So first of all, what do "Shop Your Stash and "Project Pan" mean?
Both of these are anti-consumerism movements in the beauty community to cut down on waste by loving what you have instead of feeding into the marketing streams of more More MORE!
Shop your Stash is a technique where one looks to at the makeup/ skincare products they already own, instead of feeding the itch to buy the shiny new thing beautubers are gushing over. Sometimes this means looking at what you have in a new light. My Bailey Sarian x Estate Venice Fling anti-haul thread is an example of a Shop Your Stash moment wherein I found dupes of the palette in my own collection, instead of buying it.
Project Pan is a more social-media based movement where participants post pictures when they hit the bottom of the pan of powder products like eyeshadow, blush, and bronzer. ("Hitting Pan" is the term for reveling the metal pan underneath a powder product by using so much of the product, and "panning" is a term that means completely using up an entire pan of product) Some participants have started adding non-pan products such as lipgloss and lipsticks to the movement. Initially it started with panning bc non-pan items such as mascara or eyeliner in a collection are usually staples in that person's day to day look and they go empty much more frequently, whereas powder in pan product buying is driven by colors and marketing. Thinking about it now the only powder products I've ever panned were my old brand of pressed powder (5 times over in fact), an elf contour palette, and a black eyeshadow. Non- powder products I've managed to empty include dozens of eyeliners and mascaras, and several liquid foundation bottles, as I usually just own one at a time and use it until completion.
During the absolute dumpster fire that is 2020 I'll admit I hit the retail therapy pretty hard. In the last 9 weeks I've bought 7 eyeshadow palettes, an eyeshadow single, 2 highlighters, 3 mascaras, 2 powder foundations, 2 CC creams, tomato serum, snail mucin, Hyaluronic serum, retinol serum, 6 sheet masks, CBD serum, CBD night cream, and AHA toner. But still I'm seeing Fall toned palettes and lactic acid cleansers and I feel the itch- so instead of buying more I am going to focus on Shoping My Stash.
I've been saying this as a bit of a self mantra to keep myself on a regular skincare routine for the last 2 weeks at least. While I want to try out the mystical Sunday Riley Good Genes, I also want to see out this $184 tomato serum & AHA toner combo I've already invested time and money into.
I'm making new rules for myself, which will vary some between skincare and makeup, and between different products.
SHOP👏YO👏 STASH👏RULES
Makeup
1. Palettes: No more palettes obvi. From now on I am counting the number of shades I pan and I am not allowing myself to buy palettes until the number of shades I've panned is equal to the number of shades in the new palette. So if I pan 10 shades I can get a 10 shade palette. The exception to this rule is Urban Decay Naked 3. This palette is a staple, which Ibused for the majority of my daily looks. If a shade of this palette hits pan a replacement palette will be purchased, and the initial palette will be sold on r/mue or poshmark.
2. Eyeliner, Mascara, Brow products: I will use up the multiples in my possession. New items will not be purchased until only a single item for each use is left in my possession and reaches a level of needing replaced.
3. Expired blushes will be panned or discarded. After this I limit myself to two blushes: one neutral tone for professional occasions and one bright pink for fun. New blush will not be purchased until one has hit pan or a blush can be sold to make room for a new one.
4. Complexion products: I hereby limit myself to 1 full coverage foundation, 1 tinted moisturizer, and 2 of the 3 following: a powder foundation, a pressed powder, a setting powder. Items can be replaced when they are nearly empty or can be destashed& sold to make room.
5. Highlighter: limited based on color: 1 strobe white, 1 natural, 1 pink, 1 mauve, 1 gold. Only 1 highlighter palette at a time. New can be bought to replaced a panned item, or item can be sold to make room for something new
Skincare
1. Only 1 of each type of item. "Type" can have a broad spectrum ranging between product types (face masque, light moisturizer, cream, etc) and ingredient types (AHA, Vitamin C, Hyaluronic acid, etc) so this rule is a little fuzzy but no overlap between product type and intended use. (Only 1 AHA treatment at a time, only 1 vitamin c serum, only 1 Hyaluronic acid serum, etc) New products can be bought when a previous is nearly empty or has been tested for an extensive period with no positive results. Ineffective products can be tossed/ sold and replaced.
Now for the Project Pan part of it!
To keep track of what has been panned/ used up I'm going to post them here. My goal here is to actually use things I own. If I don't love it enough to pan it, I'm destashing & selling it.
Welcome to my pan project yall.
