Project pan 2018: Products I want to use up in 2018

Project pan 2018

Here’s the story. I tried project pan last year and failed miserably. Why? Because I chose products I mostly hate. Nobody wants to apply such products to their face every single day, right? So this year, I’m doing it differently. I chose 10 products that I like but which have been in my collection way too long. I’m not including any mascaras, because I have never used up a mascara in my life – I only toss them once they dry out or don’t work properly anymore, which is usually around the six months mark.

Project pan 2018 SHELF LIFE

These days, when every beauty vlogger on YouTube is boasting their huge collections, it’s important to remind ourselves that make-up actually expires and we have to use it up while it’s still good. Expired products can give you skin issues or even cause bigger complications, especially those which are used on the eyes or the mouth.

Five of these will be a piece of cake. Five of these will not. But I will try my best. I’ll update you here after six months and every month or so on Instagram – don’t forget to follow me there. So without further ado, here are my 10 products that I’ll try to use up in 2018. I’ll start with the easiest one and work my way up according to how difficult I feel each product will be.

Project pan 2018 #1: Essence Fresh&Fit primer

Project pan 2018 Essence primer

I use primer on a daily basis and I really like this one, especially for spring and summer as it gives me some extra glow. I normally use up quite a few bottles of primer each year so this one should be a piece of cake.

Project pan 2018 #2: Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation

Project pan 2018 Chanel Vitalumiere aqua foundation

This foundation has been in my drawer longer than I care to admit. It’s a lightweight foundation with light coverage so I’ll probably wear it around the weekend. I usually prefer medium coverage for workdays. It’s hard to tell from the bottle, but I think there are about three quarters left in there. Goal for the product: use it up completely.

Project pan 2018 #3: Collection contour kit

Project pan 2018 collection contour kit

I bought the The Collection contour kit in Ireland over two years and it’s getting a bit tired. I don’t care for the highlight, but the contour color is really good because it’s dark and neutral. Goal for this product: use up the entire contour pan. I don’t think it’ll be that hard, to be honest

Project pan 2018 #4: Trend It Up Contour & Glide lip liner  – 400

Project pan 2018 trend it up lip liner

This is one of my go-to lip liners for many of the lipsticks I wear on everyday basis. It’s a great nude color with the tiniest hint of pink undertone. This Trend It Up lip liner doesn’t have the best staying power, but I like to wear it with lippies or alone combined with a lip gloss. I don’t think it will be a problem to use it up entirely in 2018 since it’s quite soft and consequently goes down much quicker then a regular pencil liner.

Project pan 2018 #5: Lancome Juicy Shaker – Mangoes Wild

Project pan 2018 Lancome Juicy Shaker

This juicy shaker is another product I’ve been carrying around for a while now. I feel like I’ve used it quite a bit, but when looking at the level in the bottle, I’ve actually used only about a tenth. Consequently, I’m not buying the matte shaker until I’ve used this one up. And I really want the matte Juicy Shaker, so that’s the deal I’m making with myself. Goal: use the entire bottle. View Post

Best of 2015: Make-up


Yes, I know, I know – doing 2015 favorites in May isn’t exactly current. But nevertheless, I wanted to share the make-up products that impressed me the most in 2015 with you. It was difficult to choose the best of the best, but here are the ones that I enjoyed the most. I suggest you get a cup of coffee and a snack, since it’s going to be a looooong post!

Let’s start with the face. As I mentioned in my Friday Superstarts post about Melvita, my skin has really been acting up during pregnancy, so I used a very heavy-duty foundation – the Estee Lauder Double wear in 1W2 (Sand). It’s not the easiest foundation to apply since it’s very heavy and you definitely feel it on the skin, but it conceals imperfections perfectly. It’s also not the cheapest foundation on the market but a definite must from now on in my make-up drawer.

The problem with using such heavy foundation is that the fact ends up looking flat, two-dimensional. For that reason, I enjoyed using the Gerard Cosmetics BB Illumination Facial Cream and mixed a couple of drops in with the foundation on days when I wanted to give my face a bit more life. The cream comes in a tan shade so it doesn’t change your foundation color if used sparingly. At about 22 € per 50 ml, it’s not exactly a cheap product, but I think it will last me at least two years, so I think it’s a good purchase.

