little white truths

A couple of days ago, I reflected on my panning goals for 2017 and worked out whether I'd met them (thankfully I did). See that post here if you're interested.

I also wrote my December 2017 makeup inventory post yesterday (even though I'd meant to do it at the end of the year), for the simple reason that I know what I'll have finished by Christmas - so there was no point waiting to post the tally because I could clearly see from my collection exactly what would be finished and what wouldn't be.

Plus I'm just in a panning post mood! Call it wanting to avoid the sales/promotions at this time of year. Call it trying to forget about how many things I would like to buy and instead wanting to focus on how many things I already have. Call it: 'We have no money, so don't even think about it Jane.' You know the drill ; )

So! Here are my panning goals for 2018...

Bronzers

I've panned my way to six bronzers (one being more of a contour) and I also have three bronzers in my custom palettes.

I wouldn't normally expect to get through any more than one bronzer per year unless I've already hit pan in some, but all the ones I have left in my collection aren't showing the kind of progress that the ones I panned in 2017 were.

However. My Laura Mercier bronzer is vanishing before my very eyes and I've only been using that daily for about three weeks now, so I can see that being done within a few months. I've also got a Clarins bronzer that I've de-potted and that's destined for Pan that Palette 2018, and while it would normally hold back progress to pan two bronzers simultaneously, I use the Laura Mercier on the face and the Clarins on the eyes and body - so it's possible that I might be able to kick out both in one year.

2018 goal: finish one individual bronzer and one from my custom palettes.

Ultimate goal: four individual bronzers and two in my custom palettes.

Can I buy more next year? Maybe. If I pan those two, I'll allow one bronzer purchase if something pops up that I can't live without.

Blushes

This year I managed to finish four powder blushes (two being smaller) and I also hit pan in a third full-size. Plus I panned two creams blushes, but I mostly used those as lip tints so that's why. 

I now have nine individual blushes (one being a half-size and one being a three-pan palette), but I also have six in my custom palettes (one being a mini).

2018 goal: pan my Hourglass three-pan blush palette and make enough room in my custom palettes to de-pot more individual blushes. I would like to have enough room to de-pot three full-sizes and also the half-size.

Ultimate goal: no more than seven individual blushes and no more than seven in my custom palettes.

Can I buy more? No. But blushes are my weakness, so I'll likely forgive myself if I buy one ; )

Highlighters

I finished four this year (one being a travel-size) so I now have six (one being a half-size and one being a three-pan palette), plus the nine in my custom palettes.

Geez that's a lot. I do find highlighters easier to pan than things like blushes, though, because not only can you use them on the face, eyes and body, but some of them are subtle enough to be used as finishing powders - or even mixed in with your setting powder if they're too intense to use as finishing powders on their own.

2018 goal: finish one individual highlighter, plus one full-size and one travel-size from my custom palettes.

Ultimate goal: no more than seven individual highlighters, and no more than seven in my custom palettes.

Can I buy more? No. 'Oh, but those Becca Light Chasers...' No. That's a blanket no, Jane.

Eyeshadow palettes (small and large)

I have ten: two twelve-pan palettes, one fourteen-pan and two nines, plus a quad, three quints and a septet. Plus I have fifty-three pans in my custom palettes.

2018 goals: pan the quad and an additional twelve pans from my custom palettes. I may be able to pan more from my custom palettes because some pans are half-gone already and others are quite small (at the moment I have seventeen pans in the custom palette that I want to include in Pan that Palette 2018), so if I could pan them all, I'd be excited.

Ultimate goal: no more than seven pre-made palettes and let's say forty pans in the custom palettes.

Can I buy more? Yes. For every two eyeshadows I pan, I have one 'credit'. Eg if I pan ten eyeshadows, then I can buy a quint or five individual pans.

Primers

In sum

Overall I reckon I've set myself some achievable goals here (some more so than others ; )). Fingers crossed.

Note that my panning goals may well change throughout the year - sometimes you realise that you've overextended yourself and sometimes you realise that you can set the bar a little higher - so I'll update this post if needed as 2018 progresses.

Also note that I haven't included categories in this post that aren't over-saturated (eg lip balms) and that I don't have a tendency to over-buy (eg liquid highlighters, eyeliners, mascaras): I've wanted to focus on the categories where I need to reign myself in.

That's all from me! Do let me know in the comments what your panning goals are for next year: I'd love to hear.

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

Hello and welcome to my December 2017 makeup inventory! 

My last inventory post was at the end of September (see here), and as promised, I'm back with my next quarterly update.

Do note that I'd planned to do my next inventory at the end of the year - just to give myself as much time as possible to move more products out of my collection - but I'm in a panning post mood at the moment so let's just roll with it!

On that, yesterday I wrote a post on my 2017 panning goals and whether I met them: see here if you're interested.

