Project Pan #8 and #9 - Soft and Gentle Deodorant

So here we have a rather sexy item - deodorant.  Oh yes, its an exciting post this time.  To try and make up for the less than thrilling item I thought I would do two at once to save your suffering   The items in question are Soft and Gentle's Linen and Wild Cornflower Extra Dry deodorant and Soft and Gentle's Gerbena and Waterlily Anti-White Marks.  

This is one of my favourite deodorant brands, mainly because it is often on special offer and it works well for me.  I always seem to go back to this brand but I don't have huge favourites when it comes to scent.

Would I repurchase?  Yes, I would, when I am totally out of supplies and it is on special offer I will be picking some more up.

Have you ever tried this deodorant?

The Challenge: 2013

I have decided that each year I am going to set myself a beauty related challenge.  Its a little similar to the resolutions but with the challenge there is a definite end point.  The challenge is to see how fast I can do it (if at all).

A big reason i started this blog is because I wanted to discuss my love all of things makeup, skincare, perfume and bath oriented.  This love also means that I have a bad habit of purchasing things faster than I use them up. I have tried to do project pans and spending bans but I don't have the will power to go cold turkey. So I think this challenge may suit me a little more.  I'm not banned from buying products (which is lucky for the British economy) but I need to keep it controlled.

The Challenge for 2013 is: To Have A Manageable Beauty Collection

I will see this as achieved when I am able to fit all of my makeup into the following things:

- My Muji drawers will hold my everyday makeup
- My ALEX drawers will hold the rest of my makeup, skincare, body care, haircare and my nail polish.

I will also be allowed a container of samples which I keep for travel purposes and one suitcase for spares and back ups.  The only other place that any of my beauty products will be is in the bathroom (those that are currently being used) and on my bedside table (my nightly routine).

I know this might sound excessive but for me that would be feasible but would also involve me significantly downsizing my collection.

So over the course of the year you should expect to see some of the following posts:
- My daily makeup
- Depotting (to save on makeup storage real estate)
- How I organize my ALEX
- Some rather brutal culling sessions
- Lots of collections posts
- How I store my makeup

Now it is going to get rather picture heavy now (so maybe go make a cup of tea) as I am going to show you all the places that my makeup is currently overflowing into.  Also in addition to the places shown in the pictures I have a few items in the bathroom and 7 or 8 large boxes under my bed filled with backups and other things such as Lush bath bombs.

Nail varnishes and hair masks lurking downstairs after a pamper session.

The brushes that I don't use on a daily basis.

All my orange nail varnishes on yet another downstairs bookcase.

My little MUJI unit which has all my daily makeup.

My wonderful ALEX unit

My bedside table(chair) with my nightly bits and bobs.

Baskets of products I am desperate to use up.

Some haircare stuff that gets knicked if it is kept in the bathroom.

Project Pan #7 - Lush Ickle Baby Bot Bath Bomb

This was an easy win for my Project Pan list but I do have a ridiculous amount of Lush things that I always keep for 'special occasions'.  It is the Ickle Baby Bot bath bomb from Lush.  This is a soothing calming bath bomb designed for babies but the size and robot design (plus the good price of £1.90) enchant me too much for me to not pick one up when I go into the store.

This isn't my favourite Lush bath bomb but it is definitely in the top 5.  I have picked them up quite a few times in the past and I'm sure once project pan is over a few might sneak into my shopping bag.

Would I repurchase?  Yes, I would, however I have a bit of a stash of other bath bombs and I really want to decide on my favourites so that I can stock up for 'special occasions'.   

Have you ever tried this bath bomb?

Project Pan #6 - Beauty Formulas Cooling Mist

Another item that I have managed to use up and will be on my Project Pan list.  It is the Beauty Formulas Cooling Mist from Poundland.  

This bargain is one of my all time favourites and I have got through a few cans of it since first discovering how lovely and cooling it is.  Its not a neccessity but it is something that I like to have on hand, especially on my bedside table.  You can see my full review of it here.

Would I repurchase?  Yes, I would, I am working through another at the moment but will be picking another one up next time I am in town.

Have you ever tried this?

Project Pan #5 - The Body Shop's Love Etc Perfume

So here we have another item that will be making its way onto my Project Pan list.  It is the Love Etc eau de parfum from The Body Shop.  This is available in various sizes but this was a 30ml which can be found here for £14.00.  

This reasonably price perfume is one of my all time favourites and I have got through a few bottles of it since first discovering how lovely it is.  I am absolutely rubbish at describing fragrances other than 'really nice' but fragrantica describes it as being made up of the following notes.

Top Notes: neroli, pear and bergamot

Heart Notes: jasmine, helitrope and lily of the valley

Base Notes: vanilla, sandalwood and creamy musk

The majority of perfumes in my collection feature vanilla and/or sandalwood as base notes so it was practically predestined that I would love this scent.

Would I repurchase?  Yes, I would, however I have a bit of a stash of this scent in various sized bottles so I will work through those before I pick up another one.  

Have you ever tried this perfume?

Confessions

I have a confession to make.  I have broken my spending ban.  I have been really good recently and I think it all just got a bit much.  I have been desperate to get some little beauty goodies.  Its terrible that I was missing that excitement of finding something good and then waiting for a parcel to come through the post and make my day.

The only defense I have is that my fall off of the wagon was relatively minor.  I really want to subscribe to Joliebox but am holding myself back from making that commitment until I have finished my project pan.

So instead I went onto Latest in Beauty and order 3 samples for £1.50.  I think this is really reasonable and for a relatively small cost has fulfilled my need for a little beauty treat. The best bit is that I can choose what I am getting so that they will be things I will use.  The things I chose to order are L'Occitane Immortelle Divine Cream, Elemental Herbology Cell Food and a mystery sample.  I have never tried any of these before but I am excited to.  They all come in various different sample sizes but I will keep you updated on how I get on with them.