In 2015 I’ve been loving two concealers. The first is the Coleur Caramel concealer (n. 12) which is a creamy concealer in a salmon shade – I already wrote about it here. I use it to cover up my dark circles and it does the job beautifully. I bought mine in Muller. The second concealer I used all the time is the Maybelline Fit me concealer in n.10 – it is a good match for my skin so I use it to cover any imperfections. Since it’s a liquid concealer, I use a Beauty Blender to really blend it in and the results are more than satisfying. I am not sure if these are available in Slovenia yet since I bought mine in Austria, but you can order them from various online stores.

I am a big believer in setting the foundation and the product I used the most in 2015 and the months leading to this post is the Avon Ideal Flawless pressed powder in light medium.


Yes, I know, I know – doing 2015 favorites in May isn’t exactly current. But nevertheless, I wanted to share the make-up products that impressed me the most in 2015 with you. It was difficult to choose the best of the best, but here are the ones that I enjoyed the most. I suggest you get a cup of coffee and a snack, since it’s going to be a looooong post!

Let’s start with the face. As I mentioned in my Friday Superstarts post about Melvita, my skin has really been acting up during pregnancy, so I used a very heavy-duty foundation – the Estee Lauder Double wear in 1W2 (Sand). It’s not the easiest foundation to apply since it’s very heavy and you definitely feel it on the skin, but it conceals imperfections perfectly. It’s also not the cheapest foundation on the market but a definite must from now on in my make-up drawer.

The problem with using such heavy foundation is that the fact ends up looking flat, two-dimensional. For that reason, I enjoyed using the Gerard Cosmetics BB Illumination Facial Cream and mixed a couple of drops in with the foundation on days when I wanted to give my face a bit more life. The cream comes in a tan shade so it doesn’t change your foundation color if used sparingly. At about 22 € per 50 ml, it’s not exactly a cheap product, but I think it will last me at least two years, so I think it’s a good purchase.

In 2015 I’ve been loving two concealers. The first is the Coleur Caramel concealer (n. 12) which is a creamy concealer in a salmon shade – I already wrote about it here. I use it to cover up my dark circles and it does the job beautifully. I bought mine in Muller. The second concealer I used all the time is the Maybelline Fit me concealer in n.10 – it is a good match for my skin so I use it to cover any imperfections. Since it’s a liquid concealer, I use a Beauty Blender to really blend it in and the results are more than satisfying. I am not sure if these are available in Slovenia yet since I bought mine in Austria, but you can order them from various online stores. View Post

Midyear favorites 2015

You may have noticed that I stopped doing monthly favorites about 6 months ago. The reason is quite simple – I don’t have many new favorites every month, so I prefer not to talk about products until I have a firm opinion about them. With that in mind, I give you my mid-year favorites for 2015 – the products I used and loved in the first six months of this year.


Let’s start with body products. I’ve talked about both of these before.


My first favorite is Nivea In-Shower Body Milk with shea butter. I love the idea of moisturizing while taking a shower and it really saves me a lot of time. I prefer this formula for dry skin to the one for normal skin – the shea butter really gives it the additional *umph*.

Secondly, I’ve really been enjoying my Stenders Salt Scrub in Rose and it’s not long before I’ll completely run out. It’s a fine scrub with some rose petals in it – it gets rid of the old epidermis and also moisturizes, since it’s oil based. The only downside is the amount of time you’ll need to scrub your shower clean after using it.

For hair, I haven’t found my new favorite shampoo&conditioner combo just yet. The only thing I am including here is my Kerastase Elixir Ultime. I apply this to my roots and about 10 cm up after each wash and I feel I’ve had lot less split and dry hair in the past few months. This product is quite expensive, but the bottle will last you ages, since you need the smallest amount per day / per wash.


I was the last beauty blogger on the planet to get something from the L’Oreal Micellar line, but I now understand why everyone is so excited about it. I really, really like this micellar gel – the tiniest amount removes my daily make-up without any problems. It also does quite a good job at removing waterproof mascara, although I must admit that I usually tackle that with other products.

After L’Oreal Micellar gel, I tend to use the Ole Henriksen African Red Tea Foaming Cleanser. I have talked about this great product before – it’s really easy to use (massaged into the skin and rinsed off), smells wonderfully and leaves my face clean and fresh.

