Project Pan Finale: Empty Products

A few months ago, I decided to embark on a project pan to use up or hit the pan of several makeup items. My goal was to finish 12 products before Christmas/the end of 2018. And as you will see below, I not only hit that goal, but I surpassed it! I used up/hit the pan of 19 makeup products!

In this post, I'll walk through all of the products I used up and discuss if I plan on repurchasing or not.

Soap and Glory One Heck of a Blot
Goal: Finish
Status: Will not repurchase

As you can see with this dirty pan, I accomplished my goal of finishing the setting powder. The powder developed hard pan, which made it difficult to use, so I needed to repress it to get rid of the hard pan and give myself an even pan again. This is what it looked like before repressing:

And after:

Once I repressed the powder, it was much less densely packed, which meant that I picked up more product with my brush. While I liked this product and I think it does a good job of keeping the face matte, with the loosened product, I found that it left a white cast on my face and make me look really powdery. This didn't happen until I repressed the product, which, again, was generally difficult to use before repressing. 

I don't like to keep more than one powder in my collection at a time, so I have replaced this product with the Hourglass Veil translucent powder. So far, I really like that one. 

Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel

Goal: Hit the pan

Status: Will continue to use, but will likely not repurchase

Back when I was living in New York and using makeup as a coping mechanism, I purchased the very expensive and not at all inclusive Chanel Soleil Tan de Chanel cream bronzer, which is also known as the "universal bronze." This is not a universal bronze. This is the first and only cream bronzer I have ever used, and while I think it's a good product, I have to really blend it out or else it leaves my face with an orange/brown stripe. Obviously part of this could be my application or user error, but the shade just isn't right for me or what I would want. With that said, the product works, and I would like to use it up since there is nothing wrong with it and I spent quite a bit of money on it. 

Generally, I find that I prefer my powder bronzer (Hourglass Luminous Bronze Light), so while I intend to use up this product, I doubt I will repurchase. 

Tarte Exposed blush

Goal: Hit the pan

Status: Will continue to use, but will not repurchase 

This may be the only powder blush I have ever hit the pan of, and the only reason I have is likely because I have to use so much product just to get any color payoff. I do like the color of this blush, but Tarte is not a brand that I want to support. I'm tired of how non-inclusive the brand is, and until that changes, I don't want to purchase anything for them. I don't know if Exposed will stick around in my collection long enough for me to use up the entire thing, but if it does, I will not repurchase. 

Physician's Formula Butter Highlighter in Pearl

Goal: Hit the pan

Status: Will continue to use

I have a lot of highlighters in my collection, but this is one of my favorites. I'm not a huge fan of the twist packaging or the swirl design, but I really love the product. It has a duochrome finish, and I find that it lasts longer on my skin than many mid-range or high-end products. I don't hear a lot of people talk about this, but it's certainly a product that I love. This is only the second highlighter that I have ever hit the pan of, and the other is Becca Moonstone, which is my all-time favorite. 

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light

Goal: Hit the pan

Status: All-time favorite

After I finished my Dim Light powder last year, I immediately replaced it with this one. I love this product. I use it as an all over finishing powder, and I find that I just don't like my makeup without it. I will continue to repurchase and love this product. 

Physician's Formula The Healthy Foundation and Milani Conceal + Perfect

Goal: Finish

Status: Will not repurchase 

I am usually a huge proponent of "do not use a product that you hate just to finish it," but I made an exception for these two foundations. In an attempt to find a more inclusive foundation to support (we will get into this more in the next product), I purchased both of these foundations. On their own, I hated both of them. Mixed together, I hated them less. The worst offender of the two was The Healthy Foundation. This looked so dry on my skin, and I have combination skin. The coverage was very thin, and while I don't like full-coverage foundations, this one didn't even seen to be able to provide an even layer of coverage at all. The shade I purchased was also too light for my skin tone. Conceal + Perfect, on the other hand, was way too full coverage for me, and the shade I purchased was too dark. I was able to mix the two of them together for shade and coverage/texture, and while that was better than either on their own, it still wasn't great. 

