What to Pack in Your Travel Makeup Kit

When it is time to go on vacation to do you stare at your makeup and wonder what to pack? Or do you throw everything you own in a big bag and take it all? Or maybe you are overwhelmed and take nothing? Maybe you have one makeup palette and you are sure that is all you need?

It’s a hard thing to figure out exactly what you are going to want to pack in your travel make up case, but I am here to help.

What a makeup artist packs on vacation

I’ll let you in on a secret, I am a jack of all trades and master of none! I was born for the gig generation because I want to do too many things (all of them creative).

But suffice it to say, I am a freelance makeup artist. I work on TV shows, Netflix series, Youtube channels and bridal. I do most of my makeup work in the summer when school is out and everyone ramps up production, so it works really well for me. I have been working on and off for the better part of 20 years, and I know makeup and what you really need and what you just might want.

In fact I have a 2nd website all about makeup. It is Makeup Is For Everyone.

Here are some of my production shots:

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How to organize your makeup and decide what to take on a trip

I actually have a dedicated makeup bag that I keep packed, clean and ready for a trip at all times. That way I don’t have to go through my home stash to figure it out each time. I do rotate lipstick colors depending on the time of year and eyeshadows when I’m bored of the ones in there, but everything else lives in a little bag ready for fun.

(Granted we are traveling at least twice a month during our regular life, so if you travel less, this isn’t a great idea because makeup will go bad before it gets used.)

Makeup in Carry on luggage

The makeup I will list throughout this blog is makeup I put in my carry on luggage. (I mention deporting products for travel in the video above.)

Here is the rule about liquids and travel:

Most makeup items you will bring with you are not liquid and therefore not an issue. The ones you need to watch out for are liquid foundation and sunscreen. (I personally travel with a stick foundation for that very reason!)

If I am flying I usually grab this sunscreen and add it to my liquids bag. If I want a liquid foundation I generally pump the amount I will need into one of these reusable jars.

Everything else….I just pop it in my carry on.

If you want to keep all of your liquids in reusable bag that is sturdier than a ziplock you might love these guys.

Drugstore Travel makeup

Before we get into the nitty gritty, I want to clear the air about the products that I will mention!

There are lots of options for drugstore travel makeup, and I know about some of them. The thing about being a pro makeup artist is that you want to spend money on products that make your job quicker and easier. Generally (though not always) that means a higher price tag.

I don’t want to spend the 15 minutes it will take me to build up a Morphe eyeshadow to a place where I like it. I want to pull out a Lorac palette, a Viseart, or a Natasha Denona palette and do the same look in 7 minutes.  That isn’t to say that Morphe is bad eyeshadow, I am saying that time is money when you are working on a film set.

If you want to save money by mixing in high end with drugstore makeup spend money on eyeshadows and face powders. That is where you will see the biggest differences. Then spend less on your other makeup. (My very favorite foundation in the world is a discontinued Physician’s Formula foundation.)

I use the same principal for my vacation makeup. I don’t want to waste time doing makeup when I could be seeing something amazing, so I tend to carry pro-type brands in my travel kit. I value my time over money in this case. You may feel differently and that is okay! If you have something you love and it makes sense to take it on your vacation, do it!!

How to pack skincare for travel

Everyone knows that good makeup requires good skincare. You can’t get a smooth paint finish on a bumpy wall! The problem with skincare is that it often comes in large packaging or tubes that explode as soon as you get off the plane.

Here are my go-to skincare choices broken down by dry, normal, and oily skin

Dry skin needs all the hydration it can get, and the best way to get that is with face oils. If you struggle with tight dry skin like I do this is seriously a game changer! These are my two favorites, and the brand I use every day.

This is my favorite moisturizer for severely dry or menopausal skin

This is my favorite for dehydrated or mildly dry skin

For normal skin I love this as a light moisturizer that will hydrate skin for makeup

For oily skin this is a must! It gives a little bit of moisture but helps your foundation stay on all day.

Best Sunscreen to take on your vacation

Here are two of my favorites:

This is what I personally use on a daily basis, I love that it is moisturizing as well as non stinging.

