I wish, I wish, I wish

As promised this is a wishlist of the products that I will want to buy after Project Pan.  I realize it seems counter-intuitive to think about buying whilst on a spending ban but it has made me focus on which products I really want and why I want them.  It also means that hopefully when I have finished Project Pan I won't go on a mad spending spree and end up in the exact same position.  If I do purchase these during my project pan they will, out of embarrassment and shame, turn purple.

Therefore I have made a list of the 10 products that I am currently lusting after.

1) Real Techniques Brushes (from the amazing Samantha Chapman of Pixiwoo fame).  I already have the  Core Collection and use them nearly everyday so I would love to get a few more.  In particular the Travel Essentials.  You can find a list of stockists here.

2) UNII Palettes so that I can organize my, hopefully smaller, makeup collection.  These have been getting really good reviews.  Plus another selling point for me, because I am shallow, is the fact that they are beautifully designed and come in various pastel colours.  Perfect for colour coordinating.  You can see all the beautiful shades here.

3) Benefit 'Hello Flawless' powder foundation in Shell.  This is my favourite foundation of all time.  I am a powder or tinted moisturizer girl at heart and I am sad to say that I am very nearly out of this.  It pains me because I won't be allowed to buy another one due to the fact that I do own other powder foundations (usually either slightly to light or too dark for me - so I may be slightly odd coloured for a while).  You can see it on the Benefit website here .  (Update:  I caved in and bought this -read my attempts at justifying it here)

4) Nyx Blush in Taupe.  I have read on countless blogs that this blush is a wonderful contour colour for paler skin so I am anxious to try it out, especially since it is such a reasonable price.  There a few other of their blushes which catch my eye but Taupe is the one that I will start with, you can see it here.  Let me know which Nyx Blushes are your favourites.

5) Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti.  I already have several of these in other colours and I think I could write an entire post on my love for them.  I have barely been wearing anything else on my lips in over a month.  They are perfection.  There are millions of blog and youtube reviews of these so I won't add to the numbers but take my word for it - if you haven't tried these you really should.  You can see all the available colours here

6) Max Factor Max Effect Mini Nail Polish in Fantasy Fire.  This nail varnish is beautiful, and rumoured to be a dupe of the impossible to find Clarins 230.  I would only ever use it as a top coat as it is said to be fairly sheer but the effect it gives is gorgeous.  You can see a swatch and wonderful review here and see all the Max Factor nail colours here.

7) Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish.  This has been all over the blogs this year and I would love to try it once I have used up all of my other various skin care items.  The adorable Zoella did a review on her blog of this and a couple of other Liz Earle goodies which also sound incredible.  You can see the, surprisingly reasonably priced, cleaner here.

8) Alpha H Liquid Gold is supposedly a skin miracle worker.  I am quite lucky in that I do have good skin, but I do suffer from redness and this has been reported by some as helping this.  It is quite pricey but my curiosity has gotten the better of me so it made the wish list.  You can see a review here and buy it from here and various other places.

9) Moroccan Oil is, I'm hoping, going to be the thing that saves my hair.  I have recently had a slight dye mishap (I'll explain later) and my hair, which is uncontrollable at the best of times, is telling me exactly how angry it is with me.  This has had fabulous reviews from so many people that I can't help but think it would help at least a little.  I just can't decide whether, when I take the plunge, if I should go for the 25ml or the 100ml.

10) And now for something completely different...JolieBox.  I would love to get myself a subscription to this beauty box.  From what I have seen online it is the one that appeals most to me.  I also think that receiving a few luxury samples each month could help me fight my desire to go out and buy more products.  Plus I really do love getting post, especially when it is beauty products in a cute as a button box type of post.  Plus if you sign up for longer periods of time you save a little bit of money as you can see here.


Wow, that was a long post.  Well done if you made it this far.  As Project Pan proceeds I may swap things off and onto this list so that I have to remain strict even after my spending ban.  What is on your wish list at the moment?

The Rules

Okay, I figure if I am going to do this I should set myself some ground rules so that I can't (as I usually would) find loopholes which 'allow' me to buy more things.  After thinking it through I have come up with 5 rules which I think are fair but most importantly that I think I can stick to.

The 5 Golden Rules

1) Project Pan will not finish until I have used up (not just hit pan) on 20 items
2) I must use up whole products (not just one eye shadow in a palette)
3) Things that I throw or give away do not count towards my total
4) I can buy if something needs to be replaced (ie. I have no more of that item from any brand - eg. shampoo) but then that item does not count towards my total
5) If I see something from my wishlist heavily discounted I can buy it as long as I don't use it until Project Pan is over.

I think that is it to start with, I may add more as time goes on.  What rules would you suggest?

Why now? Why me?

So what brought this all on?  Well for a while I had been aware that I bought things at a much faster rate than I used them up.  After moving home from university I realized with horror the exact amount of stuff I have managed to accumulate.

Then one fateful day whilst browsing through the internet at beauty blogs (like the addict that I am) I saw this post from the wonderful Estee here and it encouraged me to put myself on a spending ban.  After reading several comments to her post I was directed to a 'project pan' video done a while ago by Amarixe here.  So those are the catalyst that led me to embark upon this challenge.  I realize that to most people not buying makeup etc wouldn't be a huge deal, but for me - sadly it is.  I love beautiful things, be it makeup; glass decanters; vintage teacups or flowers.  I can't seem to help myself.  Yet I have probably enough beauty supplies to open my own version of boots, and certainly enough that I do not need to buy anything for a long while.

So much stuff, So little space

I have recently come to the terrifying realization that I have too much stuff.  More specifically I have too much make up and beauty stuff.  It is taking over my bedroom, my living room and my bank account.  I have decided to 'Shop the stash' and use up some of the products that I already own.  I will be posting reviews of the things that I use up as motivation...and hopefully because someone out there will find it useful. Wish me luck x