It's worth noting that the cap on The Healthy Foundation continually broke and splintered off as I worked through the bottle, which made this miserable to use. I can see both of these products working for people with skin types that are different from mine, but I will not repurchase. 

It Cosmetics CC+ Cream

Goal: Finish

Status: Will not repurchase until the shade range improves 

If you've been a longtime reader of my blog, you'll know that this is my all-time favorite foundation. Truthfully, I would be very happy to just use this foundation and not even try another one. But, this foundation shade range is unacceptable, and I cannot support it. Until recently, there were only four shades in this range, and none of them were dark enough for deep skin tones. The range has expanded to 12 shades, but seven of those are meant for light skin, three for medium skin, one for dark, and one for deep. So, even though the range is slightly better, it still skews too heavily toward light skin, and it is not something that I am comfortable supporting. 

To replace this, I have recently purchased the Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r foundation, and I absolutely love it. 

Elf Mineral Face Primer

Goal: Finish

Status: May repurchase one day, but not now 

I used up a few primers during this project, and I think this one is good value for the money. I liked it just as much as the Make Up For Ever mattifying one, and think it gives generally similar results to the Hourglass Mineral Veil. I didn't love it, however, and I have found other primers that I like more.

Samples: Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Instant Retouch Primer, Becca Backlight Primer, Becca Blurring Primer

Goal: Finish

Status: May repurchase Becca Backlight Primer

I had three primer samples, so I used them all up in this project. 

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Instant Retouch Primer: I hated this primer. It was impossible to pump (but that may just be the sample), the smell was off-putting, and the texture was very waxy and thick. It clung to the foundation and my Beauty Blender—making it impossible to wash—and I did not like the results on my face. 

Becca Blurring Primer: I also hated this primer. I left behind a powdery residue on my fingers and face after application, and I found that it didn't work well with my foundation. 

Becca Backlight Primer: I've purchased this before and didn't care for it or notice any difference with it, but it looked absolutely gorgeous with the Fenty foundation. I am currently using the Australian Gold mineral tinted sunscreen as a primer, and I love that, but I can see myself buying the Becca Backlight again soon. 

NARS Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base

Goal: Finish

Status: Have already repurchased 

This is my all-time favorite eye primer, and one that I will continue to repurchase. I have finished several bottles of this primer, and I will continue to repurchase it. 

L'Oreal Lash Paradise Base

Goal: Finish

Status: Have already repurchased

I haven't tried too many mascara primers, but I loved this one. I use it with Benefit Bad Gal Bang mascara, and I love the effects of it. I finished up this entire bottle (even before the two month expiration date) and immediately repurchased another. I love how it makes my lashes look. 

Sample: Benefit Bad Gal Bang 

Goal: Finish

Status: Have already repurchased 

I received a sample of this mascara, and, in an unusual act for me, I used up the entire thing. I have long loved many Benefit mascaras (They're Real and Roller Lash have been favorites of mine), but I always find that I get tired of paying the high price, and then I'll buy a drugstore one for a while. That tradition may continue, but I really love the combination of this mascara and the L'Oreal Lash Paradise primer. 

Physician's Formula Eye Booster

Goal: Finish

Status: Have already repurchased 

This is another boring one to write about as this has been my all-time favorite eyeliner for years, and it continues to be. I have used up many of these eyeliners, and I always immediately repurchase another. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Definer 

Goal: Finish

Status: Undecided 

I find that I'm always torn on brow pencils. On the one hand, I really like the smaller brow pencils (like ABH Brow Wiz), but on the other, I hate how quickly I use those up. The ABH Brow Definer certainly lasts longer, but I like the precision that smaller pencils provide. This is the second Brow Definer that I have used up, and likely won't be the last, but I do like smaller pencils better.