For moisturizer, I am almost done with the Afrodita Hydra Thermal 24h Ultra Moisturizing Cream. I really like this product – it’s a simple, no fuss moisturizer and it does its job. Also, from all of the products in these favorites, I would guess that it has the best price: number of uses ratio. View Post

Birthday Gifts + Haul 2015

As some of you might know, I share my birthday with our lovely Slovenia, which is awesome because I get a day off each year to properly celebrate – and so do you! I almost didn’t make it through the pre-birthday party this year though – we were having dinner at Ljubljana Castle on the 24th of June and in the middle of the dinner, without any warning, cannons went off right underneath our feet! Of course, it was just a part of the official celebrations, but still – a warning to all that might attempt something similar in the years to come 🙂

Anyway, what’s lovely about being a beauty blogger is that you get to ask for all kinds of make-up products as presents and nobody finds that strange. So here are the gifts and some things I picked up for myself with gift cards I received.

I won’t go much into detail since I want to write a separate review on most of these products. Starting in a clockwork order, we have two Sigma E40 tapered blending brushes. I already have one and it’s so amazing it’s always dirty, so a couple more were necessary.

Underneath, we have the Gerard Cosmetics BB Plus Illumination Face Cream. This goes in the “YouTube made me buy it” category, and I’m not even ashamed to admit that. It’s basically an illuminator, but a tan shade, so you can mix it up into your foundation for that glowing summer face.

In the midst is the present from my best friend – a Davidoff Cool water Eau de toilette. I love this fresh summery smell, which actually reminds me of a Fa body wash we always buy for our summer house – so I completely associate it with summer and I suspect that this perfume will be gone by end of September.

If you remember, I was obsessing over Lord&Berry liner I got in a Look Fantastic beauty box. When I saw this trio underneath on sale, I naturally couldn’t refuse, so I am now a proud owner of a Sparkle black liner, Polish eye pencil in Mirror black and a normal black liner. I am a happy bunny.

I always wanted some Invisibobble elastics since I have really thick hair which always gets tangled, but for some reason I though that each single one cost 5 € which I though was completely unreasonable. But I found these in Müller and they’re actually 3 for 5 €, so naturally I snatched them up.

Next to the Invisibobble, there is a beautiful box which holds a Coleur Caramel concealer, which again I will not go too much into, since it deserves its own post, and so does the lip gloss above it – it’s from Gerard Cosmetics and it is the first piece of make-up which actually scared me! Keep your eyes out for future posts about this dangerous one 🙂

Last but not least, we have the Essence 16 hour Stay All Day concealer – the 3rd one I’ve bought and I’ll continue to repurchase them.

So that’s it for the make-up haul and presents, I hope you enjoyed it. If you don’t yet, follow me on Instagram (@low_maintenance_beauty) and also let me know in the comments below what you’d most like to receive out of these bits and bobs above.

Until next time, stay beautiful!

April Favorites

Another month rolled by and I almost can’t believe that it’s almost been a year since I started writing this blog 🙂 Anyway, April brought some new, wonderful discoveries for me, and I also found some of my old friends lurking in the back of that closet that I keep mentioning all the time.



Quite a few were already mentioned in my other posts, so let’s start with those. First is the Lord&Berry liner that I received in the LookFantastic beauty box about a month ago. It’s been well loved but I’m determined to use the very last inch of it. You can read more about it here – and thank me later when you go and buy it 😉


Essence Longlasting Lip Liner in Yummy Berry


Another favorite that I only recently became acquainted with is the Essence Longlasting lip liner. I love quite a few colors, but as I already mentioned in this post, the Yummy Berry is my favorite. I need to go out and buy a few back-up’s in case it makes a disappearing act from the shelves.


O.P.I. Don’t pretzel my buttons

This O.P.I. Don’t pretzel my buttons featured in my Simple manicure routine post. It’s a really lovely beige nude and I’ve been wearing it a lot in the past two months, simply because it’s long lasting and – to be completely honest – doesn’t look terrible even when some chipping occurs. It’s the only nude polish I own and we have quite a romance going on at the moment.


Medex Elanosol lip balm

I don’t talk much about Medex cosmetics line and I don’t really know why – I love most of the products and use them quite religiously. But my favorite has to be the Elanosol lip balm that contains propolis, honey and bee wax. First of all, this lip balm really does smell and taste of honey, and secondly, it leaves quite a thick layer on the lips meaning that they are fully protected. That being said, it’s not really a product I use out of home, because it also leaves a little white residue which doesn’t look too appealing. But I love using it at home and it helps my lips tremendously. View Post