2020 Beauty Inventory & Project Pan Goals January 9, 2020
New Year, Same Beauty Addict. New Beauty Goals. Read my 2020 beauty inventory and project pan goals.
2019 has truly been a year of self-reflection, or to quote Kylie Jenner, 2019 has been the year of “like, realizing things.” Seriously.
2019 was particularly significant because I learned a lot about my shopping habits. Specifically, I learned that I used shopping as a coping mechanism for dealing with sadness, anxiety, and stress. I learned that 2:00 AM online shopping sprees are the death of my wallet. I learned that I don’t need every shiny new thing that is released.
I worked hella hard to downsize my collection through my yearlong project panning (read my Winter 2019, Spring 2019, Summer 2019, or Fall 2019 Empties Roundups) and seasonal declutters (Spring 2019, Summer 2019, Fall 2019). However, I ended the year with a collection that was more than 2X the size it was at the beginning of 2019.
How much makeup do I own? Please keep reading for my 2020 Beauty Inventory, as well as my 2020 Project Pan Goals.
2020 Beauty Inventory
Full disclaimer: I have a very large beauty collection, but I am not sharing my 2020 Beauty Inventory to “brag” or “boast” about what I own. I am sharing this to keep me accountable in 2020.
The below beauty inventory breakdown includes two new categories, “Extras” (lashes, nails, fragrance), and single-use samples. Moving forward, I will be tracking these categories and aim to reduce these, too.
As always, “value” is based on the full retail price, not sale prices OR the monetary value of any deluxe sample. Finally, I rounded to the nearest whole number for total value approximations.

January 2020 Beauty Inventory
2020 Beauty Inventory: Total Volume: 685 | Total Value: $13.8K
First, I need to address the excessive elephant in the room. I have not spent anywhere close to $13.8K on beauty products. I calculate the value based on the standard retail price NOT the amount I paid. Additionally, I calculate deluxe multi-use samples and freebies and include this in my collection worth. When looking purely at actual spend, my beauty inventory worth roughly half the amount noted above.
Unsurprisingly, my palette category holds the most monetary value. As a whole, palettes tend to be more expensive than other types of beauty products. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve purchased I’ve come to purchase more prestige and luxury palettes. However, it is worth noting that all of those palettes were purchased at a discount. To get this section down, I know I will have to declutter more products.
Within my 2020 Beauty Inventory, the lip category surprised me the most. I was shocked by the high volume and value of my collection. Although I know that I can work through lip products this takes steady effort and persistence.

Beauty Inventory 2020 Breakdown
Looking at my 2020 Beauty Inventory from another perspective, eye products comprise 25% of my collection, lip palettes account for 20% of my collection, and palettes account for 17% of my collection volume. I am not surprised by this breakdown knowing that I purchased a mascara sampler kit in 2019 and that single Super Shock Shadows and glitters are included in the “Eyes” category. Obviously, I have a problem with buying eyeshadow palettes and this is something I need to work on in 2020.
2020 Beauty Inventory: Fun Facts
- 84% of my collection is Cruelty-Free and 16% of my collection is not Cruelty-Free
- 9% is Luxury, 11% is a Celebrity or Influencer Brand, 17% is Indie, 21% is Affordable or Drugstore, 29% is Prestige
- With a value of $964.00 USD and a volume of 69 products (13%), ColourPop is the brand that I own the most from

