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Welcome to Day 18 of 30 Days to Packing a Better Bag.
When determining what should go into your essential travel beauty kit, you have to decide what type of traveler you are.
- Are you a low key traveler who is fine with lip balm and tinted moisturizer?
- Or are you a backpacking fashionista who prefers to bring a full make-up kit including every shade of eye shadow and lipstick?
As with every other packing list, start with the basics and build your essential travel beauty kit from there. Look for items that can double up, like blush and lip color or brown pencils.
At Her Packing List, we like to keep our beauty kit as simple as possible, and you should too!
Why?
Because travel makes you happy, and happy people are beautiful!
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The Essential Travel Beauty Kit: The Basics
These are the essentials for your beauty kit.
Sunscreen – This should be on your packing list no matter what time of year, no matter what destination. You don’t want to worry about wrinkles or sun spots later in life. Go with a solid sunscreen stick to cut back on those liquids!
Lip Balm – I pack a small container of Vaseline since I have sensitive skin, but any sort of lip moisture will be better than none. Go with a lip balm with SPF to give your lips some added sun protection.
BB Cream – Packing BB cream is a great way to keep the total number of items in your beauty kit low, as it is a lotion, sunscreen, and foundation all in one. You know how much we love multipurpose items here at HPL (more on these later in this post)!
Eyeliner or Brown Pencil – Use your eyeliner as a brow pencil and lip liner if it’s in a lighter shade. One HPL reader even uses hers as rouge in a pinch.
Mascara – Find a travel sized tube of mascara available at beauty stores like Sephora and Ulta and commonly given away with big purchases. It’s a small item that can make your eyes stand out.
Concealer – A small container of concealer is good for hiding those blemishes.
Face Wash – Always wash off your makeup to keep your skin clear. You can use a liquid wash or even wipes, as long as you have something. We covered this item in our essential toiletries kit yesterday, so hopefully you don’t forget that one!
Tweezers – Keep your eyebrows in check with a pair of tweezers. These can also come in handy for medical related things (like removing splinters).
Clippers and Nail File – Find some small clippers and a couple of disposable files to travel with.
- So many of these items are featured in our One Little Thing Series, proving just how useful so many of our readers find them.
The Essential Travel Beauty Kit: Non-Essentials
Eyeshadow – A simple palette with three colors should suffice. This will allow you to mix shades and create different looks if that’s important to you. An HPL reader suggested putting broken eyeshadows in contact lens cases to reuse them.
Perfume – Try a solid perfume to save on liquids such as those from Lush!
Lipstick – We rarely pack lipstick, but if you prefer some color on your lips, throw in a tube. Perhaps a tinted lip balm would be the better option while traveling.
Powder – Compacts are more difficult to pack as there’s the risk of breakage. If this is a necessity for you, make sure there’s something in between the mirror and powder, like a brush or cotton ball.
Blush – Not everyone wears blush, but as with powder, take caution to prevent breakage and spillage in your bag. Consider bringing a color that can double as eyeshadow to save space.
Choose Two-In-One Products
As we’ve mentioned many times before, we love multipurpose travel items here at HPL. Here are some beauty items that can have multiple uses. See if you can replace two or more items in your kit with one multipurpose alternative.
Lip and Cheek Stains: These multi-purpose stains are great for a long-lasting tint. You can also get multi-purpose make-up sticks which can be used on your eyes, cheeks, and lips like this e.l.f. Monochromatic Multi Stick.
Eyeshadow, Blush, and Highlighter: Choose a versatile palette that can be used not only as your eyeshadow but also as your blush. You may even find an option that includes a highlighter choice as well.
BB Cream: As we mentioned above, if your BB cream has SPF, it can be used as your sunscreen, foundation, and moisturizer.
Pencil: Choose an eyeliner pencil in a color that can also be used to fill in your eyebrows or as a lip liner. An HPL reader recommends a brown color but choose whatever works for you.
Dual-Ended Make-Up Pens: These come in a wide variety but there may be a highlighter on one end and a concealer on the other. Keep an eye out next time you are shopping for new make-up.
Tips for Traveling with Make-Up
- Opt for solid alternatives: There are so many solid options on the market now from foundations to cream blushes.
- Protect your make-up: Place a cotton pad inside powdered make-up containers to prevent them from breaking while traveling and make sure any glass containers are cushioned in your bag.
- Pack multi-purpose products: Fewer products mean less to remember, less to worry about, and less to pack. Yes, please!
- Use travel size containers: If you are a make-up guru and want to have lots of options while you travel, consider decanting some of your favorite items into smaller containers. Mōte makes a container which would be ideal for this.
- Choose dual-ended make-up tools: Choose brushes or tools that have dual functions. For example an eyeshadow brush with an eyebrow brush on the other end.
- Buy quality long-lasting make-up: That way you won’t have to worry about touching up your make-up during long days spent exploring.
Take Action: The Essential Beauty Kit
Start with the essentials of your beauty kit, like sunscreen, foundation, and mascara. Replace items with multi-purpose alternatives and switch liquids to solids where you can.
Add whatever else you need to feel fresh and happy at your destination.
Remember to place liquids in your TSA-regulated plastic bag, which is just another reason to travel with less makeup!
