If you’ve been reading my tweets, or following me on Facebook or Instagram you know that I’ve been traveling. A LOT. To be honest, I can hardly keep up with myself lately. Every week it’s been a different city. Traveling a lot should mean I’m a packing expert by now, right? Well, every time I think I got it RIGHT, I’ve gotten it wrong. Take for example last week, when an overeager TSA officer felt the need to rescan my purse three times because I forgot a 1.7oz hand lotion in there, sans clear plastic bag. Jeez.
Image via Shutterstock
Despite the occasional mishap or mistake, along the way I have managed to learn a few helpful tips on traveling, especially when it comes to packing cosmetic items. From the right kind of eye makeup to a helpful way to bring along makeup remover – hello, Q-tips! – I’m here for you. Hope these lessons I’ve learned along the way are helpful to you!
— Make a List and Check it Twice.
I would be absolutely LOST without my packing list! A few years ago a blogger friend (I want to say it was Matt of Prune Juice Media, actually!) recommended I make a packing list that I just print and reuse every time I go somewhere. BEST idea EVER. Every time I pack a suitcase I work from that list, and then I do an outfit itinerary based on my schedule. It’s helped me cut down my packing time by SO much. And just for you, here’s my travel list – uploaded as a PDF. That way you’ve got a beauty lover’s makeup list of your on to work from!
— You Need a Clean Up Crew.
The benefit of being a a Q-Tips Tipster means I get to figure out all kinds of helpful tips for the popular cotton swabs. Here’s one for my frequent flyers! Yes, if you’re traveling you’re going to need to pack your makeup (if you’re into wearing it, obvs). But don’t forget your makeup wipes and removers! When I pack for a trip, I prefer to avoid anything that could result in a spill. That includes many of my favorite makeup removers. So here’s what I do – I pre-package my eye makeup remover by soaking a few Q-Tips Precision Tips in my remover of choice, and I put them in a clear plastic sandwich bag and label them. That way I can remove my eye makeup with no muss or fuss, and that expensive remover stays at home in the pretty bottle. Win win!
One bag contains Q-Tips saturated with eye makeup remover, and the others are saturated with cleansing oil. And this way I can travel with less mess and less stress! Visit facebook.com/qtips to learn more about precision tips.
— Multi Use Makeup Palettes are Your BFF
Packing a suitcase is all about real estate and economy of space. You have limited space to bring the things that will serve you best on your trip. And that’s why I am ALL about multi use makeup items and I absolutely adore a good eyeshadow quad or multi use makeup palette – something with eye shadows that can be used wet or dry, a good bronzer, and maybe even an eyeliner included will save you all sorts of room in the makeup bag. These are a few of my latest faves, and I’ll break it all down in a separate post for y’all. The salient point is, a palette can be your BFF on the road!
— Don’t Forget Your Carry On Essentials.
This might as well be a note to myself…before getting on that plane, make sure your carry on is completely up to speed with all TSA regulations regarding liquids/cosmetics. I thought I was following standard 3-1-1- rules last week when that officer decided to make me an example. Learn from my mistakes. Read the TSA blog for guidelines. And just to be on the safe-not-sorry side, put your lip balms, hand creams, and hand sanitizers in a little clear plastic bag just so you can keep everything separated. Cause you never know when you will run into that ONE officer…
— Save Your Minis
Because I travel often, I wind up staying at all sorts of different hotels. And I enjoy collecting the mini products in each individual chain. Of course some hotels carry better brands than others (hello, Bliss at the W Hotels!) but in general it’s an easy way to have travel sized products for the next trip, and to remember the fun places you’ve been.
Mini memories from some of my last trips!
Those are just a few of my best travel tips. What are yours? I can always use more because my schedule is not slowing down!
This is a sponsored post. Q-tips® product was provided by Unilever, the makers of Q-tips®; my tips and usage suggestions are my own.
have you tried the lotion pellets by Journeysmother? Solid instant body butter pellets!
Great suggestions. The mini hotel freebies especially.
These are all great tips! Whnever I travel for work (which is often) I try to go for “wipes” instead of sprays/liquids whenever possible. That quart-sized bag does not take you far…at all!
Your style is very unique in comparison to other folks I’ve read stuff from. Many thanks for posting when you’ve
got the opportunity, Guess I’ll just book mark this site.
Hello there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be okay. I’m undoubtedly enjoying
your blog and look forward to new posts.
I like to collect travel containers from the Container Store as well as keep sample containers from MAC and Nordstrom. There’s also the website https://www.3floz.com/ that has travel sizes of quite a few products. But I’m also always on the lookout and stock up on anything I find in Walgreens and Target. 🙂 I started making my own list but got distracted and purchased the packing list from the container store, anything that’s not on there I write on the back. http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10024745&N=&Nao=20&Ntt=packing+list
That Q-Tip tip is everything! Thank you so much. What do you do about hair product? Can you ever travel with just a carry-on?
I love cosmetics, you can see my favorites right here
Good to know, great tips, thanks.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really know what you
are speaking about! Bookmarked. Please also talk over with my
website =). We could have a hyperlink change arrangement among us