12 Days of Blogging Day 6: What 1 year Project Panning Has Taught Me

When I began project panning about a year ago, I did it because I felt so, not bad not guilty, just overwhelmed with how much makeup I had that was so old, but also I didn’t want to just chuck it out. SO I discovered the world of project panning. I always had an idea that normal folks (like my mom) hit pan on items, use them up, and finish them. However, as a person who is monster and loves to buy new makeup for science and testing purposes, I was finding myself accumulating a lot of makeup over the 2016-2017 year. Instead of putting myself on a no buy or a low buy, I thought I would start project panning.

I know what you make be thinking, how can this be a thing? Well, capitalism is the answer. Oh I went there. Consumerism and the idea of buy buy buy is always in our faces. We see Instagram ads, Facebook ads, we watch our favourite content creators talking about products that we then want to buy. I was so heavily entranced in shiny pretty things that I started losing sight, for my Marx folks out there becoming alienated, and started using and buying products that are made by rich white men sold to us for 100s of thousands of dollars per year. It is not to say I wasn’t making an autonomous decision, but really in the structure of the shopping I wasn’t. I was being sucked in by the shiny marketing and my sense of curiosity to try the “next best thing”

This brings me to the second reason I started project panning and what I have learned so far. The oversaturation of releases from brands. Yes, colourpop I’m looking at you. One reason I respect brands like Glossier, Hourglass, Nudestix, (not that I don’t respect other brands I just don’t know how else to put it) is that they don’t fatigue you with release after release (at least in my feed they are not the brands that pop up). I was so tired of seeing and trying to keep up with new releases, that as a blogger project planning had become a way to still add things to my collection, but also to be more curated and conscious of what I was adding. Instead of going out and buying everything Estee Lalonde recommended (which okay so I tend to do that) I stopped. Particularly, I REALLY tried to curb my habit, and am still trying, of going to the drugstore and buying random makeup items to make it to the 20x the points if you spend $50 because I was accumulating so many unneeded items in my collection that didn’t really have a place.

This is the biggest lesson of project panning: consider your drugstore purchases as well. It has never been a question that when I buy a high end makeup item, I think about it, I watch reviews, I mull it over and then I purchase. With the drugstore, it is so easy to get sucked into the makeup aisle and the great sales but I was never thinking about my purchases. Now, this isn’t to say I haven’t bought my fair share of drugstore items in 2018, in fact I’d be embarrassed to even disclose the new drugstore makeup I attained this year. I also think that there is a healthy balance as a blogger to asking the question: am I buying this for research, a review or do I genuinely want it. I think that it comes from all three when I’m purchasing drugstore makeup – but I also think there is validity in buying your own product to review so its a double edged sword.

The final lesson I have learned through panning products is how much engagement you can get from people. Yes, I watch first impressions videos and hauls because I love them! BUT i think the beauty industry, or community depending on your stance, can stand to do a bit more shop your stash and project panning than it does at the moment. This post is not to say I don’t love hauling and it’s not to say I’m going to stop buying drugstore products but i’m going to take the same care I have with my decision to buy a high end product.