This is our favorite if we are swimming as it is waterproof and non stinging. We have used it for years.

 

Best foundation to take on holiday

The best foundation to take with you when you travel is one that is small in size and that you will actually use. Don’t bring something that is fussy or changes consistency easily. If you want a full face of makeup you will need to bring foundation.

 

I only keep one in my travel kit and it is this one:

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I love it because it is super easy to use, I don’t have to pack it in my liquids bag, and it is moisturizing and long lasting. It never spills or makes messes. In short it is perfect for travel. (It’s also a great foundation if you have dry skin, and I use it often in my everyday life. It is a medium coverage and super light weight.)

If you have normal to oil-prone skin I recommend this beautiful foundation:

I keep this in a million colors in my kit, and I rarely have drugstore options there. But this is just that good! It is a medium coverage and it will last from the time you get up in the morning until bedtime. If your skin is only a little bit dry you can get away with this too, but it is much too drying for most dry skin types.

Best eyeshadow to pack for travel

I pack very little eyeshadow with me and always tiny travel palettes. I don’t see the point in hauling around a huge palette that will break and that you won’t use that much. I also recommend higher end eyeshadow for travel. You can change the color payoff by how much pressure you use to apply it and so you can’t get tons of different looks from 4-6 shadows.

Here are the only 2 I keep in my travel kit:

If I could only pick one to travel with it would be the Viseart palette. I have had that in my kit for 2 years, and it isn’t even half gone. Not to mention the pans have never broken, and the mirror makes applying the shadow a breeze.

I know what you are going to say, these are expensive palettes, and they are I know. But these brands perform better than any other palettes I own (I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 different palettes), and they will last you for years.

I used to keep a more colorful palette in my bag, but I never used it!

 

Drug Store eyeshadow palette for travel

If I had to pick a cheaper option for eyeshadow palettes, I would steer you toward a color pop eyeshadow palette like this one:

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It has a great variety of colors and textures and is a great collection that I use at home. It is not as small, nor is the quality as good, but it is a beautiful collection.

 

Face powder that is good for travel

I like to take a pressed powder only when I travel because I don’t want the mess of a loose powder when I am putting makeup on in unusual locations!

If you have oily skin or oily patches this cheap powder is also pretty amazing!

I personally take this with me and only powder very loosely under my eyes.

 

Blush for travel makeup

Blush is one of those things that you either love or hate. There doesn’t seem to be an in-between for most people. I have learned to love it as I have gotten older and more washed out, but if you told me in my 20’s that I would ever wear blush I wouldn’t have believed you.

Pick a very neutral color when you are picking a blush for travel. You don’t want to take something that only works with certain eye looks or lipsticks. I find that peach colored blushes are very flattering to all but the most olive skinned complexions. (Olive skin looks beautiful with an orangey colored blush!)

Here are 2 of my favorite blushes for travel because they come in a small package and work without much fuss.

I love this little mini sized blush! It works well, blends well and the lid snaps closed really well.

Or this Nudestix blush in the color “In The Nude”

This is my favorite blush at the moment, I wear it every single day. I just took a little slice off the top of the stick and put it in one of these

I don’t even need a brush to make this work, I just dab a bit on with my fingers and sheer it out!

 

Eyebrows for travel

You can’t get much smaller than an eyebrow pencil when you think about how to do your brows for travel.

My personal favorite brow pencil is a drugstore one. It matches my eyebrows perfectly, and I don’t want to bring anything more fussy with me. (I wear it in soft black.)

Eyeliner for travel

I don’t take eyeliner with me in my travel case. I don’t see the need for it. If I want to do something like a small winged liner, I can use a dark brown shadow with a little angled brush, or I can use my soft black eyebrow pencil.

If you wear eyeliner everyday and can’t be away from it, these are a few I love to use in my daily life.

If you are new to liner and want something that is really easy to clean up if you ruin your line (and I ruin my own all the time!) this is the one for you.

I love the brush head on this liner. It doesn’t feather into eye wrinkles and it stays put all day. (It does leak when it travels–all liquid liners do because of the change in pressure. If you really want a liquid liner, just pack some extra wipes to clean it up.)

