Project Pan Update #1

I started this project earlier this year, aiming to update my progress every three months. Inspired by the numerous use-it-up challenges I watch on Youtube, and how it is personally satisfying to finish a product, I wanted to document my own process. I've focused on 11 products; have since finished 3, thrown out 1, giving away 1 and will potentially add other stuff to the mix.

For my base, I'm hella proud of how much I've used my EX1 Invisiwear foundation in F100. Initially I mixed this with my Bourjois bronzing primer (also in this project) but found it to be too orange for my liking. Now I mix it with my Invisiwear in F200 for a decent colour (yes I've got 2 shades of this foundation). For the next 3 months, I will continue using F100, but will also track my progress for F200. I'll probably dedicate a future post reviewing this foundation, but to quickly review it: it's an alright foundation.

L: Update on F100 YASSSSSS; R: Swatch of EX1 Invisiwear in F100 and F200

I love Natural Collection's Sugar Plum; it's more of a mauve instead of a plum for me, not too pigmented and against my skin, gives just the right amount of "natural" flush. Panning this blush would be an impossible ambition, but I'm happy to report I've used it almost every day when I am not using the next "cheek" product.

L: Natural Collection Sugar Plum; L: Blended 

Essence's lipstick in Cool Nude is not the colour for me. It makes my complexion look meh and my teeth looks more yellow than they already are (coffee is a wonderful thing I am not willing to give up, plus I genetically have slightly yellow teeth). But I re-purposed this into a cream blush, and it does wonderful things to my complexion. It's cool, nude, slightly mauve and I realised that I like a slightly "wet" look to my cheeks. The swatch below is a bit intense, but blended out, it is my go-to blush. The drawback is it does not last at all, disappears around the 1.5 hours mark; perhaps because my face has developed its own oil by now, leaving all of my face looking oily dewy and melts the lipstick away.

Top L: Essence in Cool Nude; R: KIKO 414 Mauve
Bottom: Swatches. I taught myself to love you! And I ended up really loving!!

My KIKO lipstick (414 Mauve in Sheer Glossy formula) is one that I didn't expect to love. Because it was glittery and I have never warmed up to glitter. Not when I was younger, not now as I'm in my early 20s. I tolerated the lipstick mostly because aside from the glitter, it is a wonderful lipstick. A very nice berry-mauve, it does not have a strong scent, it glides smoothly on my lips and does not emphasize the lines of my naturally line-y lips. But tolerance grew into acceptance, then turned into admiration -- I can comfortably rely on this lipstick to brighten up my face on the days I wore it for school. In fact, now that I think of it, it is not that glittery as you can see from my swatch of it. 

Concealers are my thing; it's the first makeup I bought, I think. All thanks to acne and its scarring, which in my case is very obvious since I am quite fair and my hyper-pigmentation is probably 4 shades darker than my actual colouring -- I need the concealing. Rimmel's Hide the Blemish was my first concealer and for this reason, it has a special place in my heart. It is not the best thing in the market, and the colour that I have (103 Soft Honey) is a bit too beige for my skin, but it works just fine. I have found for my scars, using a slightly deeper/warmer concealer works because it cancels out the darkness a bit; but I have to blend it well to match my foundation so that I don't look like I have a variation of chicken-pox still undiscovered by scientists. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the essential part of a project pan, which is a picture showing my progress of use! Soz.

L: one swipe of Maybelline 20 Sand and Rimmel 103 Soft Honey; R: Blended

Maybelline Fit Me concealer (20 Sand) on the other had, was disappointing. I was so excited for this product because of the hype it has gotten and because the colour seems "yellow" enough for me. But I found the formula too creamy, unsuitable for my oily skin. When blended, it turned out to be a bit darker than Rimmel's Soft Honey. On my scars, it draws attention to the pigment it was supposed to cover, which is a no-no in my book. I have a little bit of it left, but have decided to throw it out. Most likely will not repurchase.

Vaseline Rosy Lips and Bourjois Bronzing Primer. When will you go away?

It has been a slow progress trying to use up my Vaseline Rosy Lips and Bourjois Bronzing Primer. The former is just horrendous, really, I dislike the waxy feeling on my lips when I use it, and I find myself minding this even if I'm just going to bed (I wear it every night). I'm giving this away to my friend, Q, who also happens to be the only person I know reading this blog. (HI Q! *waves enthusiastically*) I'm still keeping the bronzing primer seeing how summer is upon us. I'll be mixing it with my moisturizer, or another primer. My quick review of this primer: it's orange, it smells like chemicals that try to smell like chocolate and it has a velvety-primer texture. I am indifferent to it, sometimes borderline hate it because of how orange it makes me look. But I'm still keeping it around. For now.

GOOD BYE.
Bourjois Healthy Mix 52 Vanille; Bio-Oil; Superdrug Intensive Foot Cream; Maybelline Fit Me concealer 20 Sand

Stuffs I've finished (YEAY!!!!) are my Bourjois Healthy Mix powder in 52 Vanille, my Superdrug foot cream and honest to God, the most terrible invention ever, the Bio-Oil. I hate Bio-Oil with all my heart. Because in my teenage days I was told it works wonders for acne scarring, and then it doesn't, and I only stopped using after so many years of hoping it will work. I never doubted the product; there must be something about me that doesn't allow this thing to work its wonders. But it wasn't me! You were just terrible and shit, Bio-Oil. I hope to never see you again. Good bye.

That's my update and review for now. I'm still learning how to get the lighting right so that my swatches are somewhat useful, if not for others, for my own reference. And let us all take a minute to thank God; for I did not continue using Instagram filters and stick to natural lighting in my photos for this blog!