As the new year begins, so do social media trends. This year a movement called Project Pan 2025, aims to lessen the amount of plastic that fails to get recycled and to decrease the overconsumption of beauty products. However, what people fail to understand is that this social media trend will not last.
“Project Pan is a goal to use all of your beauty products and skincare products until they’re absolutely done,” freshman Claire Vaquera said. “And it’s called Project Pan because it’s the idea of hitting the bottom of the pan in a makeup palette.”
When it comes to products, households tend to have a lot of the same products that do the same job. Most of those products usually go unused and go to waste. The idea of Project Pan is to solve the issue of having too many of the same things and using them while they are still good. But since this trend was created on social media, these trends tend to pass.
“When things trend on Tiktok, it’s normally a big trend that everyone follows. But sometimes the trends do go fast. So it could only last a couple of months for some of them,” Vaquera said.
Most people follow trends from social media, which also means that they would easily be influenced to buy products that people are advertising. Social media platforms are one of the best ways to promote new beauty products, such as Instagram and TikTok.
“I probably wouldn’t have heard of all these big brands out there, all of the skincare and beauty and makeup products without like Tiktok and Instagram,” Vaquera said.
Some beauty products that are influenced are very high-end products, teens on social media seem to get swayed and buy those products. Which then creates pressure to buy the newest and latest products that can be very costly.
“Most people would go out and buy a regular lip gloss. But some teens want Summer Fridays or the Dior lip oil because it’s trending,” Vaquera said.
Even with all of these product trends, some brands are starting to make eco-friendly packaging for products, but that is not a standard. Most brands use plastics and other harmful packaging to sell their products.
“For some companies, it’s a concern. But for others their biggest priority is getting out there and making sure it’s being bought,” Vaquera said.
Overall, the Project Pan movement is a way to get people’s attention on how they are affecting the plant and to try to make a change. According to Vaquera, this will probably be just a New Year’s resolution that they will just forget about.
“People search for new trends and Project Pan is one of them, but the whole thing about Project Pan is to get them to realize that they are contributing to the problem, which is product overconsumption,” Vaquera said. “Even though the trend might not last, I want this to educate people.”