NYX Micro Brow Pencil
Goal: Finish
Status: Will continue to use

A while ago, I was gifted several of these NYX brow pencils, so this is what I will be using until I finish all of them. I love this pencil and have purchased it before, and this is the size of pencil that I prefer to the ABH Brow Definer. The negative with this pencil and others like it is that there is so little product, and I go through it very quickly. Even during the time I started this project, I was able to use up two of these pencils (that were brand new) in a shorter amount of time than I used up the ABH Brow Definer that was more than half-finished. But, I'm happy to have a nice supply of them, and I will continue to use. 

This Week's Looks: Urban Decay, Inglot, Fyrinnae, and Milani

I really appreciate all of the supportive comments on my last post about the health issues I've been dealing with. There is no makeup product that has come out or been teased recently that I am remotely interested in buying, so if there are specific products you would like me to write an anti-haul post about, I encourage you to comment and let me know what they are. That way, when I am able to write more posts, I know they will be about things people want to read. 

This was an interesting week for me as my makeup was noticed a lot and I received an abnormally high amount of comments, all at work. None of the comments were necessarily bad, but I personally feel uncomfortable when people comment on the existence of my makeup. I'm okay when people tell me that I look nice that day, or even when close friends of mine tell me my makeup looks nice (because they know I love makeup and it's a big hobby of mine). But when my colleagues acknowledge that I'm wearing makeup, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable, and I don't know why. 

One comment was asking if I was wearing a specific MAC shadow (I was not), and this led to a really fun conversation with another hidden makeup enthusiast in my office. She doesn't wear much makeup to work, but I got the impression she leads a double life and wears a ton of it in her personal life. And I wish I could see what she wears!

Another day I wore a striking eyeshadow, and one woman commented that she really loved the color. She then said that she notices my makeup all the time and really loves it, but that it makes her lament that she does not know how to put on makeup herself and she therefore doesn't try. I was about to respond with something encouraging, but I was interrupted by a slightly older woman in the office who is quite abrasive. About my makeup, she said, "It's a little clubby, but it adds some flair to the office."

Again, it wasn't a direct insult, but it was certainly not a compliment to be told I came to work looking like I was ready to go to a club. And I have to say that those kind of experiences make me less inclined to wear what I want to work. I feel like in order to not be noticed and have to deal with comments, I should be like my colleague who leads a double makeup life. 

Here are the looks I did this week. 

Look 1: Urban Decay Toasted

Toasted on the lid and Viseart Neutral Matte blended into the crease. 

Look 2: Urban Decay Sideline

Sideline on the lid and Bobbi Brown Camel blended into the crease. 

Look 3: Fyrinnae Luxury

Luxury (over Pixie Epoxy) on the lid and Melt Rust Stack blended into the crease. 

Look 4: Inglot

8 on the lid, 3 blended into the crease, and 11 padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 5: (Altered) Milani Earthy Elements 

4 on the lid, 2 and 3 blended into the crease, 5 padded onto the outer corner, and 1 on the brow bone. 

Urban Decay Toasted

Status: Favorite 

This is a semi-recent addition to my collection. I purchased it several months ago, but haven't had the opportunity to wear it because I was trying to get through my palettes and then I started indie month. I've mentioned before that there were three shadows that made me keep the Naked palette for as long as I did, and they were Half Baked, Smog, and Toasted. I bought Urban Decay Chase, which is a perfect combination of Half Baked and Smog, so I decluttered the Naked palette. And ever since then (which has been years), I have really missed Toasted. I figured it was such a simple, plain shadow that I likely had something similar in my collection, but I finally missed it enough that I decided to buy it. And, man, do I love this shadow. I think the single is even better than the one in the Naked palette because I've long believed that the formula in UD palettes is slightly lower than their singles. I love this shadow, and even though my look was very simple, all day I thought it was so pretty. I am very happy to have it in my collection again. 