Don’t forget: If you’re worried about looks while on the road, just tell yourself that you will never see those people again.
What is a must-have in your essential travel beauty kit?
- PREVIOUS – Day 17: The Essential Travel Toiletries Kit
- NEXT – Day 19: The Essential Travel Medical Kit
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I like to keep my day-to-day make-up fairly minimal anyway, so this makes it much easier to just transfer my make-up bag from my everyday purse to my travel bag. It’s just tweezers, small mirror, (set of 3) travel brushes, glass/ crystal nail file, BB cream, translucent powder, mascara, tinted lip balm, eye pencil, neutral shadow and my favourite – Benefit’s Benetint to use as extra blush/lip colour.
I don’t use everything everyday, but I know its enough for me to feel I’ve covered every occassion.
I love this series so far – it’s really helping me to get rid of the unnecessary stuff from my travel bags!
Ah a nail file and clippers are something I forgot! I’ll have to add those in as options. I’m so glad to hear the series is helping you 🙂
I do mainly week-long or less trips with carry-on only and take an eye pencil for every 2 days I’ll be travelling as they get blunt and I can’t take a sharpener because of the blade. I’m always on the lookout for nice retractable pencils! I also take a tiny creme blush rather than powder blush to save taking a blusher brush.
Awesome post Brooke!
This will come in handy as I pack for Bali. I’m guilty of taking too many lotions and potions so this is a good reminder that you don’t need everything you have at home especially if you’re going to a warm, sunny place — then the bronzer and blush can stay!
BB / CC / DD cream is a huge space and time saver! Love multipurpose items 🙂
I actually use a contact lens case or those little “sample” tubs you can get from the makeup counters in places like Nordstrom’s or Macy’s to hold my BB cream, Foundation or, if I must have it, my gel eyeliner. You would be amazed at how much you can fit in those little cases!! I also check eBay or other sites to find .5 oz bottles or tubs. Look for keywords like “cosmetic sample bottle.” You rarely need 1 or 2 oz of a given product for anything less than 10-15 days. If you actually measured how many pumps or squeezes you use for say, shampoo or face wash, you need less than you think. I have 2 separate lists/kits I use for weekend trips and week or more trips. You can save a ton of space if you are strategic about it.
Great tips on makeup samples! Thanks 🙂
This series has been great especially for me as I’m traveling in November. I always have St Ive’s apricot scrub with me and nothing makes me feel dolled up like mascara, lipstick and a dabb of rollerball perfume so those come too. I normally love my BB cream but this time I’m taking foundation (SPF, powder finish) instead.
Have your eyelashes tinted before you go – lasts for 6 weeks and no mascara needed!
Love that tip!
You can have your brows dyed too! One less thing to pack. Also Kiss Me mascara which is totally water and heat proof just wipe off so no remover required.
Some great tips, Brooke!
I would caution against using a pencil on your eyes that you have used on your lips or elsewhere on your face. This could lead to irritation or infection of the eye and/or surrounding area. It is worth the little bit of extra weight and space to pack a separate lip pencil and brow pencil.
I love BB creams and the like, but you might consider wearing additional sun protection with them as most people do not typically apply enough of a BB/CC/DD cream to get sufficient sun protection (you should be using 0.25-0.5 tsp of sunscreen on your face alone). And don’t forget to reapply! You don’t only want to prevent burns but skin cancer and photo-aging as well. I like the idea of using a solid sun protection stick if one is available to you.
For fragrance, if you cannot find a solid scent or prefer not to go that route, you might consider bringing sample-sized vials that you an dispose of once you have used them up. Remember to recycle if possible!
I like to pack as minimal as possible during traveling so I dont have to think about possibility of accidentally leaving stuff during upacking and repacking. I’m a fan of multi-use tinted products that you can use as lip and cheek stain (and sometimes even on your lids). Bobbi Brown has a very nice Pot Rouge that also comes in a compact with mirror. Anastasia Beverly Hills also have a nice gel shadow for brows that I sometimes use as eye liner.
I always pack cuticle clippers (the ones like fingernail clippers) forgot them once on a trip to NYC, and ended up with a ton of painful hangnails. Stopped in a Walgreens, only pair they had was like $20. Also carry a tin of Rose’s salve, works for a ton of stuff, and stick sunscreen (doesn’t have to go in liquids bag).
I have a compartmentalised toiletry bag from Kathmandu. I use the small zippered section for jewellery and hair ties, etc. The larger zippered section for laundry and miscellaneous items and the zippered, detachable waterproof bag for my toiletries. Thus instead of having 3 separate bags, they are all in one.
I’m a big fan of mineral makeup, and my own travel kit is packed in tiny plastic ziplocs. You can buy mineral primer, foundation, concealer, eyeliner, eyeshadow, blush, and bronzer. I don’t use all of that, but I never feel like I have to leave a product home or skimp on the amount I bring because my whole mineral makeup kit weighs less than half an ounce. Add a multipurpose makeup brush, some tweezers, moisturizing sunscreen, and I’m good to go. There are MANY mineral makeup companies out there, and a lot of them have a really wide range of skin tone options.
Another (pricey) option to consider is getting a lash lift and tint a few days before the trip. No mascara or eyelash curler needed.