Bronzer or contour?

Our makeup bag is getting heavy! Do you have a special occasion? A lot of pictures where you need to look more chiseled? Are you sure you really need it?

Bronzer and contour are different things that get lumped into the same category (I kind of hate that I am doing it right now!). Contour helps define face shape, bronzer makes you look like you have some color from the sun.

In today’s makeup world a lot of people use them interchangeably. They really aren’t interchangeable, though. For example, someone may apply bronzer under the cheekbones and it looks like a weird orangey shadow, or apply contour on top of the cheekbones which makes them disappear into the face….I’m going down a rabbit’s hole….that’s for a different article!

Bring each of them if you can’t live without them. I don’t unless we are planning on family pics at a certain time of the day that warrants them.

The smallest and best bronzer I can recommend is this

Is it my favorite bronzer? No. Is it a good bronzer? If you have fair skin. Is it the smallest one I know? Yes!

If contour is a must take this guy

It isn’t cheap, but good contour never is. This one blends into your skin like a dream and never looks harsh or streaky. I don’t know much about drugstore contours because I always find them too warm and weird looking, so if you have one that you love let me know!

Mascara options for travel

Mascara is a place that you can save some money and get some great drugstore buys!

I keep these 2 in my pro kit:

This is an oldie but a goodie!  I like to use the waterproof because it helps keep lashes curled better than the original. This will make you look like you have 2 times the lash volume than you actually have.

I like either the waterproof or the original in this one. The brush really separates lashes and lengthens them.

My personal every day mascara is this one:

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My lashes have never looked better in my life than when I wear this mascara. It’s one of the few that looks the same at 10 at night as it did when I put it on in the morning. It is more expensive, but I find that I can generally get it for $10-$15 if I watch Ulta’s sales and Sephora’s Christmas sales.

Best lipstick for travel

I go one of two ways when I travel: I wear a long-wearing lipstick so I can forget about it all day (but I do pay the price the next day with really dry lips.) or I wear lip gloss or lip balm and keep it in my pocket. Generally I alternate depending on how dry it is and how well I am staying hydrated.

If I want to wear a lipstick that will last 12 hours I only recommend one, and it’s a drugstore pick!

There is nothing that I have ever tried that stays on like Maybeline Superstay Lip Ink. I have fallen asleep with it on at night and it has worn through the next day. Honestly this stuff is insane. Plus it isn’t a very drying formula as long as you put on a thin layer. My 2 favorite colors are ringleader and lover. I haven’t found a red of theirs that stays as well as the pinks, but I keep hoping.

If I am wearing a gloss with some color this is my favorite:

This is my holy grail gloss. There is something about it that is thick enough that I can eat with it on and it doesn’t come off. It isn’t sticky and it looks beautiful. I have 4-5 of these tucked in every purse and pocket I own, but the color vintage is my very favorite.

I sometimes wear it with a lip pencil, but it doesn’t need it, and I don’t take a lip pencil in my travel bag.

Best compact mirrors for travel

A compact mirror is a must when you travel. You can never be sure that you will have a mirror with decent light where you stay. I often take my mirror out into natural light or do it in the car if we are in a rush!

I’m a sucker for a beautiful mirror and it make me feel much more chic when I use it.

If you need a mirror with magnification this one is super durable and lovely.

If you need something that can’t break this one is good. (none are as good as the regular glass ones.)

 

Best travel sized makeup brushes

When we first started traveling all the time, I tried dozens of different travel sized makeup brushes, trying to find the perfect ones. I have found that travel sized makeup brushes annoy me. They are too small, and I end up being heavy handed because I can’t hold them where I want to.

I’ve given up on tiny makeup brushes. I have just pared down brushes to what I absolutely need. Even the full sized brushes take up the same amount of room as the collection of travel sized ones I hated and didn’t use!

I take 2 eyeshadow brushes, a tapered brush for powder, a small blending/foundation brush and an eyelash curler. Nothing more.