Urban Decay Sideline

Status: Love

So, this was the first shadow that I received a comment on. It is a duochrome, and it shifts between gold and green, but I think (well, thought) it was neutral enough. As with most duochromes, it is better and prettier in person than on camera, and I thought the look was really pretty, especially paired with Bobbi Brown Camel. I feel I might have some indie shadows that are similar to this, but the indie shadows are much more intense in their shifting. This shadow is more subtle, which I really loved about it. 

Fyrinnae Luxury

Status: Love, but decluttered

If you couldn't guess, this is the shadow that was called out as being "clubby." You know, the woman who said that to me is not my favorite person in the office. She is abrasive and entitled and feels like everyone should hear her opinion. Most of the people in my office are not like that, so it doesn't surprise me that she was the one to say something to me. But, I don't have a very thick skin for people in my real life making comments on my appearance. I am very senior in my office and I am also one of the youngest people there, and I am absolutely treated differently because of my age. For the first month or so working at my job, I didn't wear makeup I wanted to wear because I wanted people to take me seriously. And I think it's pretty gross that a makeup look like this one, which is really just a shiny (gorgeous) gold on the lid, made someone feel the need to strip me a bit of my authority. I am very good at my job, I take my job seriously, and I am very professional. And I didn't appreciate that this woman took my eyeshadow as an opportunity to kick me down a peg. 

It was a crappy experience, but that is not why I am decluttering this eyeshadow. I think this shadow is stunning and I completely recommend it to anyone who is looking into Fyrinnae shadows. I am decluttering it because it is a duplicate of Coloured Raine Super Star.

Fyrinnae Luxury

Coloured Raine Super Star

And while I think these colors are completely gorgeous, I just don't need two of them. And I am choosing to keep the Coloured Raine shadow because it is pressed and doesn't require Pixie Epoxy under it.

Inglot platte
Status: Favorite

I have an entire one week, one palette post about most of the shadows in this palette (I had a 10-pan palette instead of a 15-pan palette), and it was one of my favorite palettes in my collection. I didn't want to stop using it and actually prolonged the week so that I could get more use out of it. And it is still one of my favorite palettes and I always enjoy using it. I think I was drawn to a more subtle color on my lid because of the previous day, but I like that I still made it very "me" and didn't stick with a "safe" neutral look.

(Altered) Milani Earthy Elements 
Status: Favorite

This is without doubt one of my favorite discoveries in makeup ever. And I know that is super dramatic, but I just can't get over how much I love this palette. I have owned three of these palettes from Milani, and I have to say that not all are created equal. This is the only one that I kept, and even then, I completely altered it to be the perfect palette for me. This is what this palette originally looked like:

And this is mine now:

As you can see, I removed the first shade which was just a sparkly nothing shade and replaced it with the matte cream shade from the Milani Plum palette (that I did not like at all except for this shadow). I then replaced the number 5 shadow, which was a white gold glitter bomb, with the matte brown from the Milani Bare Necessities palette (that was fine but nothing special). I wasn't able to replace the pans themselves, so I crushed up the shadows from Earthy Elements and threw them away and then crushed up the shadows from the other palettes and repressed them into the pans of this palette. 

And I get that it is slightly unfair for me to completely rave about a palette that I had to work for and that no one can buy. But I love this palette for the four shadows that I didn't touch. And I would have been happy to use this palette in conjunction with other shadows in my collection, but now I don't have to. I honestly don't know what it is about this palette, but I just love it so much. I love how my eyeshadow comes out each time and I always want to wear it. Considering that it is around $10 from the drugstore, I think this (altered version) is the perfect warm neutral palette. 

Recent Declutters and Depotting

I know a term people like to use a lot in relation to by blog, which is tongue-in-cheek, is "makeup rehab." And that's because a lot of people, myself included, have struggled with a very real makeup/shopping addiction.

