dents into these pans (not including accidental scratches) because there’s so much product and I need to use so little of the powders each time I do my makeup! Again, this is something I don’t expect my Product Pan to really change my usage of too much. However, I still wanted to show its beginning state.

Bronzers

My chosen cream bronzer is the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer. I have purposely tried to keep picking up product from the same spot so I can retain some of the original pattern on the surface. This is a gigantic product, so I don’t expect to finish even half of it by the end of six months, but I do want to prioritize it again.

My chosen powder bronzer is the Hermès Plein Air H Trio Healthy Glow Mineral Powder. I absolutely prioritized this product last year, and I also kept dipping my brush into one half of the pan to retain some of the pattern, but this is another huge bronzer with so much product that it hardly looks used.

This is an easy one for me to want to use all the time, but it’s a very warm orange-toned bronzer, so I might use others in my collection during times when I’m in the mood for either a neutral or a pinky brown. Essentially, the parts that form the ‘H’ are yellow and the center portion of space between the ‘H’ is red. If I want to avoid the orange by using less of the darkest color, the yellower portions don’t have enough depth for my skin tone to be able to show up as clearly. So, other powder ones might be required.

Blushes

This is the second biggest category, aside from eyeshadows, though I can at least show these all in one photo!

I contemplated doing this by brand, but the truth is that I don’t have some of my favorite shades in my holy grail formulas. Once I decide I like a blush, I will wear it based on the color and finish. I won’t be thinking about how easy it is to blend and I will adjust my brushes accordingly based on how saturated or not I want my cheeks to be. The majority of blushes I own have fantastic quality, so selecting by favorite shades and then the top formulas among the similar colors was how I decided upon the group.

I will note that there are so many more I wanted to include, but these are the kind of colors I’ve been wearing the most over the past year. So, if I’m suddenly in the mood for an electric orange, I will allow myself to reach outside of this collection. The chances of that happening though are pretty low. There are very specific products not included here that might get one or two uses out of to satisfy the craving before they return to the back of the shelf.

The only time I think about the inconvenience level with blushes is in regards to liquid blushes. That’s why none of them are on the list, even though I think the Glossier and Rare Beauty ones are phenomenal.

The Dior Rosy Glow Backstage Blushes are an absolute favorite. I was pretty obsessed with Rosewood and it was the only one I brought with me to Germany. However, after Bronzed Glow was released in that stunning shimmery finish, I admittedly stopped using Rosewood. The chances are high that I’ll start using it again though, so both are being shown above.

The five Suqqu blushes I brought with me, plus the newest one from the Holiday ’24 collection, can be seen on my Instagram. I used a fair amount of the top two shown above, though it doesn’t look like it based on the pan. The third blush, 105 Akanezome, was purchased in November, but it quickly became a favorite. It’s one of the rare deep colored blushes from the brand that remains muted in tone without being ashy.

These Sephora Soft Matte Duos are another obsession. Tigerlily and English Rose are my favorite two. I have used them a decent amount, considering the size of my collection, but not as much as I would like. These are one of the prime reasons for me starting a Project Pan in the first place. Actually, that can be said for the blush category as a whole. If I wear makeup a few times a week, but I have 100 blushes I want to wear, I could only wear each blush 1-2 times a year. So, I’m forced to narrow down the choices (and increase how often I wear them) if I want to enjoy a good portion of them at least 10 times a year!

My MAC Blush collection alone is already out of hand. I decided to showcase my most used Glow Play out of the six I currently have with me, along with the custom blush palette I used a ton last year. It is so crazy to me how barely touched the pans appear despite my efforts. I have a few other MAC blushes I love that aren’t being shown here purely because they are shades or finishes I used a lot in the past, but less often nowadays.

