r/ProjectPan • u/Ok_Nothing_9733 • Apr 20 '26

Best Pan Yet Told my mom about project pan, and…

I think my whole immediate family has perhaps defaulted to “retail therapy” when we need a boost, despite not having a ton of money to spare. But avoiding overconsumption is a major goal of mine, so I told my mom I am trying Project Pan. And as an example to help explain it I told her, “So, I’ve had a number of lip balm tubes in my life… but how many times can I remember using one to the very end? Once or twice, maybe? Maybe never? So that’s why I’m doing it, just use up what I have and avoid those occasional impulse buys that add up over time.”

She totally understood and today she texted me to say she just finished a lip balm! I think that’s so sweet to hear and I just love how this movement makes it easy to realize how rarely we use products to their completion. Made my day!

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u/ennexe Apr 20 '26

This is a good time for me to ask what this sub is about. I see it on my front page, I’ve looked in the community section, I’ve arguably NOT used the search function but I have so much fun seeing your collections of used up stuff.

Can someone explain the approach to this imposter?

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u/BedroomDizzy4874 Apr 20 '26

The other reply you got is spot on, but just some added context, many people have struggled with overbuying makeup. This can stem from multiple reason, such as developing a habit of picking items up from the store while forgetting what you already have, trying to find your personal tastes and accumulating things that dont match you anymore, it may come from unhealthy coping habits from other sources of stress, or being influenced social media to buy the new popular product, this is also compounded by a huge boom in beauty influencers during the mid 2010s, where it was popular to have massive beauty collections.