I like to think I’m a minimalist. Or at least I like to think that I’m TRYING to get there. (Spoiler: she was not, in fact, doing much to achieve this goal). As it is, my travel makeup bag has shrunk a good deal in the past two years. When I’m traveling, I tend to gravitate towards smaller, lighter products and often ones that can multi-task. I’m visiting home for two weeks, so keep reading to see what I’m bringing along.
The Face:
I tend not to use foundation or even tinted moisturizer because my skin runs fairly oily and I still haven’t found a product that doesn’t end up looking cakey on me, so I’m just bringing my Milk Makeup Blur Stick and Glossier Stretch Concealer. The blur stick is great for oil control and evens out the tone of my skin a little. The concealer is quite bright and dewy so it’s great for areas like my under-eyes and around my nose, but it doesn’t do much for coverage. Which is fine for me, because I don’t really look for that in a concealer. I’m also bringing Glossier Cloud Paint in Dusk, which I use under my cheekbones to accent them, and my Glossier Haloscope for highlight. Although I generally use a bit of powder on my T-zone for oil control, I decided not to include it in my travel bag.
The Eyes:
For my eyebrows, I’m just using my all-time favorite brow product: Glossier Boy Brow in black. It grooms and fills brows at the same time, which is great for people with sad brows (me) and people who don’t know how to do their brows (me). For eyes, I’m bringing the Jillian Dempsey Lid Tint in bronze, which is a sheer yet buildable cream eyeshadow. I also use cloud paint as eyeshadow, when I’m feeling a slightly peachy/brown eye. My eyeliner situation is a bit strange. I haven’t found a single eyeliner that stays on my eyelids longer than two hours—gel, liquid, or pencil (even while using the Smashbox eyeshadow primer). What I did discover was that layering a liquid eyeliner OVER a pencil eyeliner somehow will last me through the day. So, much to the annoyance of my trying-to-be-minimalist-self, I’m bringing two eyeliners with me: a kohl liner by Jillian Dempsey and the Stila All Day liquid liner. My mascara is the Too Faced Better than Sex, which has very bulky packaging. But it’s such a good mascara that I don’t care.
The Lips:
For lips I’m just bringing my Glossier lipstick in Leo, and the Cherry Balm dot com. These can be worn separately or together to create more intense looks or more natural lips.
And of course everything fits neatly into a Glossier pink pouch, which I really love using when I travel because it’s like I bubble-wrapped all my makeup. It fits quite neatly in my carry-on and I don’t have to worry about anything spilling or breaking during my flight.
So, there you have the ten makeup items I bring with me while traveling. I think I’d still like to downsize a bit, though everything fits pretty neatly into one bag so I’d be happy either way.
–Ella Liu
novelnests.com 