Project Make A Dent 2015 Intro: Use It or Lose It

New year, new Project Make A Dent! I will admit that reading about other bloggers' make-up collection resolutions and watching Project Pan videos has got me pretty excited to start the second volume of my Project Make A Dent as soon as possible. After looking through my collection, this year I've decided to really focus on some of the oldest products in my stash that I want to enjoy before they expire; hence I'm calling it the 'Use It or Lose It' edition.

For convenience sake, I've chosen 10 products ranging from face make-up to eyes and lips. For my base, I will continue working on the Face Atelier Ultra Foundation in Porcelain - the heavier formula means I can only use this in the colder months, but with only 1/2 of the bottle left to go, I'm confident I can use it up completely. To set my foundation, I want to finish up this deluxe sample of Make Up For Ever HD Loose Powder; there's only 1/4 remaining in the jar. My one cheek product in this Project is the old mini of Stila Convertible Color in Lillium; hopefully you can see that little bit of pan in the middle, so that should make it easier to track my progress.

This year, I'd like to downsize my collection of cream eyeshadow pots, so I've pulled one of the oldest and most loved jars in my stash, the Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze. It is definitely a lot drier and harder than when I first got it, but if it dries out too much to use, I'm hoping to revive it with some Inglot Duraline and see how that goes. Seeing as I made good progress on using up some of my pencil eyeliners last year, I chose two more pencils: the Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On in Rockstar and the Sephora Nano Eyeliner in Nuage.

I've made marks with a sharpie on the glosses and foundation bottle to be able to judge my progress more easily.

Lastly, I thought long and hard about my lip product picks for this challenge. I chose four lip products in total in a variety of shades and finishes: from bold to neutral, opaque to sheer, cream to shimmer. This way, I'll have all my bases covered with items from the challenge, so I'll hopefully reach for these products quite often. The Revlon Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Coral Reef has about 3/5 left in the tube, while the Michael Todd Creme Glace in Natural is a bit more than half used up. The Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Monte Carlo and the Inglot Gel Lipstick no. 58 both seem to have roughly the same amount left, as the Inglot lipstick is longer but a much skinnier bullet than the Chanel.

Now that I've listed all the denting victims, here are some changes from last year's project. I chose more products this time around, and pretty much all of them had already seen some substantial usage in the past. The aim of this is to have more variety, and also to feel less pressured to completely use up products; I know some of these items like the pencil liners and glosses should get finished easily, but if I don't completely scrape out that blush or bold lipstick, I'm cool with that too. I also mostly picked out products I like and enjoy using, so again, reaching for them shouldn't feel as forced as it sometimes did in the past year's Project MAD.

In terms of blog-friendly practices, I'm also going to keep all of the empty containers as the products are being finished and only toss them at the end of the year for the sake of photo continuity. For the same reason, I'm also NOT going to introduce new items when these products get used up - I thought that last year, the changing products were probably quite confusing to you. If I make fabulous progress quicker than anticipated (say, most products finished by June rather than December), I'll just start a separate Project Pan with new items to keep challenging myself to use my stash.

And that's about it! I'm feeling quite motivated to start this new challenge and I believe I should see a lot make-up empties by the time December 2015 rolls around (well, even if I don't, they're going in the trash anyway ;). Are you guys participating in any stash-reducing projects this year? Please let me know if you're participating in a Project Make A Dent this year too, I love seeing everyone's picks and progress!

Project Make A Dent 2014 Finale

Oh the circle of life of these stash-reducing challenges (if you haven't been following my updates, see the inaugural post here): first you get super pumped about your new project, then you get increasingly bored using the same products over and over again and slowly fall off the wagon, and then suddenly, you realize it's almost the end of the year, and you need to get cracking! That's basically the gist of my experience with Project Make A Dent #1. Anyway, are you ready to see my progress from the entire year?

Products at the beginning of Project MAD #1, January 2014

Updated selection of products at a half year mark in June 2014 (Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum and the Annabelle eyeliner having been completely used up)

Let's start with the unrefutable success stories: I've completely used up one bottle of foundation (Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum in the shade 51), two eyeliner pencils (Annabelle Smudgeliner in Rich Chocolate and GOSH Waterproof liner in Black Ink) and one lipstick (Rimmel Moisture Renew in Soft Coral). That's four make-up empties! Verrry nice. Now, for the partial success: I've managed to put a noticeable dent in an eyeshadow (Annabelle Vanilla Chilla), another eyeliner (Urban Decay 24/7 in Whiskey), another lipstick (NYX Round Lipstick in Tea Rose), and another foundation (added later, Estee Lauder Double Wear Light in Intensity 1). Lastly, the womp womp of my project - the two neverending blushes, NYX Powder Blush in Angel and NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Plaza Pink. I promise, even though I've used them a lot, there's barely any product missing! I swear it's some kind of self-refilling make-up magic :/

Products in December 2014: GOSH Waterproof eyeliner in Black Ink (not pictured, already thrown away) and Rimmel Soft Coral lipstick completely used up

Overall, I'm very happy with the results of my first Project Make A Dent. I was kind of hoping to maybe use up one more eyeliner completely and hit pan on the NYX blush, but it is what it is and I'm feeling satisified. I definitely used my products as much as I possibly could, and given that I don't wear make-up everyday, I gave them a lot of attention without ignoring the rest of my collection. I will admit that at some point, the Project MAD got a little confusing - subconsciously, you strive to use up your selected items completely, but it's not in fact the goal of this challenge. I think that's usually the breaking point when you want to abandon the Project, but it's important to take a step back, maybe take a little break from your basket of products, and then return to it when you're feeling refreshed. That's the benefit of doing the project over the course of an entire year!

The lessons I learnt from this year's Project Make A Dent have definitely helped me to introduce some improvements for 2015 - yes, there's going to be a second edition next year! I'm already planning my challenge and selecting new products I want to focus on, but I'll talk more about the changes I've decided to make in the post dedicated to the new Project. How have you guys been doing with your stash-reducing projects? Are you happy with this year's achievements, are you already setting goals for next year?