little white truths

Hello and welcome to Pan that Palette 2018!

I can't tell you how excited I am to start this project: indeed, I reckon this is the most excited I've ever been about a panning project. Why? Hard to say, but I think it's got a lot to do with the fact that I'm panning my Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blush Palette, which I've been thinking of panning for ages.

But I'm not only panning that: I'm also panning my Burberry eye quad and also a bunch of shades from one of my custom palettes. So I've got my work cut out for me!

Let's start with the blush palette, since that's the one I'm most excited about. I've owned this ever since it was released in Australia (2014 from memory) and I absolutely love it, but whenever I use it, I only use Incandescent Electra because it's my favourite.

I've now managed to source an individual Incandescent Electra in the original formula (which is a little different from the Strobe Blush formula, despite what Hourlgass says - I've swatched them alongside each other), so I feel 'free' to pan this palette and move it out of my collection.

There it is below:

You should be able to tell that I've already gauged some holes out of it while I was using it via Project Dent, so there's a bit of progress at this point but certainly not so much that panning this thing won't be a huge challenge.

Here's how I plan to pan it:

• I'll continue to use the pale parts of each pan (so the Ambient Lighting Powders) as my setting power and also my highlighter on most days. Of course there will be a time when I can no longer do this but I'll certainly keep doing it for as long as I can.
• I'll also use one of the shades as my blush on most days, plus I'll include one of the shades in my eye look each day - I've found that even running a tiny amount of one of these powders over my eyeshadow has that blurring, airbrushing effect that we've come to expect from Hourglass, so I'm more than happy to do this.
• I've discovered that if I mix a small amount of Luminous Flush (that's the pink shade) in with my setting powder - say around one part blush to three parts setting powder - then I don't look pink but my face does look a little brighter. So I'll do this every day, too.
• Also, mixing Mood Exposure in with my bronzer (same ratio) helps increase the pigment of the bronzer I'm panning, being one from Laura Mercier that isn't very pigmented, so adding a little of this blush helps boost pigment without changing the colour too much.

And last, my custom palette. If you followed my challenge last year, then you may notice that some shades have been carried over but there are some new inclusions too.

In the palette I've included not only some of the oldest shadows I own, but also some that mix well with the Burberry quad and give it some life. 

Let's have a look.

You'll see that I've got a lot of shadows to get through, but I haven't packed this as much as I did last year because I learned that I'd prefer to have less shadows to work on in one hit: that's why I've included the huge pan of bronzer (bottom left) and also the large pan of highlighter (top right).

Below I've divided the palette so we can talk about each section.

So, up the top we have Nars Isolde, a duo that I love the look of but that doesn't work for me in practice because the pigment isn't there and it's also incredibly drying on the eyes. I have however learned that if I mix it with the pale Burberry shade from my quad, then it doesn't look quite as drying/ageing when applied.

Next to that is Stila's Luster (from the In the Light palette). This is one of my few remaining shades from that palette and I'm keen to get through it this year.

On the bottom we have my Clarins bronzer, which I won't only be using for bronzing but I'll also be using on the eyes. You may notice that I don't have many crease colours in this custom palette - that's because I don't need them, since I've got four here.

I'm not actually sure whether I can finish anything on this side of the palette because there's a lot to get through, but I'll certainly try. Note that I mostly won't be using the bronzer on my face because I don't love it, but I will be using it on my body - especially over the warmer months. There's 20g of product in here so I've no idea how far I'll get with it, but let's hope that I can at least hit a decent amount of pan.

Let's work in columns.

Top left we have Stila's Kitten and Bubbly, then below that we have Nars Sin (a blush that I've re-pressed into a smaller pan because I only ever use it as an eyeshadow), and below that we have the remains of Stila's Sunset and also theBalm's Hot Mama Blush. I reckon I can finish all of these this year.

Middle column, we have three shades that I've mixed myself: a purple, a teal green and a mint green. These are shades that I deliberately included so I could get a green (because the Burberry doesn't give me that, even though it should) and also so I could get a shimmery purple for the lid (by mixing that shade with the Burberry highlight shade). All of these shadows are very powdery because I pressed them myself and I used old shadows to make them - meaning that progress on each should move very quickly. I know I can finish these this year.

On the right we have the pan I pressed that includes both Mary-Lou and Cindy-Lou from theBalm, and also the last remaining shade from my Stila Eyes Are the Window (Mind) palette. I'm not sure if I can finish these by year's end, but I'll try.

And last, my four round pans. The matte cream on the left is from Becca (the Ombre Rouge palette) and the other three are from Ardency Inn. I still haven't reviewed my Ardency Inn shadows (I also have a fourth, in another palette) and I'd like to do that at some point during the year.

I know I can finish the Becca pan this year but I'm not sure about the other three - they're all carried over from last year and the only one showing pan is Rose Gold (right), while the other two still have plenty of product left.

In sum

That's all from me!

I hope you enjoyed this little post, and that you're all set for Pan that Palette 2018.

If you are doing the challenge next year, do include links in the comments so I can follow you.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x