Project Pan Around the World: Denko, Aufbrauchen & the Art of Finishing Your Stuff

You scrape the last of a cream out of the tube, hit the metal bottom of a powder, finally finish a mascara — and feel weirdly triumphant. Turns out the world has a name for that feeling. Several, in fact, depending on which language you're being smug in.

TL;DR — "Project pan" — finishing what you own before buying more — isn't a marketing invention. It's a genuine global movement with a local name nearly everywhere: denko in Poland, Aufbrauchprojekt in Germany, empties / use it up in English, and plain project pan in France under the anti-waste banner. Same idea, different accent.

So… does this actually exist?

Yes — and not as a niche corner of one app. It's a real, cross-border community trend that exploded on TikTok as a pushback against haul culture and influencer unboxing. The English name dates back to around 2010 on beauty forums and caught fresh fire in the last couple of years (one5c). The proof it's real is simple: every language community built its own word for it. People don't coin slang for things that don't exist.

If you're new to the idea itself, start with our plain guide to project pan — this piece is the world tour.

🇬🇧 English: "hitting pan," empties, use it up

The original. The name comes from "hitting pan" — using a powder, blush, or eyeshadow until the metal pan at the bottom shows through. From there it grew a whole vocabulary: "empties" (the finished packaging you proudly show off), "use it up", and the structured version "Project 10 Pan" (P10P) — pick ten products, finish them, buy nothing new in the meantime.

🇵🇱 Poland: denko (and denkowanie)

Polish beauty bloggers gave it possibly the most charming name: denko — literally "the little bottom" of a jar or bottle. To finish a product is zrobić denko ("to make a bottom"), and the whole practice is denkowanie or projekt denko. The rule is the familiar one: don't buy a new body lotion until the old one is genuinely empty (Świat kosmetyków). Bloggers post monthly round-ups of their denka — and because they've used the entire product, their reviews tend to be more honest than a one-week first impression. Some call it akcja zerowanie ("operation zero-out").

Polish denkowanie comes with a bonus rule we love: if a face cream doesn't suit your face, demote it to a foot cream rather than bin it. Finish it somewhere.

🇩🇪 Germany: Aufbrauchprojekt

German, true to form, has a precise compound word: Aufbrauchprojekt (literally "use-up project"), with the verb aufbrauchen — to use up entirely. The community even nicknames its most dedicated members Aufbrauchmonster ("use-up monsters"). The format mirrors an English empties video: a crinkly bag is tipped out in front of the camera — except every bottle and tube is already empty (20 Minuten).

🇫🇷 France: project pan, but make it anti-gaspi

French speakers mostly kept the English name — "project pan" or "Pan Project", plus the P10P variant — but folded it into France's strong anti-gaspillage (anti-waste) culture. French outlets frame it squarely as an environmental challenge, noting how much cosmetic packaging is thrown out unfinished, and reaching the same conclusion as everyone else: use what you own, mindfully (France Bleu).

Different word, identical rulebook

Strip away the language and every version agrees on the same handful of rules:

• Pick a set (often ten) of products to finish.
• Buy nothing new in those categories until they're empty.
• Prioritise the about-to-expire and near-empty first.
• Show your empties — the finished packaging is the trophy.

It's the same instinct dressed in different grammar: a quiet rebellion against buying things you'll never finish.

Wherever you call home, Scangloo helps you denko

Whatever the word, the hard part is the same: knowing what's actually on your shelf, what each thing does, and what's about to expire. That's exactly what Scangloo is for — scan your products, get the labels decoded, see what's expiring soon, and spot the duplicates so you finish the keepers. Call it project pan, call it denko — we'll help you hit the bottom of the jar.