My other blush palette being included is this one from Pat Mcgrath. The blushes show very little signs of use because I really haven’t used it much in 2024. Prior to owning this pan of Desert Orchid, I was using the Paradise Glow Duo which contained Desert Orchid and Paradise Venus. Prior to owning this pan of Nude Venus, I was using the single compact of it before gifting it to a friend. Prior to owning this pan of Paradise Venus and the half shade within Paradise Glow, I also had the single compact before gifting it to my sister. So, it’s no surprise that all my PML blushes look new when I keep switching to new pans of the same thing. The one I used the most from this palette is Divine Rose III specifically because I didn’t have it in any other form. I love these shades though, and took an unintentional break from them because I used them so much in their other compacts between 2022 and 2023. So, I would like to finally get back into using them. Also, I would have loved to bring my depotted baked shade Aphrodisia, but I was too afraid it would break in my luggage. So, I’m still waiting with bated breath to see if the brand will release more of the baked blushes in a different packaging (and I would actually welcome a repeat of Aphrodisia).

All of my Hourglass Blushes are fair game, but At Night is my favorite color by a long shot. This is the only one I really want to focus on from them, at least until I get access to Mood Exposure and Diffused Heat again (in the Ambient Lighting Edit palettes I left behind).

I think the BareMinerals Blonzer is the blush with my biggest pan dip, although it’s hard to tell in photos. There were times I used this exclusively for months! I traveled with it. I stopped using certain MAC blushes because of this one. Although I get more excited by some of the other blushes I mentioned, I know I will end up circling back around to using this. So, I officially included it.

In the case of the Benefit Wanderful World blush mini in Terra Spark, it doesn’t look all that worn because I was previously using the mini of the original Terra. I brought this blush and the shade Pom Pom, but I missed Starlaa and Java a lot. The only reason I left them behind was because I thought I’d use a similar color from Suqqu and the Chanel Lumiere Brun Roussi or Vieve brown blushes more often. That didn’t end up happening! I have to be in the right mood to wear Pom Pom, so it’s just Terra Spark in the Project Pan for now.

I started working on the details of this post in November. By the time it was Cyber Monday, I missed Starlaa so much that I repurchased it in the mini form. As Java is only available in the full-size, I held off on buying it. So, Starlaa is unofficially part of the Project Pan too.

I feel like I’ve used Chanel Blush Lumière in Brun Roussi a decent amount because I subconsciously replaced it with MAC’s Faux Sure blush, so that one took a backseat instead. For now, I’m continuing to work on this one over that one.

The last two are my drugstore options. I never forgot about these in my collection. It was always the situation that I considered using them more, but would be lured in by the luxury ones instead. The fact is though that I don’t have a mauve this good from other brands besides the Covergirl Trublend and I don’t have a light shimmery pink that doesn’t just look like a highlighter other than from Nabla’s Skin Glazing line. I still think these will only be occasionally used in the Project Pan, but I felt strongly compelled to include them for extra variety.

Highlighters

I truly cannot go through a highlighter if this is the state of mine from Charlotte Tilbury (on the right) that I’ve used at least 75% of the time in 2024. I used the 1st and 3rd strips exclusively. I can see where they’ve been worn in, but I don’t have any significant dips. Wild!
The ability to kind of fine-tune the color and intensity is why it’s the top highlighter in my collection.

The Hindash highlighter in Peak Heat (reviewed HERE) is a newfound love. This was not easy to get and I waited so long for a new Hindash product to fall in love with, so I’m absolutely putting this in the Project Pan.

Above is what I currently have left of the Charlotte Tilbury Skin Tint I talked about in the beginning. I probably only used about a half centimeter of product, but it’s still a decent amount considering my record. The pause on using it was from getting darker in the summer and wearing naturally glowier foundations. With the weather change, I’m bound to start using it again, but I’m not in a rush to finish it. This item is here purely for when I need it, so I just want to see how much gets used at the end out of curiosity.

