With cosmetics becoming more accessible and more affordable, many beauty lovers have found themselves with collections bigger than they can use up before expiry. Hauls are fun, to be sure, but it’s also important to be wary of when our love for beauty and shopping at are unhealthy levels that negatively affect our finances and the planet.

The thrill of collecting is now giving way to the thrill of completely using up our purchases. Project Pan is the new beauty goal, and there are now hashtags, videos, and even entire communities to show off your empties. Fellow PV girl Crystal is a master at this, as she always has empties to show off at the end of every month!

“Panning” originally referred to using enough of a powder product to expose the bottom of the pan, but it’s also used to describe emptying other kinds of products. As a makeup artist, most of my kit investment goes to stocking up on high quality foundations, so I try to make sure to use up every drop! Ever wondered how to scrape up those last bits? Here’s a quick tutorial on how to completely empty your liquid foundation bottles:

Step 1: Gather your materials

When foundation becomes difficult to pump out, people normally assume there’s nothing left in the bottle. WRONG. A lot of product can actually remain along the sides of the packaging, where the pump straw cannot reach. If it’s in a plastic tube, an easy remedy is to simply cut it open with scissors or a sharp knife so you can reach the remaining product.

But what if your foundation is in a glass bottle? There are specially designed tools created exactly for this purpose! The Every Drop Beauty Spatula (P300 at DTC Makeup) may seem expensive for a little piece of plastic, but it’s perfect for scooping up liquid and cream formulas from the sides and bottoms of bottles. I’ve managed to recover so much product from the bottles of my high end foundations that the spatula has given me an pretty quick return on investment for its purchase!

You can use the spatula to get the amount you need for each use, but since I use these products for my artist kit, I find it easier to decant into a smaller container. I chose to decant to air pumps so I don’t have to scrape out foundation every single time I have a client.

Step 2: Scoop it up

The Every Drop Beauty Spatula may look like a simple tool, but I haven’t found anything that could be a proper substitute for it. Disposable spatulas are too rigid and sometimes don’t fit through foundation bottle necks. Simple sticks scoop up nothing. Cotton buds are usually too short and mostly just soak up the product.

That said, there’s a technique of sorts to using the spatula properly. The straight “spoon” doesn’t hold a lot of product before spilling out again, so you have to angle your wrist to get the spoon facing near flat against the walls of bottles (45º or less instead of 90º). This will help hold the product before it falls off.

Step 3: Be patient!

Getting the last traces of foundation may take a while: this is when you realize just how much foundation actually gets left behind in bottles! In my case, I knew that the size of my airless pump bottles could fit 10ml of product, and it gave me a better sense of how much foundation I was able to get out.

Here’s an example: this Make Up For Ever Ultra HD costs P2,700 for 30ml. When I used the spatula to decant the leftovers, I was able to fill a bit more than half of the airless pump bottle. I did the math and realized that the 6ml I recovered amounts to P540 worth of foundation! It’s mind-boggling to think how much foundation we accidentally throw away every time we give up on those product remnants!

You can do this method for all glass and hard plastic foundation bottles such as Estee Lauder’s Double Wear, MAC Studio Fix Fluid, Maybelline Fit Me, and L’Oreal Infallible. It can even work for skincare emulsions in bottles! If you want to see the decanting action, I recently did a video condensing my pro foundation kit using this method.

How do you get maximum usage from your products? Do you know of an alternative for the beauty spatula? Send me your tips and recos in the comments below!

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