Ever since I became interested in makeup seven or eight years ago, I have always had more makeup than the average woman. I have gotten several friends into makeup, and I have always enjoyed being a soundboard when they've had a question about a product because they know that even if I haven't tried it, I've probably at least heard of it.

But things became a problem for me in the last few years living in NYC and especially when I started graduate school. NYC is not for the faint of heart, and it's sometimes not even for the strongest among us. This city has battered me around more than anything I've ever experienced, but I am still here because of people and obligations in my life. But when things have felt particularly rough, I would turn to makeup. Every day felt like a fight, and on the days I lost, I would buy makeup. I talked with my dad about this, and he told me that the most important thing was to get through the day. And he said if I needed to buy something to get through, then I needed to do it. Because I needed to get through.

And I did.

And a few months after graduating from my program, I started writing this blog. The blog was supposed to be a way to keep me accountable and to really talk out my frustrations with the beauty community and how consumerism had run rampant. What I wasn't expecting was to learn a lot about myself, my preferences, and the products I enjoy. And that might sound a little foolish, but I honestly thought I knew myself and what kind of makeup I enjoyed before staring this blog and really trying to get to know my makeup. As I have mentioned a lot recently, the most striking and important things I've learned are that I do not enjoy palettes, I much prefer singles, and most shadows are just not that unique.

And with that realization, for me, comes decluttering and downsizing.

Recently, I got into a decluttering mood, and I wanted to share what has left my collection.

Milani Bare Necessities: Decluttered

I considered keeping this for a few hours after I wrote about it in a "This Week's Looks" post, but then I realized I had no reason to keep it, so it has been decluttered. I actually took the matte dark brown shade and repressed that into the Milani Earthly Elements palette, but I don't have plans on using that on the eye (and seeing if it was successful) until indie month is over.

Milani Plum Basics: Decluttered

The pink glitter shadow on the top right was enough to make me want to declutter this palette without another thought. Like the Bare Necessities palette, I repressed the matte white/cream shade into the Milani Earthly Elements palette, and I am excited to see how that turns out. 

Becca Ombre Rouge: Decluttered

This was not an easy declutter for me as I really enjoy this palette. The problem is, in the last year, I have maybe used this palette three times. I call it my "professional" or "interview" palette, and indeed, I used this palette for my job interviews and when I had a really important meeting at work in the first couple months I worked there. Now, I am much more comfortable at work and don't need to wear such a conservative look anymore. I think this is a really lovely palette filled with beautiful shades, but the majority of it was just redundant to my collection. I wasn't using it, so it was time to let it go. 

Ciate London Smokey Suedes: Decluttered 

This was also not an easy palette to get rid of, but I have only used it twice in the last six months. This was actually the palette that made me take a break from the one week, one palette project, because I just did not want to wear only this for a solid week. There are so many pretty shadows in here, but none that I don't have elsewhere, so I decided to let it go. 

Juvia's Place Nubian 2: Decluttered

This was the hardest item to get rid of in this entire lot. I fell so hard for this palette when I used it for the one week, one palette project, and I especially loved Nairobi, Nefertiti, Jezebel, and Leyla. Thing is, I have not reached for this palette once since I used it in one week, one palette. I know if the shadow pans were smaller, I would totally depot the shades I just mentioned, but they are not, and I don't want to repress them into smaller pans. I have similar shadows to those anyway, and the stress of feeling guilty about not using this palette finally got the better of me. It's a beautiful palette that I really enjoyed using, but I just have too much in my collection, and I wasn't reaching for it. 

Lime Crime Venus: Depotted/Downsized

This is a palette that I really enjoy, but I found myself never reaching for it because of the bulky packaging and because it was buried under some other products in my collection. I really loved the artwork on the front of this palette, and even left it out for display once upon a time, but me not wanting to get rid of the packaging was actually keeping me from using the products inside. So, I decided to depot. I didn't intend to downsize any shadows in the process, but I also decided to downsize my custom Viseart palette (see below), and wanted to move the shadows from the Neutral Matte palette into the new custom palette. When I decided to do that, I realized I didn't need Creation and Icon, so I ditched those two shadows. 