Eyeshadows

There was no way I could pick just one palette for this category. The whole reason my eyeshadow collection got gigantic is because of my desire to have every color under the sun, including shades that shift. I thought it might be best to instead figure out the five brands whose eyeshadows I love the most and/or use the most. For example, I think Natasha Denona has fantastic quality eyeshadows, but I only use about 15 shades regularly out of my entire collection. It’s the same story for Viseart. I love all the colors available to me, but I keep going for the same ten or so shades.
For this reason, choosing one palette from each of the five brands would still feel too restrictive because of the color stories (my top ones are mainly greens and neutrals). So, as far as I’m concerned, my entire eyeshadow collection is part of the Project Pan, but I will put my favorite three palettes from Pat Mcgrath, Oden’s Eye, Melt Cosmetics, and YSL Beauty in my makeup area so they’ll be easily within reach. My custom Clionadh Stained Glass palette hasn’t left that spot in over a year.

Regarding taking starting photos, the state of my palettes haven’t changed enough since doing those ranking posts, with the exception of YSL‘s (that I only reviewed and didn’t rank). So, I’ll show the state of those here. I will also note that the Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette is one that I’ve tried to prioritize using in the past, so I know it’s going to be on my mind to try and make more significant dips into the eyeshadows than was seen in that ND ranking.

I still have some new-to-me indie palettes I’ve been using that have yet to be reviewed, so I will be posting about those in the future. It will also be difficult for me to resist buying a palette from any of my top ten favorite eyeshadow brands if they release a color story I love.

Everything Else

When it comes to face and eye primers, mascaras, eyeliners, brow products, and lip products, I’m just going to use everything I currently have. Excluding the lip category, all the others I listed contain items I love, but are replaceable. I have repurchased them many times, but there’s always something else I could like just as much because they aren’t radically different from each other.

The only difference between my 2021 Primer Declutter and current collection is that I whittled it down even more. The only face primers I still have is a fresh deluxe sample of the Milk Hydro Grip and mini of the Benefit Porefessional Hydrating Primer. What’s left of my eye primers is a fresh MAC Paint Pot, old Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas, fresh Nyx Glitter Primer, and the Lisa Eldridge Liquid Silk Eyeshadow that I use as a base. Technically, the Milk Eyeshadow Primer is included, but I use that with concealer. The Milk face primer is a “like” not “love,” so I might buy a new primer when I finish the Benefit one. That’s iffy because I pretty much stopped using primers again and rely on skincare for my prep.

I always give a shout out to my Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner, but I can get along just fine with others. My current two black liners I’m using are from One/Size and Stila, but they’re both almost out, so I have a Nyx and Sephora one waiting in the wings. I also have colored liners in gel pencil form, but I rarely use them, so I try to avoid buying more.

I’m really not picky about my brows. I’ve liked nearly everything I’ve tried. I am currently using up my last Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil and I interchange using it with the e.l.f. Instant Lift. It’s literally just a matter of grabbing whichever I see first. After both of those go, I have an e.l.f. backup.

My current mascara obsessions are the MAC MACStack and KVD Full Sleeve Mascaras, but I have so many I could name that I’m happy with and love. I believe I’m on my second full-size one from MAC and I have a backup. I’m nearly done with my current KVD one, but I have a backup here and in the US. I have a lot of other mascaras I brought with me still, so I just want to use them up while I can.

As for lip products, I found a ton of formulas this year that give me color without drying out my lips. I want to use what I’ve got and enjoy having the ability to switch between a bunch of different shades depending on my mood. So, there isn’t any one thing I’m going to focus on. My most used up lip products at the moment are the Ami Cole Lip Oil Treatment and Lisa Eldridge Baume Embraces. I have a backup Ami Cole lippie in the US.

So, that’s my list of products I’m focusing on! I’m not sure if I’ll do a midpoint check-in. I guess it depends on the number of views of this post so I can gauge the interest level. If there isn’t much interest, I’ll at least post my final results at the end of six months, even if it’s just for my own eyes.

Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