Shop Your Stash Challenge: Winter 2026 ❄️

[itsfi]

Winter is officially here, and with it comes another seasonal edition of Shop Your Stash / Use Your Stash. Please feel free to use this space to identify and talk about the beauty product(s) you plan to use or are thinking about using or working through this winter. Products can be makeup, skincare, hair care, bath & body items, fragrance, nail care or other beauty products in your collection.

What Is "Shopping Your Stash"?

"Shopping your stash" is the practice of using / making the most of the beauty products in your existing collection. Check out the posts below for more info regarding:

• Why Shop Your Stash Challenge - Benefits to Shopping Your Stash; and
• How To Shop Your Stash. 

If you're interested in or looking to work on a year long project with the aim of using up / finishing or hitting pan on products check out Pan It! - 2025 Challenge - NOTE: I'll update the link once the 2026 thread is up! I can't believe that we're heading into year 9 of the pan it! challenge @ElleElleG! Brava, brava! It's definitely helped me use up some items I never thought I'd even make a dent in. Thank you!!

For those wondering, what's the difference between "Shop Your Stash" and the Pan It! Challenge or project pan?, great question, because they do have some similarities to them. Everyone has their own approach to panning projects. I've briefly noted in the spoiler below how I look at each and how I approach both challenges.

Spoiler

• I use the Pan It! Challenge to work through products over the course of the year, with the aim of trying to use up the product, hit pan or to see how much I can get through in a year. The Pan It! Challenge has been great for accountability and encouragement. For myself, I have, in the past picked a smaller number of products to focus on panning during the year and the items I select are usually made in an effort to try to get myself into a routine of using them or reaching for something and being consistent with it. The monthly check-ins on that thread help me hold myself accountable and let's face it, they often spur me to use one or more of the items I've set aside for the pan it! challenge before it's time to check in, which usually causes me to be better about using those items at the start of the next month. 
• The Shop Your Stash challenge, on the other hand, for me, at least, have a more seasonal approach to them, whether due to the product's functionality or because it's something I want to focus on for a particular period of time (but not the entire year). For instance, while there are no hard line rules on what shades to wear during a particular season, I am more likely to wear deeper tones or do a smokey eye more often in the winter season. In that vein, in an effort to help me actually use those types of products in my collection, I may identify 1 or 2 blush shades or eyeshadows to primarily rotate through during the winter months. That's not to say that I won't use other products or buy other items but my focus is to try to get as much use out of what I already have during that time period. 

[Samtian]

@itsfi Marketed to last you say? Do you have a recommendation for longest lasting?

[itsfi]

The one that I've found to be the longest lasting is a Japanese brand, Heroine Make @Samtian. From my experience, the AB mascaras won't give the extra thick volume that the Western mascara brands do or aim to but I also don't experience the clumping I do with them and they (AB) ones last longer on my lashes. Your work day would be the ultimate test of whether a mascara lives up to its claims. 

In the screen shot below, the product in the white tube next to the mascara is the remover product the brand sells to help remove the mascara.

[haleyvvvv]

Great challenge goals, @caitbird !! Those blushes are really pretty 

[Samtian]

Part of my Pan It! - 2026 Challenge is using palettes I've already tested.

This month it's these four-

[caitbird]

@Samtian  love this! You have such a cool collection of palettes and such an organized system for testing + using them, I'm impressed!

[Samtian]

@caitbird Awe thank you!

[curlychiquita]

I remember that KVD palette, @Samtian, it’s a great one!

[Samtian]

@curlychiquita It is! 

[haleyvvvv]

Oooh, do you happen to have pictures of the insides of these for the color stories, @Samtian ?

[Samtian]

@haleyvvvv Kind of. I had to make space on my computer so all unmarked photos are on old hard drives. But I do have the photos showing the shades I loved.

Spoiler

SmashboxJefree Star CrematedKVDMorphe

[danielledanielle]

That KVD PALETTE 🥲,  @Samtian 

Are there any dents in any shades already?

[Samtian]

@danielledanielle Haha definitely not. Out of sight out of mind. 

[danielledanielle]

Ok, so I posted a list to Pan It! - 2026 Challenge , and it's here in the spoiler for contingency (?). IDK. IDK what I'm doing, but I'm here 🤣, When make my capsule for Capsule Makeup Collection Challenge 2026 this week, I plan to on putting these in ... And, I feel behind, ofc, in Advent Calendars 2025 - Let the Unboxings Begin!! BUT, at some point I was like, just so this in January, might keep you from getting tempted so easily, so there may be some add ins there

• Urban Decay Beached palette 
• Two Fenty Stunnas
• Advent stuff

Spoiler

Complexion

• DIOR Forever Glow Star Filter Multi-Use Complexion Enhancing Booster 4N 
• Elf Halo Glow
• Saie Glowy Super Gel Lightweight Dewy Multipurpose Illuminator Starglow , if I still have it
• I think I'm halfway done on these: previous version of DIOR Backstage Face & Body Foundation , #Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear Care & Glow Foundation​ with Hyaluronic Acid 425C and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Soft’Lit Naturally Luminous Hydrating Longwear Foundation 315 .  I love all these, just want to get through them all our at least 2/3 of them and get to a Becca Skin Love before it's ancient
•  Armani bronzing powder.  I love this.  I crazily got two different shades and a back up.  I used to just have one out two bronzers because most bronzers are just super orange and I'm already tan, is just moot for me.  But then SOMEHOW bronzers started finding their way to me, I swear 😉, but I can pan a bronzer like I can pan a setting powder.  I just have to keep it in rotation and literally dig into it.

