There's no highlight on my nose, I swear

Just your favorite greasy gal, Rachel, with her latest project pan. Honestly, at the start of quarantine, I rarely used makeup, which showed me just how few lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes I really needed. What made me start wearing it again? I had joined the subreddit, r/Makeuprehab about 5 years ago, and had learned about Project Pan's, which is a project to use up your makeup. 

The other day, my boyfriend asked me, What does panning mean? And I tried to explain to him that an eyeshadow pan was the metal part that housed the shadow and that when you use a shadow enough, you see the bottom of the pan, a tiny sliver of metal peeking through, also known as hitting pan. When he continued to look puzzled, I basically explained that panning means to use up makeup.

I shared a little bit before about my decluttering journey and the pandemic was definitely one of the stalls. I didn't feel motivated to put on makeup, even though I wanted to pan what I owned and put it to good use. I had frequented a few other related subreddits, including r/PanPorn, which featured a discord where you could interact with other redditors and fellow panners. 

Over the next few months, I met and fell in love with the ladies who chatted on the daily and posted looks and that encouraged me to start putting makeup on again. During the pandemic, I rediscovered my love for putting on eyeshadow at the encouragement of my newfound friends. Through it all, I started doing something about my realization during quarantine that I didn't need as much makeup as I thought I did. I posted about my first project pan in March and surprised myself by using up 3 of my products in 3 weeks!

To give you some context, I am not one who is usually good at using up products, mainly because I have a hard time sticking to the same thing which is crucial when trying to pan something. I had tried so many times in the past to pan things but consistently using the same lipstick or perfume seemed so boring or I would just forget.

A few tips that I discovered when I was able to successfully pan makeup this time around:

Tip #1 Keep it easy. Don't overwhelm yourself with 5 different liquid lipsticks! You know what you like and just because someone else has a Project Pan consisting of 21 different items, doesn't mean that will work for you too. I would suggest adding to your Project over time, rather than feeling discouraged and giving up on an overly ambitious one. 

Tip #2 Try to use daily. Consistency, consistency, consistency! Will be your best friend. For the perfume I used up, Ari by Ariana Grande, I kept it in the bathroom and spritzed it every few hours after using the ladies room. I surprised myself when I had used it up after 17 days! I used the ABH eyeshadow primer daily until I couldn't squeeze out anymore, when normally I would reach for 3 different primers at any given time. 

Tip #3 Let it go. Having a hard time letting something go? Keep track of how old something is, when you got it and when you started using it, and then buy yourself a replacement when it's time. The mascara on the far right was about 9 months old, not going to lie. I bought myself a replacement and told myself when it arrived that I would let the old one go. And I did.

More tips to come!