Project Pan Is the Viral Beauty Challenge Tackling Overconsumption

Is 2026 the year we finally hit our limit with beauty product hauls? Not quite…but our routines are getting a more conscious makeover, thanks to Project Pan.

Microtrends and viral “aesthetics” have dominated the beauty industry for years (are we circling back to clean-girl or mob-wife makeup this month?), and in order to keep up, brands have pushed new launches at record speed. In 2026, it’s safe to say that the product fatigue has caught up to us. It seems we’re finally ready to ask: How many near-identical lip products does one person need? And how many do I actually have?

Enter Project Pan—a viral TikTok challenge that’s encouraging users to brag about their empties, not their new purchases. The concept is simple: Use up the beauty and personal care products you have before buying new ones. Sounds less like a challenge and more like something we should all be doing anyway, right? That’s where the social media accountability comes in.

How does Project Pan work?

At the beginning of the year, Project Pan participants take inventory of their entire beauty stash. This usually means unearthing products from medicine cabinets, organizers, and drawers, and lining them up on the floor or across their bedspread. This exercise alone tends to be eye-opening: “This is literally insane…I’m not buying anything for the next 10 years,” wrote one user after assembling her lineup. From there, participants make a written log of all their products (e.g., 17 lip glosses, 5 eye shadow palettes, 12 moisturizers) to tally up a grand total.

The goal is to chip away at this number throughout the year by “hitting pan”—using a product down to the bottom of its container, or pan—on as many items as possible, without adding new products to the total count unnecessarily. Most users share monthly or weekly check-ins, logging their progress on specific products. At the end of the year, it’s become a tradition to compare your “graveyard” (your pile of empty products) to the haul you started with.

While the challenge is trending in 2026, it isn’t new: The Reddit channel r/ProjectPan started in 2015 as a space for users to share their inventories, progress, and empties. Slowly but surely the idea reached wider audiences across social media platforms (one Instagram user @myprojectpanjourney has amassed nearly 20,000 followers documenting her progress for six consecutive years.) This year Project Pan is reaching viral status on TikTok, with younger audiences—yes, even those Drunk Elephant–hoarding Sephora tweens—pledging to use up their products.

Will Project Pan really help me shop less?

Project Pan is a great incentive to organize your beauty haul, take stock of what you have, and find more satisfaction in using your products. But will it actually temper the impulse to buy the latest liquid blush or seasonal body wash from your favorite brand?

Biopsychologist Mary Poffenroth, PhD, recognizes a gamification aspect to Project Pan that might scratch the same itch as impulsive shopping. “Neuroscience research has consistently shown that setting a goal and then tracking progress activates the dopamine system, thus allowing even small signs of progress to trigger a dopamine release,” she says. Although, she notes, the extent of dopamine payoff will vary from person to person.

Dr. Poffenroth explains that Project Pan stimulates both internal and external reward signals in your brain, which can lead to more long-term satisfaction than a buzzy purchase: “Social media is providing an external incentive of social praise,” she says. “Saving money is also an external incentive, and then there’s the internal incentive of feeling good about yourself for being less wasteful.”