Also note that because I'm doing this inventory post at the beginning of December (rather than at the end), I won't be including those few products on my Project Pan list that I know without question will be finished within the next week or two. I reckon that's fair ; )

But enough preamble. Let's see where we're at.

Last update, I had ten: four open full-sizes plus six unopened full-sized back-ups. Ach. Somehow primers have become my worst category this year and I'm not really sure how that happened!

Yes I managed to pan one but I received another one via a sub box so I still have ten: five open full-sizes and five unopened ones. Too many. I only want four or five.

Setting sprays

Late update I had one and I still have one.

I'm happy with that for now but I will need to buy another one at some point because the one I'm using is almost dead.

Liquid illuminators

Last update I had one full size, which I've since panned so I bought myself a replacement and then later received one in a Mecca Beauty Loop box, meaning I now have two.

My goal was two, then it was zero because I had two glowy primers - but I've since panned one of those and the remaining glowy primer isn't great for mixing with foundation because it doesn't have enough punch, so I've revised my liquid highlighter goal to one.

Liquid foundations

I had five (three being unopened) and I've panned a couple so I now have three (one being unopened).

My goal here was no more than three: I've achieved that : )

Shade adjusting drops/foundation mixers

I had four: one bottle of whitening drops and three tinted moisturisers that I'd specifically bought during the Priceline sale for the purpose of mixing - one's dark, one's pale/neutral and one's yellow - and the whitening drops are open but the other three are not, although I'll need to open them soon because I've almost panned the other items I've been using for mixing.

So that's four mixers total. I'm ok with that for now because mixing is necessary for my weird skintone, but I don't need two pale ones so my goal here is three. 

Powder foundations

I had zero and I still have zero.

Zero's my goal (I have dry skin and prefer liquids) so we're there.

BB/CC creams and tinted moisturisers

I had two and I still have two. 

I'm surprised about this because lighter bases are my favourites, although I suppose that the three foundations I own are all quite sheer so in practice they have tinted-moisturiser coverage and that's why I don't feel the need to buy any more. For now!

Correctors

I had three and I now have two because I've panned one. I'd prefer to only have one so I'll aim to pan one next year.

Concealers

I had two and I still have two. That's my goal so yay!

Setting powders

I had one and I still have one. I personally don't need any more than that so I'm at my goal.

Finishing powders

I had one and I still have one. Happy with that.

Face palettes

I had two (including one unopened backup of the same limited-edition palette), which contains a finishing powder, a bronzer, two blushes and one highlight. 

I now have three because I bought the latest Hourglass holiday edit, and I'd like to only have two so I'll eventually pan one of last year's edit because I don't need two of those.

Lip liners

I had one and I've panned it so I now have zero, which was my ultimate goal. Tick : ) 

Lipsticks

I had seventeen (four being unopened) and I now have thirteen (three being unopened).

Twelve is my goal here. Ach, so close! Looks like I'll get there in early 2018.

Lip balms

I had two and I've panned those, so I now only have the one that I received in our last Mecca Beauty Loop box.

Lip glosses

I had four (two being unopened), and I now have six (four being unopened).

My goal for glosses was four, but since I only have one lip balm and I'm aiming to bring my lipstick collection down to no more than ten - plus I'm not into crayons or lip liners - I'll raise that number to no more than eight because glosses are my favourite lip product so I'd prefer to have more of those and less of everything else.

Custom palettes

Previously I had four - two larger palettes and two smaller ones - and I since bought a couple from Bleach London because they were super cheap (it's hard to get cheap palettes in Australia, especially when you factor in what most retailers charge for international shipping), for the simple reason that I wanted two palettes (one large, one small) that I could use for my panning projects - leaving my better-made ones for storage and travel so I wouldn't be wearing them out with daily use.

So yes, I now have six custom palettes.

In my last inventory (four custom palettes), I had:

• three bronzers
• four blushes (one being a mini)
• seven highlighters (yikes)
• fifty-one eyeshadows

As mentioned previously, my goal with this section is not so much to get the numbers down (I want my custom palettes to be full), but instead to keep finishing pans so I can continue to de-pot my individual powders and bring those into these palettes. I reach for my custom palettes daily and anything in them gets plenty of use. 

So I've done ok in this section because we can see there's been some movement.

The final tally

Here we go... *nervous face*

Including the individual pans in my custom palettes (but counting pre-made palettes as one item), I now have a total of 162 makeup items, which is a decent reduction from the 174 I had previously. 

If I count the custom palettes as only six items and don't count the individual pans, I have 97 - a good reduction from the 109 I had in my last inventory. 

My overall goal for 2017 was no more than 100 items, plus whatever's in my custom palettes, so I made it. Huzzah!

I had also hoped to get my individual pan count down to 150, and I know I can do that relatively early in 2018 because quite a few eyeshadows in my custom palettes are on the way out, so although I didn't quite get there, I will soon.

That's all from me! 

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