ColourPop Overload | Tried to capture a bunch from my ColourPop collection
2020 Project Pan Goals
Obviously, I am currently on a Beauty No Buy, so I should be bringing in little to no new beauty products in 2020. I will be allowed repurchase items I run out of, certain special releases Smokey Glow’s Collaboration with Midas Cosmetics, or use gift cards (should I receive any). However, I still want to set the 2020 Project Pan Goals because I want to reduce the size of my collection.
By the end of 2020, I would like to reduce the size of my collection to 400 products (excluding extras). In other words, I want to reduce the size of my beauty collection by approximately 33% in 2020. This is going to be a daunting task that will require diligent project panning, thoughtful decluttering, and limited spending. Can I do it? Only time will tell.
Also, I would like to hit pan on as many powder products as possible. On YouTube, some Project Panners are participating in similar challenges, Pan Those Shadows or 101 Pans, etc. I haven’t decided which of those projects I’d like to participate in, but will likely be sharing any updates here or on my Instagram page.
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Is your beauty inventory as scary as mine is? Is there another category of things that you like to hoard? Please share with me in the comments below.
beauty beauty inventory makeup makeup addict makeup collection project pan project pan 2020 project panning
Good luck with your goals this year, LP! I think you can do it!
Thank you 💜💜
Best of luck to you and I guess you do have quite the collection and I thought I had a lot.
Thank you!
You’re very welcome 😊
I love your goals for the new year! I hope you are successful in achieving them!
Thank you so much! 💜
I think my collection has a similar size to yours. I’ve counted 397 products so far, this is without my skincare/haircare products + most of my Black Friday products aren’t included yet. My goals are also pretty similar to yours, even though I haven’t wrote them down. I have to calculate a bit more to see what’s realistic and how I want to set this up for myself. I would love to pan products this year, since I’ve never panned an eyeshadow palette for example. I’ve never used up an lipstick either, so these two things are definitely goals.
We gonna try our best this year! However, I’m struggling already since I want the Amrezy palette and the Kylie Cosmetics Stormi Collection (which isn’t even revealed yet lmao). But I haven’t bought new makeup for 2 weeks, which is a new record since months lololol.
Honestly, you have no idea how much better your comment made me feel. I felt like so self conscious sharing this number, so I feel better knowing that I’m not alone.
I am going to keep doing my regular empties & declutter posts this year where I just share the things i naturally use up. However, this year I decided to do an *official* Project Pan – 20 makeup products in 2020. I didn’t include an eyeshadow palette because when I tried doing Pan that Palette in 2018, I found that I was using my one palette a ton but everything else was getting neglected. I want to do another eyeshadow focused project though … where I randomly select random shadows in my collection to work on!
It is great that you learned about your shopping habits last year. This is how you become more conscious about what’s being purchased. Oh wow!!! Your beauty inventory is impressive!!! It is great that most of your beauty products are cruelty-free! I am excited to see more about the transformation when you go through your Project Pan!!
Nancy ♥ exquisitely.me
lol my inventory is too excessive, but I can’t punish myself too hard for buying things I love!
Your collection is really impressive; it must be so fun to play around with all of that makeup. However, it’s great you’ve learned about your spending habits and are making an effort to pan your products, I’m sure your bank account will thank you in the future. I have every faith you can do this and look forward to seeing how you get on in 2020!
Thanks, girl! The value is def super high (but I use coupon codes / discounts / sales whenever possible) so I rarely pay full price for products anymore, but I feel it is fair to track based on the full retail value since I take that into account whenever I review something! I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to work through more makeup items this year for sure and I think it will be possible. Since I’ve pulled out all the items I’ve included in my 20 in 2020 Project Pan basket and have been trying to use them at least 2-3x a week (if not more).
My collection is about 1/4 of yours!! The flatlay on your bed looks amazing, so many pretty products. 😍 I can’t wait to see which project you decide to do!! & this may be a stupid question but, what is considered ‘prestige’ makeup??
Girl, you have a healthy relationship with makeup. I gotta slow my roll a little bit with my excessive purchases lmao
Prestige makeup is another term for high end makeup (or mid-tier makeup). So for example, MAC and Urban Decay would be Prestige brands, while Natasha Denona or Pat McGrath would be considered luxury!
Lol I do think my relationship with makeup is healthy. It’s the sub boxes I’m addicted to. 😭 & OH! Thank you for clearing that up– makes sense!
sub boxes really are addictive – like part of me wants to join so many but then part of me wants to end the sub I have now lol. I wish more boxes were seasonal as apposed to monthly!
Lol I resigned up for Boxy & still haven’t completely canceled Ipsy. They have a “skip this month” option so I just keep pausing!!
Lmao – I’m still on the fence if I’ll keep my Boxy sub! 😂 this month was awesome, BUT I’m suspicious bc a lot of other people were unhappy with the box because they only received 1-2 of the featured products. I received them all, but I think that was only because I almost cancelled lol!
Wait whaaat? They put things in the box that weren’t even featured in the spoilers? I’m gonna be really upset if they did that to me. Boxy totally does try to give you the best stuff when they think/know you’ll cancel– that’s why I always do month to month lol. I’ll be getting mine, hopefully, by next week. Did you pick a choice for next month??
I actually wasn’t given the option to chose next month 👀 …. did they ask you??
I remember when I signed up in September I only received 1-2 of the featured products and then the others were clearly overstock from previous months. Everyone def got an Ace Beaute palette this month and I believe the wander beauty face duo, but everything else seemed to very from box to box!
Choice is on the 13th, if you just go to the website on that day, you get to choose! They e-mailed me about it!
That’s crazy, that’s happened to me with only like one or two products, where it was clearly overstock. Usually I get the variations in the spoiler e-mails! I will be really disappointed if they did that to me this month. 🙁
ugh they never emailed me so I’m annoyed lol. we’ll see how this next month goes!
A lot of their e-mails go into spam but, they also send me a LOT more reminders for dates & such when I’m not subscribed.
Good luck on your goals this year! I am excited to read along on your journey to a smaller collection. This post has also reminded me that I should probably make my own inventory.
thank you so much for the encouragement – I was so excited to read your Project Pan 2020 post earlier this month, too. This is the first year in a few years that I’m trying a “formal” Project Pan. I’m feeling hopeful that I can really make a dent in my collection this year.
I am really hoping to make a dent in my collection too this year. I think it’ll be super fun to follow along and see your progress throughout the year. 🙂
Good luck on your 2020 goals! I’m trying to be more mindful of my spending and the fact that I already have similar products! I look forward to reading your updates on the topic 🙂
Thank you, girl. Last night was such a major win for me b/c ABH is having 25% off one item which could be combined with $15 off your total order AND free shipping…. and I felt so tempted to make a purchase.
However, I ended up whipping out eyeshadows that I already owned that was similar to recreate a tutorial that I had watched using the brand’s new palette. Felt good to make a smart choice with my spending!
That’s so well done, good job!! I feel like a lot of my favourite brands are US-based and the high shipping fee usually keeps me from placing an order haha (but not always)
I love how thorough this post is with exact numbers and percentages. There is something really satisfying in seeing all of that in numbers. Good luck with your goals. 💪
I am also doing a project pan this year and I opted for a rolling 20 in 2020. My collection is not even close to yours but i still feel like i gravitate towards the same products over and over again. I 😊
lol my collection is too insane and I felt very self conscious sharing these numbers but I want to be transparent with myself and others!
I just read your 20 in 2020 Project Pan and I loved seeing your choices. (I think my comment is still stuck in the moderation queue.)
And lol I do the same thing – I am an eyeshadow fiend as you could prob see by my numbers 😂 😂 😂
Your comment should be now through 😊😊
Wow what a collection. Hope you achieve your goals x