The Best Travel Beauty Products + Tips for Packing

Today’s the day! Yesterday I landed in Charlotte and today we hit the road, beginning our week of traveling around the beautiful Carolinas. I could not be more excited!

I will be gone ten days in all, so packing for this kind of trip was NOT easy. I am the kind of girl who brings three bags with me just on a weekend trip… Most times, my main space-sucking culprits are my makeup and skincare bags. I have been working hard to find a more strategic way to travel with beauty products since filling half a suitcase with palettes and primers is a little bit excessive. Today I am sharing some of my favorite beauty travel hacks, along with a list of the beauty products I bring with me everywhere I go.

Tips for Packing Beauty Products

Invest in space-saving cosmetic bags. I am IN LOVE with my Stephanie Johnson bags and can’t imagine how I traveled without them. When I threw all my bottles and blushes into a bag before, it took up twice the space. These cosmetic bags are perfectly shaped and organized and truly make me feel like a better traveler! My favorite two bags are the ML Traveler and the Laura Trapezoid Bag – both in the gorgeous Galapagos peony.
- ML Traveler: I LOVE this cosmetics bag because it is so compartmentalized, which really helps reduce space. It also has two snap-out mesh zip pouches, one removable clear zip pouch and one clear zip wall pocket which is perfect for storing your liquid products, as well as mascaras and lipglossses.
- Trapezoid Bag: The shape of this bag is amazing and fits all of my bulky skincare products perfectly!
Rarely buy travel-size products. I primary avoid travel-size products for several reasons. First, buying travel size items limits what you are able to bring with you. You don’t want to have to switch up your skincare routine just because they don’t sell your moisturizer in a travel size. Second, buying travel size items is not cost effective at all. Third, if you aren’t traveling every other week, chances are, you will use a product on your trip and then not again for quite some time. You don’t want to stick your fingers or a dirty brush into makeup and then not touch it again for months. This just allows for bacteria to grow. It is always best to finish up your makeup after first using it, so travel products that get stored away for months between trips aren’t ideal. Finally, the full size product often isn’t that much bigger than the travel. So, I use reusable bottles for those products I can’t bring with me, and for everything else, what was in my medicine cabinet goes into my bag. Done and done! The only travel product exceptions I have are if the product is uniquely packaged or hard to move into a reusable travel bottle. For example, I love my Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant, but there wouldn’t be a good way to travel with the full-size version.
Bring sample products with you. Every time I order beauty products, I receive a million samples. Before heading out on your trip, test your samples to see what you like (and avoid an unexpected reaction to a product) and once you’ve determined what’s a go, bring your samples with you! I especially love to bring sample highlighters, blushes or bronzers so it doesn’t change up my routine too much.

The Best Travel Beauty Products

When packing my makeup and skincare products, I like to stick with trusted, tried-and-true products so I don’t have to worry about any makeup malfunctions or breakouts while traveling. While I love, love, love to try new products, I don’t want to risk it while traveling, so I still with the basics. Below is my checklist of products that you just can’t go wrong with (you’ll see quite a few of cult-classics plus some of my personal favorites!). I have also noted which products I buy travel size for. Whether your skin is quenched after a long flight or congested after a hot day outside, I’ve got the products to keep you covered!

Makeup in My Travel Bags