Here is the new custom palette:

Includes: Natasha Denona (top left), Lime Crime Venus (top right), Viseart Neutral Matte (bottom left), and Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons (bottom right).

Pur Soul Mattes: Depotted/Downsized

I'll just say right now that if you have this palette, you should not depot it. I have never experienced a more challenging project that ruined every single shadow in the palette. But, here's the thing about this palette. It looks like the perfect pink/mauve companion palette, but across the board, it's just not. The three lightest shades (two on the far left, one on the far right) all perform essentially the same on my skin. The third shadow in did not look mauve on me at all, and definitely leaned more brown; the reddish shade was nothing special when compared with Muse from the Venus palette; and I had shadows like the dark and light browns elsewhere in my collection. I knew I didn't want the entire palette, but there were still shadows I was interested in keeping, which is why I attempted to depot them. Again, it was a terrible experience, but in the end, I'm happy with the shadows I kept, which were the two shades on the far left, the fourth shadow, and and the light brown shadow. They are now in the new custom Viseart palette. I suspect that as time progresses, these shadows may end up decluttered as well, but as of now I am happy with the ones that have remained. 

Viseart Sultry Muse and Paris Nudes: Downsized 

This is what my Viseart custom palette used to look like. This was a combination of Sultry Muse:

Paris Nudes:

And Neutral Matte. 

And, here's the thing. There were some shadows that I really loved in this palette, and that's what made me want to keep all of it. But there were also some shadows that were not great at all. And I think because I paid so much money for them, I just did not want to admit to myself that I didn't like them all that much. But really delving into singles and indie shadows has made me see what I like and expect from a shadow, and I just had to admit that I wasn't crazy about a lot of these colors. So, I decluttered 10 shadows from both of these palettes. I am now only left with these:

In this palette, there are 11 Viseart shadows from Sultry Muse (primarily) and Paris Nudes, Make Up For Ever Pearl, one Natasha Denona shadow, and four shadows from Pur Soul Mattes. 

This Frankenstein's Monster palette is now a perfect palette for me. I can see traveling with this in a heartbeat. I'm excited to see the use this gets now. 

And since I took all the shadows out of the Inglot flexi palette, I was able to put all my Inglot shadows together in that palette. I had a 10-pan palette and a 5-pan palette, and now they are all combined:

Looking at my makeup collection now, which is still very large, I have to say that I feel a bit of relief. My palettes are not crammed into drawers and buried in a game of Tetris. There is some room to breathe, and I think that will have a great impact on my mindset. 

Finally, I would like to close this post with a note about depotting. It is not for everyone, and if it is not for you, that's okay. But the main reason I hear from people who don't want to depot is that they can't imagine doing that to their palettes. And I think that mindset can be flawed in a lot of ways, because a lot of it has an undercurrent of the hype/consumerist mindset. Some people like to have order to things and don't like asymmetry, and my comments are not for the people who chose not to depot because of these reasons. 

At the end of the day, unless a makeup item is a collectible to you, it is a product intended to be used. And if you're not using something because of the palette it is in or because you don't like the majority of colors, you're essentially wasting your money and the product by having it just sit there untouched. I think a lot of people don't want to depot because if they do, when their favorite person on YT holds up that palette and talks about it, they will have the fear of missing out. But that's silly to me. Depotting helps you get the most out of your shadows, even if that means losing some of them or combining them with other shadows that aren't exactly the same shape. 

Depotting also really helps show the duplicates in your collection. It's essentially doing what I propose in many of my anti-haul posts, which is to look at the shadows as pigments away from the packaging. When you look at shadows that way, you see what you already have. And that's what happens for me when I depot.  

I have already gotten a lot more use of out several shadows that I wasn't using previously, so this has been a successful endeavor for me.