Glam: Project Pan Or Why You Have Too Much Makeup {Or I have enough eyeshadow to last 5.75 years!}

Like most people, I like to buy stuff. All kinds of stuff but since I started making my own clothes, I don’t really buy clothes. My shiny, pretty, I must have it Now, Daddy!, Verruca Salt-esqe needs have shifted to makeup. The conspicuous consumption of the beauty blogger/guru/youtube sensation doesn’t help. Everyone going nuts for Jefree Star liquid lippies and Becca’s Champagne Pop highlighter. Internet and retail stores all sold out of the latest hit. The hype, the Instagram, the ‘this product changed my life’. It makes for some serious, purchase related psychological distortion.

Not to mention those tour of my beauty room/stash vids. If you haven’t seen these, check out this vid and this one and then this one. It dwarfs whatever you own and leaves you a little disgusted but somehow, ever wanting. This is crazy! All of it, crazy! I think I own a lifetimes worth of makeup and yet, I can always find something I ‘need’. This craziness has to stop and I have found a way.

For me it started with two sub reddits. First r/panporn, where people proudly display finished or ‘panned’ products. Pan refers to the time where you first see the metal or other ‘pan’ below a powder product. A product becomes ‘panned’ when the metal or other ‘pan’ below the product shows, when it’s ‘fully panned’ when the pan is all that’s left. The terms ‘pan’, ‘panned’ or ‘panning’ (the active endeavour to finish a product) still apply to makeup items like tubes or lipsticks. Then came r/makeuprehab, a place where people are actively trying to combat a makeup addiction. What you will see there is people putting themselves on ‘low buys’ – a set of self governed rules about which situations are okay to buy make up in. For example only replacing panned products or a certain allowable amount of purchase in a time frame (1 per month for example) or awarding themselves ‘dollars’ per panned product that they can spend on new items. Then there are those that go on self imposed ‘no buys’ – these can be in effect for a time period or like a ‘low buy’ be governed by the use of other products. You’ll also here about ‘pan that pallette’ or ‘project pan’ where users endeavour to use up parts of their collection. Like other things, this may have a time period or a reward at the end. In both sub Reddits, people are supporting each other in using up what they have and lowering consumption. Like moving from buying clothes at every opportunity and then moving to a capsule wardrobe, this is real, emotional and many users find an emotional correlation to their spending habits. Makeup up hoarding may be glorified but like all overconsumption, its bad news because when will you be satisfied?

I guess the collecting was getting me or I would not have sought this kind of counsel. I always thought that makeup was about the makeup. I think I know better now, it’s the skill. No makeup product is going to make me look like Cindy Crawford (not just showing my age, but she did say that even she didn’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford). I didn’t think I was even in too deep. I don’t own that much make up. And then…..I read this post. Which made me seek answers on how long it takes to use stuff and then I calculated this…….BOOM!

So the blog, Brightest Light Bulb In The Box, calculated these things in a super scientific way. It’s such a shame that she doesn’t still blog and that the blog is inactive. Which is what I based my calculations on. If you want her reasoning,  have a read of her posts, I’ve linked to each one below. But she calculated the following:

• Eyeshadow = 0.02g per application – info here
• Lipstick = 0.008g per application – info here
• Blush = 0.014g per application – info here

Now if you multiply those figures by how many things you own……It could be a little daunting! And when you think about how some of those products age and how long they are viable for, you might realize you have enough for the next 5, 10, 15 years or maybe forever! I know I had a wake up! I don’t really have enough eyeshadow for 5.75 years because I use at least two daily but if I only do eyeshadow a few times a week, it’s spot on! It’s enough to make a girl go my shock! I am going to try and pan some miniatures (a bit less confronting) and keep working on my shadows. I’ll post again in a few months with my progress. And if you are a little freaked by what you own, please join me! I hope we can all feel more comfortable and reign in our spending habits. As I have mentioned, r/makeuprehab is a great place to be. Let’s not get sucked in and work through what we have. Because we know there is no miracle product and we are just so pretty already. Lipstick kisses to you all xxxx