My Travel Beauty Edit

If you saw my recent packing post, then you’ll know that when I’m planning a trip abroad, interstate, or even just a stay-cation, I like to pack light. My rule of thumb is that it’s carry-on only for seven days or less, and I like my travel beauty stash to be just as carefully curated as my vacation wardrobe essentials.

With my fancy new makeup bag in tow (more on this later…), I thought I’d share my travel beauty edit that I took with my for our trip home to New Zealand. Because I was opting for carry-on only, I had to make sure that all my liquids were under the 100ml mark – a great time to use up any of those minis you have tucked away in your cabinets!

SKINCARE + BODY

My daily skincare routine has become a lot more streamlined in the last few months – I feel less of a need to try new products, and I’m quite content with using the ones that I have and really l-o-v-e-d. I’m currently trying to do a bit of a ‘Project Use It Up’ when it comes to skincare; our cupboards aren’t quite overflowing with products, but I definitely have more than one person needs. Two of the products I’ve been using daily, which I found worked well in both my morning and night-time routine are the Avene Hydrance Intense Hydrating Serum, and The Ordinary Natural Hydrating Factors + HA (also here). I find my skin needs a bit of a boost during the colder months, and these two products both deliver a big dose of hydration.

I actually managed to forget my face wash – nothing you can’t just pick up while on your mini-break – but usually I’d probably decant the Clinique Take the Day Off Cleansing Balm. This breaks down my makeup like no other, it’s very emollient, and is unscented.

One thing I did remember, for removing my makeup, is the Garnier Micellar Water. This is an old classic. I don’t tend to use products like this much day-to-day, but the travel size is really nifty for when I’m going on vacation, and want to reduce the amount of time I spend on my skincare (following up with actually cleansing my skin, of course!).

The final thing I packed was the Rind Concentrate Body Balm from Aesop (also here). This was a gift from one of my lovely girlfriends; I love the rich citrus scent, it’s really thick and buttery, and moisturises my skin really well. The travel size is perfect for holidays too, and I like that I can take a little bit of ‘home’ with me.

MAKEUP

I don’t specifically have any travel sized beauty products at my disposal these days – they’re usually one of the first things that I’ll use up, and as I haven’t really been buying much makeup lately, I haven’t had any new samples come into my life as of late. Regardless of that, I think it’s best to take along your favourite tried and true makeup products when travelling; it keeps your routine constant, and there’ll be no regrets. So, the makeup I packed as part of my travel beauty edit is essentially what I reach for day-to-day.

Starting with base; I don’t like to wear too much coverage, just as I feel like natural skin, with all its imperfections, is beautiful as it is. Instead of applying a foundation across my entire face, I like to focus more on the centre of my face: under my eyes, around my nose, and my chin. My favourite foundation for natural-looking skin has been the La Mer Luminous Lifting Cushion Compact (full review here). This is pretty compact, and it comes with its own cushion applicator, which despite my initial resistance, is actually quite nice to use.

Placing an emphasis on natural looking skin, I chose to pack cream products for my remaining base items. The Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Contour has been my go-to bronzer for much of this year; it has a rich warm hue without any glitter, and I find it doesn’t look out of place on the skin. It kind of gives that glow from within effect. While I don’t wear a blush on my cheeks every day, I do find it’s a nice accompaniment to a bronzer during winter. The Clinique Chubby Stick Cheek Colour Balm is equally lovely, and really easy to blend out. I like to dab this directly on to my cheeks and then blend with a dense brush or with my fingers.

For eyes, I’ve been using the Maybelline Colour Tattoo Eye Chrome as an eyeshadow base, and it’s been working a treat. I normally would have much reason to wear a product like this normally, so it’s been great to break it out on a daily basis. It’s long-wearing and doesn’t crease! One thing I do regret bringing with me is the NARS Narsissist Wanted Eyeshadow Palette (review here); this was a limited edition palette, and is absolutely gorgeous, however I was craving neutral tones the entire trip, and this pulls quite warm. I ended up focusing on a couple of the neutrals and got by, but this really speaks to my earlier point of narrowing your travel beauty edit down to your absolute favourites.

I recently went back to the Maybelline Hypersharp Wing Eyeliner, and I think I’d forgotten just how good this actually is. It wears very well, has a pointy nib, and I love that I don’t get too much smudging at the corner of my eyes. My favourite mascara has been the YSL Vinyl Couture Mascara; this gives me those long wispy babydoll lashes, and doesn’t smudge.

The last two products I packed covered lips and brows. I don’t do too much to my brows, generally I’ll fluff them up and fill in the gaps just a little. I’m not interested in shaping them – I don’t really have enough time, nor the patience for it! The Clinique Super Fine Liner for Brows generally does the trick for me. It’s a fine twist up pencil style product that is slightly waxy. Finally, I decided to pick up another of the YSL Tatouage Couture Matte Lip Stains while in duty free. I was incredibly impressed with the red version, and I wanted something that was a little more muted for every day.

BRUSHES

Brushes can be a little tricky to pack, and I wanted to streamline this as much as possible. I took two eyeshadow brushes; a flat shader and a fluffy blending brush, plus two of my favourite brushes from Real Techniques. One is quite light and fluffy, perfect for powders or dispersing concealer (I’ve found at least..), and the other is pretty densely packed, and my go-to when blending out cream base products.

TRAVEL MAKEUP BAG

I wanted to wrap things up with an honourable mention for my travel beauty case – a transparent makeup bag from The Daily Edited. I’d been longing after the Anya Hindmarch version for a good couple of years now, but the $300+ price tag always put me off. I’m not an overly frequent traveller, so it’s never really made sense to me to splurge that much on something I won’t use on a weekly (or even monthly) basis. So, I was pretty thrilled when I discovered via TheBeautyLookbook that The Daily Edited had released their own iteration. I opted for the black saffiano leather with blind embossed initials, though I think the taupe is also equally gorgeous. This set me back only $80, which I’ll admit is still a lot for something I’m not going to be using all the time, but it feels a little special with the personalisation at the front.

The transparent cosmetics case features two compartments, a large zippered top (perfect for bulkier items and skincare), and a smaller zippered bottom (this has a elasticated section so great for pencil style items or smaller makeup bits), and it measures approx 4.5” by 3” by 8.5”.

I like that it’s roomy enough to fit my entire makeup and skincare edit, while still encouraging me to narrow it down to just the items I love. Being made of PVC, I tried to pack it as efficiently as possible. Sabrina flagged that overstuffing it could possible distort and ruin the space, so I was quite conscious of this and tried to make best use of the space.

What’s in your travel beauty edit? x