It’s the season of resolutions — some kept, others forgotten the day after New Year’s. From hitting the gym more consistently to not responding to your situationship’s texts, it feels like everything is on the table. Well, almost everything. Beauty routines often get left out of the self-improvement conversation — but shouldn’t the rituals you do every day be getting some kind of reset? Enter: project pan.
This year, people have resolved to “hit pan,” aka fully using up all their makeup and skin care products before buying anything new. It’s a trend anyone can get behind. Case in point? The hashtag #ProjectPan2026 already has over a thousand videos on TikTok, and the Reddit page, r/ProjectPan, hosts around 34,000 weekly visitors. Whether you want to save money or simply rethink your consumption habits, project pan lets you rediscover the products you already own — all while ticking off a resolution that doesn’t involve running a marathon. Win-win.
What Is “Project Pan”?
Chances are, you already own enough body lotion and eyeshadow palettes to survive an apocalypse. But in a social media landscape where every scroll urges you to buy something new, overconsumption can start to feel inevitable. Project pan flips the script, helping you resist that TikTok-viral lip stain or influencer-endorsed perfume — ironically enough, by using the very platforms that made you crave them in the first place.
The idea behind it is simple: Finish the products you already own before adding more to your collection. Online, people are holding each other accountable by posting photos of their “empties” and the “inventory” they still need to go through. There’s even a subreddit, r/PanPorn, where “pan pals” document how long it takes them to go through a single product.
“It’s so satisfying to actually see the progress,” one Reddit user commented. “You get to know a product so much better when you use it over and over again, and you find ways to be more creative by perfecting different techniques with the formula.” Another shared their own solution: “I have a foundation that doesn’t match me. Instead of tossing it, I added black, white, and blue pigment so I can match my face throughout the seasons and use up the products I already have.”
Project pan started as a reaction to the growing cost of beauty products — drugstore and luxury splurges alike — but has since evolved into something bigger. It’s a way to be more mindful about your consumption habits, reduce waste, and declutter without guilt. And the best part? It turns the everyday act of finishing a lip gloss into a little victory. If you have the space to keep the empty projects and post them en masse, there’s a whole community ready to cheer you on.
Tips For Trying It Yourself
There are plenty of ways to dive into project pan, and no single approach is “right.”
Some people start small, only repurchasing products they’ve fully finished (even if they have backups lying around). Others focus on one item at a time, giving it their full attention until they hit pan, while some rotate everything in their collection at once so they don’t get bored. Then there’s the spreadsheet crew, who track every item, log each use, and calculate the cost per swipe to see just how much money they’re saving.
For the safety-conscious, the general rule of thumb is that anything liquid or cream-based that touches your eyes, lips, or nose gets swapped out at expiration, while powders can keep past their date if you sanitize them regularly with a dot of rubbing alcohol.
Go casual, hardcore, or somewhere in between. Either way, this is a resolution that might actually stick — because the only thing you have to do is use what you already have.
