1st Project 10 Pan of 2016 Finale!

Drumroll please - my first Project 10 Pan of the year (intro post here) has now officially drawn to a close! Can you tell how excited I am? Funnily enough, in April (my fourth month of doing this Project), I started feeling less bored by using the same products day in and day out and was again just enjoying them for their quality and dependability. Anyway... onto my progress!

Above is a flat lay photo from my last update two months ago, at the halfway mark (read my update post here). I had some good progress at that point but was feeling a bit anxious about a couple of products, especially the Stila eyeliner and the Koh Gen Do foundation, which I barely made a dent in despite using it every time I wore make-up. And here are my products at the end of the Project:

Woohoo - 3 products completely used up out of 10 and goals hit on another 4! Let's discuss all the items in detail:

1. Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation in PK-1: My goal was to use half of the bottle, and I got so incredibly close that I'm counting this as an achievement; especially considering the amount of usage I had these past two months compared to January-February. I still really love this base; I can just count on it to match my skintone exactly and look fresh and natural on the skin. My favorite method of application to get the most coverage was to stipple it on with a buffer brush (I use the Real Techniques one).

 2. Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light: So my progress on this product has remained rather slow, despite very frequent usage, but I think you can definitely see a larger dip now where I was concentrating my brush. I really enjoy this finishing powder, but I'm now ready to retire it to a drawer and start using something else on the daily.
3. Stila Smudge Stick Waterproof Eyeliner in Bluefin: Completely used up! If you follow my yearly make-up empties count on Instagram, you may have seen that I finished this eyeliner about two weeks ago, which made me super happy. I definitely noticed that the last week or two of usage, Bluefin got very dry and even flaky, but I managed to use it up by applying it with an angled brush mostly to tightline. In my experience, eyeliner pencils with microglitter dry out much faster than regular cream/ matte finish.
4. NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base: Done and dusted! It's my favorite eye primer I've tried so far, but this thing is definitely dead now; I used as much as I was able to get out. There's still product at the very bottom of the tube where the wand doesn't reach it, but even if I had one of those handy dandy spatulas to dig it out, it's too dried out now anyway. It's okay - I definitely got my money's worth out of it.

5. NYX Powder Blush in Taupe: That's quite some pan, am I right? What happened (as you can kind of see in the close-up as well) is that I actually hit pan on this contouring powder four times in different areas. For whatever reason, the grid pattern on the powder is much harder pressed and thus more difficult to wear down than the areas in between. The grid lines were actually so hard that they crumbled and flaked off between the areas of clear pan. Anyway; at this point, I'm considering this item well used and ready to leave my collection. I've actually had this product since 2009, and even though I loved it at first, it's no longer a favorite and I'm just not comfortable keeping it around any longer.
6. Clarins Instant Light Lip Perfector in Rose Shimmer: My initial goal was to use this gloss up completely, but I think that was completely unrealistic given the volume of the tube. However, I did make good progress (and finally figured out a way of tracking it: the upper line is from middle of March, the bottom is from two days ago. The tube is also slimmer now from squeezing). My favorite way of using this Lip Perfector is actually more of a balm than a gloss as I have trouble layering it on top of lipsticks due to the super creamy and slippy formula. If anything, it works better applied in a thin layer under another product - exactly like prepping your lips with a balm. I'll try to make more progress on it before the end of the year but we shall see, I have a lot of lip products to go through.

7. Revlon Lip Butter in Berry Smoothie: Finished! I wore this lip color probably about 90% of the time, and especially at work. I used up another shade (Peach Parfait) last year, and I think these (now discontinued) Lip Butters are relatively quick to get through. I'm glad to have another lipstick out of my stash, especially that I have other similar shades of pink I can replace Berry Smoothie with.
8. Revlon Superlustrous Lipstick in Cherries in the Snow: There's been steady progress on this bright fuschia red but in all honesty, there was no way I was going to finish even my remaining half of the tube in the span of four months, unless I was wearing it every day. I think from now on, I will no longer be including very bright or vampy lip colors in my panning projects. Yes, having those vivid shades in my projects this time around as well as last year (in my Project Make A Dent 2015) did push me out of my comfort zone a little bit and empowered me to wear a bright lip without a special occasion, but the thing is, I want to enjoy all the different shades of brights and vamps in my stash and swap them out according to my mood, not be forced to wear the same one for months on end. If that means I'll never be getting completely through those bright colors and some will just expire, I'm okay with that - as long as I'm liking and somewhat regularly using all the ones remaining in my collection.
9. Zoya Nail Polish in Jem: I'm calling this nail polish the one fail of my Project Pan. I used it one more time for a pedi since the last update, so I don't think you can even see any more progress. I don't think I'm capable of using the same shade of varnish often enough to see significant progress, unless it's a mini bottle (like in my last year's Project Pan). Lesson learnt for future panning challenges.

Progress after two months of usage, at the beginning of March.

10. theBalm Nude'Tude Eyeshadow Palette: I'm very happy with my progress - I hit pan on three eyeshadows! I also have more significant dips in nearly all the other shades, with some exceptions. I've come to the conclusion that I actually dislike quite a few of the darker shades in this palette, as they all come out the same shade of muddy grey charcoal once blended out on the eyes; I'm talking Sophisticated, Silly and Sleek in particular. I won't be focusing on these three from now on.

Progress after four months of usage.

I'm planning to separate my Pan That Palette challenge from my Project Pans going forward, so you'll see my bimonthly updates in separate posts. My goal for the next two months is to concentrate on the lighter shades from the bottom row, especially Snobby, Stand-offish and Schitzo.

Angled view of my most used shadows from the palette to show the depth of the pans.

I'm satisfied with the results of this project; I consider 7 out of 10 challenging products a good achievement. I have already selected and started using products for my next four-month Project Pan, so be on the look out for the introduction post in a couple days. How are your projects going? Do you have any significant make-up empties to report?