Inside My Beauty Travel Bag

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Good afternoon!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was entertaining the idea of traveling to China this spring. Well now it's finalized; I booked my ticket and I'll be in Shanghai, Ningbo and possibly Hangzhou for the next three weeks.

What to bring, what to bring? Three weeks is a lot longer than my typical sojourn, yet I wanted to avoid the crucial mistake of over packing. As I have yet to do a "full" face routine on a trip (time better spent snarfing down street food, from my viewpoint) I decided to skip liquid foundation and blush, but to give myself a nice range of eye and lip colors to suit any occasion.

Skincare. Well, I literally do not leave home without my TATCHA. I absolutely love that they make travel sizes of many products and bought those (the Polished Enzyme Powder full sized jar is rather bulky so I opted to bring sample sized sachets instead) with me. Pictured here: (left to right) Camellia Nourishing Lip Balm, Gold Camellia Beauty Oil, Pure One Step Camellia Cleansing Oil, Luminous Deep Hydration Firming Serum (full sized bottle pictured), Ageless Enriching Renewal Cream, and Polished Gentle Rice Enzyme Powder (packets pictured).

Side note: unlike many companies that make multiple sizes of their products, I've found that pricing for TATCHA travel sized items is right in line with the full sized bottles. Example: the travel Deep Hydration Firming Serum is $33 for 10ml while the larger bottle is $95 for 30ml. Thumbs up from me, as frequently smaller sizes have a huge markup!

This looks like a big spread of makeup... but actually fold up nicely into that small little GWP bag pictured above. I'm bringing: BECCA Ultimate Coverage Concealing Creme, Smashbox 24 Hour Photo Finish Shadow Primer (mini GWP tube), that cute set of BITE High Pigment Pencils and Matte Creme Crayon in Sweety, Anastasia Beverly Hills Powder Duo in Granite, Laura Mercier Artiste Palette for Eyes (2012 version), Sephora 8 Hr Mattifying Compact, Rouge Bunny Rouge Eclipse Eagle and Abyssinian Catbird, and TheBalm Meet Matt(e) Nude.

So I have a weird quirk when it comes to brushes for trips. Actually, not really that bizarre - I just don't like losing things that can't be replaced. So I tend to only bring brushes that are still on the market today and easily re-bought. That's not so strange, right? Left to right: Tweezerman brush from Brow Shaping Scissor & Brush set, Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Dome, Japonesque Concealer Brush, Sonia Kashuk Small Eyeshadow Brush, Sephora Pro Angled #22, Hakuhodo 210, Laura Mercier Ponytail, Etude House Duo Fibre. All housed in a trusty if linty, brush roll.

Misc. I plan on a few rollerballs of scents that wear well when I travel. These are scents that are not super complex and quite light feeling. So far I've packed TokyoMilk Dark Wisdom and Destiny along with Diptiqye Philosykos Oil Rollerball. This mini bottle of 12 Benefits was from Glossybox a few months ago, and it is a wonderful multitasker (smoothing, leave in moisture, detangling, heat protection). Another product that lives in my purse and travels everywhere with me is my beloved hard case Mont Bleu crystal file so that I can deal with broken nails as they come. And trust me, nothing brings on torn nails like a trip.

I'm not planning on any blogging while I'm gone but I can't wait to load up on Asian products and show you what I brought home!

Do you have any particular favorite products that you wouldn't leave the country without?

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