If you want to try it as well you can order your own little beauty box click here.

Update: It has arrived - See what it looks like here

Project Pan #4 - Naked Sea Minerals in the Buff Renewing Body Scrub

The 4th item on my project pan list will be the Naked Sea Minerals in the Buff Renewing Body Scrub.  this has been hanging around in the bathroom for a while now and it was starting to annoy me so I made it my mission to finish it off.  I am often very lazy and cannot be bothered with exfoliating my arms and legs but I am always amazed by the difference it can make.

I don't think you can get this anymore which is a shame as I really quite liked it.  I wouldn't say it was the best I had ever tried but it did its job and didn't leave me or the bath feeling oily.  I usually go for sugar scrubs so having a salt scrub was a nice change to the shower time routine.

Would I repurchase?  Yes I think I would if i saw it again.  Naked have really reasonable prices considering the fact that they are natural without all the nasties that we have been told to avoid.  It also makes me want to branch out from just their shower items and maybe experiment with their hair care.

What Naked items would you recommend?

Project Pan #3 - Original Source Tea Tree and Mint Shower Gel

Another empty for you, there will be a few of these in the next couple of days.  So prepare yourselves.  This time it is the turn of the Original Source, Tea Tree and Mint Shower Gel.  This has got to be one of my all time favourite shower gels.  However I did like the previous packaging a bit more, it used to say 'it's like being caught naked in a hail storm of mint imperials'.  Not that this effects the product but it has robbed me of a small giggle every time I use this in the morning.  Plus it could not be a more perfect description (other than it doesn't hurt in the way hail storms often do).

I love using this in the morning as a wake me up because it makes me feel all fresh and ready to face the big bad world.  It is sold at places like boots and basically everywhere else (along with various other amazing flavours/scents) for £2.30.  However these are often on special offer so it worth being patient and then stockpiling.  I, myself, have a huge collection under the bed and so will be pulling out another of these bad boys to keep me company in the tub.

Would I repurchase?  Yes! I have in the past and I will continue to do so.  Maybe not until my stash has been depleted a bit though.  

What do you think of original source shower gels?

Project Pan #2 - Dove Colour Care Reviving Hair Mask

Another empty for you all today.  This one is the Dove Colour Care Reviving Hair Mask, I have had this floating around for a while and was putting off using it because I like it so much.  Its actually the second jar that I have used up (the first being ages ago).  I bought it from none other than Poundland (hence the Non-English on the packaging).  That's right this little baby was only  £1.  I bought it a while ago and I'm not sure why exactly other than I love hair masks and it was only one pound.

I recently bleached the end of my hair so that it would be a little bit ombred, however it has frazzled (not the crisps) my hair.  In an attempt to remedy this I have been using hair masks even more than usual.  This one left my hair feeling much smoother and considering what I paid for it I think it did an amazing job.

I had never tried any of Doves hair care but this has tempted me to look into their other products.  Would I repurchase it?  Yes, I would even pay more than the pound I originally spent.  However the huge stash of hair masks and the fact that I am not sure if this is still available probably means that I won't.  The product that they are currently selling that looks the most similar is this.

What do you think of Dove hair care?

Finding the beauty in everyday life

I have started to realize whilst doing this project pan that a lot of the reason why I buy cosmetics and beauty products is that they make me happy.  Now there is nothing wrong with treating yourself but I feel as if I have taken it a bit too far.  I am still struggling to organize my Ikea ALEX due to the fact that I have excessive amounts of things.  I could probably fill a shoe box with eyeliners alone (see below for proof)

Me swatching a few of my many eyeliners, reminds me of the Dr Who
episode  'Day of the moon' where they are all covered in tally marks.

So I have decided that I want to try to notice the things in my life which make me happy and telling all of you out there in the interwebs.  So that even when I am lusting over something I can remember all the other things I have to be thankful for.

This series will be called 'Life is beautiful' and will be updated everyday.  If you want to see all of my posts so far in this series click here.  I hope you share the happiness you have in your life as well.

Project Pan #1 - The Body Shop's Mango Body Butter

I have finally managed to use a few things up.  If I'm honest I used this up almost a week ago but I wanted to wait until the sun was out before taking photos (on the plus side it means there will be a flurry of posts in the next few days).  

So here we have it my first item that will be making its way onto my Project Pan list.  It is the mango body butter from The Body Shop.  This is only a mini that I got free a little while ago but the full sized version can be bought for £12.50.

As you can see I have used pretty much every last bit of this product up.  The Body Shop body butters are pretty well known - and for good reason.  They are absolutely lovely.  Due to the size this didn't last me ages but it did last a fair few months.  It smells delicious, just like mangoes, the texture is nice but it does leave skin a tiny bit oily until it has fully soaked in.  This doesn't make me love it any less though.

Would I repurchase?  Yes, I would, however I have a bit of a stash of other scents.  So whilst I work through them I hope to find out which are my absolute favourites.

What do you think of the body butters?  Have you got a favourite one?

Project Pan List

I thought I would make a list of all the items I have used up during my project pan.  Here I will post the items that have been finished.  The date I finished them and a link to my full project pan item review post.  I am going to enjoy watching this list fill up as my project pan progresses.

1) The Body Shop Mango Body Butter (11/08/12)

2) Dove Colour Care Reviving Hair Mask (19/08/12)

3) Original Source Tea Tree and Mint Shower Gel (24/08/12)

4) Naked Renewing Body Scrub (26/08/12)

5) The Body Shop Love Etc Perfume (4/10/12)

6) Beauty Formulas Cooling Mist (20/11/12)

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

16)

17)

18)

19)

20)

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.