I use my small blending brush for foundation, a fluffy shadow brush and a detailed shadow brush for my eyes, and a tapered/angled brush to tap on powder or add a bit of bronzer. I use my fingers to apply blush and the lipstick applicator for lipstick.

Here are some of my favorite brushes both drugstore and higher end

Foundation brushes

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Real Techniques makes beautiful brushes that can be washed and take a beating and still maintain their shape and bristles. I like this one quite well, although I don’t like the thick handle!

This is the brush I use to put on my foundation most days. I love how streak-free it is and how quickly it moves product around. It isn’t as resilient as the Real Techniques brush, but it is fuller and softer.

Eyeshadow brushes

Don’t take your favorite most expensive eyeshadow brushes. I have made that mistake before and got my precious bristles caught in a zipper, and it was never the same!

Mid-priced eye brushes

This medium-priced crease brush is one I have on hand in my pro kit always! I think I own 20-30 of them.

It is from an independent company called Beau Gachis.

I love them to build up a transition shade, or do an all over color. They are the perfect amount of flexible and full.

This is the detail brush I prefer

I like that it comes to a point and doesn’t have a lot of wiggle in it.

Inexpensive eye brushes

Once again, Real Techniques brushes are winners! I love this duo.

This is all you need to do a full eyeshadow look. I wish the fluffy one was a little longer and a little more rounded, but you can make it work!

Tapered brushes for powders

The brush I use is a Japonesque brush that is no longer being manufactured. So I will post some similarly shaped brushes by reputable brush makers below.

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I love my It cosmetic brushes and the 2 Bare Minerals brushes I have, so I imagine those will be the same in quality and close in shape.

I haven’t tried any of the new ELF brushes, but I have heard really good things about them.

 

A word about eyelash curlers

Eyelash curlers are a hidden gem in any makeup kit. Curled eyelashes make you look awake, make your lashes look longer and help keep your mascara from clumping up.

Most people who don’t like them haven’t found the right curler. It is really important to consider your eye shape when you select and eyelash curler. I used to pinch my eyelids with the curler all the time before I found my favorite Shiseido curler.

You see, I have fairly large and rounded eyes, and curlers would always come in at the sides before my eyes did, and I’d pinch them every time.

Now I keep 3 curlers in my pro kit.

Shiseido for round or big eyes.

These Tweezermen for Almond eyes

The Shu Umera for deeply set eyes or smaller eyes.

Other travel makeup essentials

Makeup mirror

I use a small round mirror that I bought at a closeout sale at a department store in Canada. But I think I am going to buy this one soon because it lights up!!

Makeup bag

I have used so many different bags over the years, and they all have pluses and minuses. Right now I am using a bag that is padded like this one:

It’s not particularly cute or special, but it is a good size and it wipes down for easy cleaning. Find something the right size and make it work for you.

Makeup wipes

In my every day life I use this guy to remove my makeup

But when I am traveling I do what is easy and keep makeup wipes on hand. These are just the best! Nothing else comes anywhere close to being as gentle or as good.

Easy makeup for traveling

Now that I have told you every last thing you can pack in your makeup kit for travel, here is a word of advice. I tend to be very quick and easy on the makeup when I am traveling. Don’t get me wrong, I love a full glam look, but travel is about the experience and leaving behind the daily grind.

Even though I love makeup it can be part of the daily grind. I tend to make sure I am wearing sun protection, mascara with curled lashes and something to moisturize my lips. Not a whole lot more. Of course, pictures do come up, but I want my kids to see that we were happy all together, not that their mom didn’t have an eyebrow out of place.

As my blog has grown it has necessitated doing more makeup during travel than I did previously, but overall I keep it an under 10 minute process. Today I’m going to show you my under 10 minute makeup routine with my actual travel makeup!( The video is more like 30 minutes because I talk technique and products too much!)

Part 1 of the Makeup tutorial

Part 2 of the Makeup tutorial

I hope it helps all of you to gain some confidence, know where to wisely spend your money, and gain a couple of new tips along the way! Plus it will help you decide what to pack in your travel makeup kit.

 

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Last update on 2023-11-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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