The Wiffleballs

These are almost done, I feel like if I focus on these, I'll get great momentum 

• Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Gloss Luminizer Fenty Glow 
• Aforementioned star filter 
• Maison Margiela ‘REPLICA' By the Fireplace Eau de Toilette with Chestnut, Vanilla, and Clove Oil 
• One/size setting spray 

[itsfi]

These are fabulous picks @danielledanielle! I like the mix of products you have, both in terms of the types of items but also the different stages you're in with respect to usage - that sort of variety is nice to have as you work through things. Excited to see you work your way through a bunch of these beauties!

[caitbird]

@danielledanielle great list! I need to start using some of my YesStyle advent stuff, too. I'll have to go through what I have to see which items to work on this season.

I love your term "whiffleballs" haha, that's so evocative. You always have the best turns of phrase for things!

[haleyvvvv]

You got this, @danielledanielle!! 💪

[haleyvvvv]

Winter 2026 - Shop My Stash

1. Whittle down my palette of shame pile

I have a few dozen unused palettes in my collection, some of which are newer but some have been in my collection for years. I'd like get through all of them this year. For this pile of 10, my goal is use 8 in the next three months. This feels doable and reasonable (since I'm also traveling for at least a week in the coming months).

Spoiler

Danessa Myricks Beauty LIGHTWORK VII The Freedom Makeup Palette: Magnetic, Customizable, Stackable P... 
Cosmic Beauty Winter Wonderland
Beauty Bakerie Breakfast in Bread
PMG Star Wars R2D2 
Viseart Violette Ètendu
PMG Gilded Nirvana
ND Glam (gratis, thank you Team BIC)
What's Up Beauty Dragon Eye
Gloss Gods Molten Metals
Game Beauty Harbinger 

2. Shop my stash blush and lipsticks

In addition to my Pan It! - 2026 Challenge blushes, I'm going to use these challenges to also incorporate some variety and use more of my collection. Goal is to use each blush 5 times and each lipstick at least 3 times. 

Spoiler

 ROSE INC Cream Blush Refillable Cheek & Lip Color Dahlia
Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder Flushed - Matte Color for Cheek & Lip Rosé N ... 
Melt Cream Blushlight Daydreamer

ROSE INC Lip Cream Longwearing Matte Liquid Lipstick with Squalane Mortal Flame (gratis, thank you TeamBIC)
Nars Dragon Girl
Beauty Bakerie Raspberry Tiramisu
Kiko Milano Gossamer Edition 
PAT McGRATH LABS MatteTrance™ Lipstick Elson mini
Melt Bloodwine
ABH Plumeria
ABH Rage
Folly Fire Full House

3. BYOP shop my singles collection

Spoiler

1. Killer Queens - No X's
2. Copacetic Cosmetics - Demon King
3. Clionadh Cosmetics - Brittbritt
4. Simply Posh - Salt Water (I think. They're not labeled)
5. It's bel Cosmetics - Canis Major
6. Simply Posh - Twinkly (I think)
7. Sydney Grace - Force of Nature 
8. Devinah Cosmetics - Altair 
9. Killer Queens - TTYN
10. Sydney Grace - Let's Cuddle 
11. Clionadh Cosmetics - Tower
12. Clionadh Cosmetics - Luminous 
13. Clionadh Cosmetics - Royalty 
14. Oden's Eye - Wyatt 
15. Sydney Grace - Opulence 

4. Mask up

The skincare product categories that is the most out of control for me is masks (both sheet and tube). So I want to get some usage in. My goal is to use up the ones I have open and at least 15 sheet masks.

Tracker

[caitbird]

@haleyvvvv  wow, I love the items you chose - those eyeshadows are beautiful! I love your journal tracking method, too! I have been trying to track my products and progress for various challenges in a digital document, but I may have to try writing that information down, as well.

[haleyvvvv]

Thank you so much, @caitbird !! I'm liking the journal tracking so far, for me it's easier than digital. 

[blackkitty2014]

Woah this is impressive @haleyvvvv.   I love the lil fridge and the journal. Very inspiring 🌹❤️ PS: I need to copy you … this way I can hold myself accountable for what I want to work on…  I usually go astray among multiple things 😂🤣

[danielledanielle]

Same, it's very impressive and helpful @haleyvvvv

I'm sheepishly coming into this, so I'm right there with you @blackkitty2014 , but any start... Even if you stray, is a start.