My Travel Makeup Essentials

As a makeup enthusiast who prefers to wear makeup even on her travels, I know how hard it can be to carry all the items around. I have been a victim of broken eyeshadows, cracked blushes, tubes getting dirty from other makeup powders, the works. Moreover, it’s hard to carry heavy makeup! My main kit is 2 kilos in itself (about 4.4 lbs). That’s impractical to lug around when you’re hauling luggage onto buses and trying to keep your bags as light as possible. In this post, I highlight all the makeup holy grail items I take with me on my travels. The best part is, it fits into a single, small travel makeup bag. And, I can even do a full face with it!

Base Products

Foundation: I like to keep it simple and affordable. For that, the Wet ‘n’ Wild Photo Focus foundation is the best. It glides onto the skin and doesn’t dry it out, which is perfect if you have a long day of traveling ahead of you! I have normal to dry skin, which is why this foundation suits me well. The packaging is also small and stocky (unlike the Maybelline Fit Me in the same price range) which slides into a makeup bag of any shape. I also like carrying bottles instead of tubes because they’re less likely to leak everywhere.

Concealer: I usually choose between the Maybelline Age Rewind and the Glossier Stretch concealer. I like that the Glossier one is small and easy to carry, but the Age Rewind is definitely my choice for most days. The Glossier concealer is more natural, which is perhaps not the look you want when you’ve pulled an all-nighter traveling from one place to another. If you’re in Europe, you’re likely to be traveling between countries, and you’ll need a pick me up. The Age Rewind concealer does the trick very well: it won’t matter if you’ve had four hours or eight hours of sleep. You’re going to be looking fresh as a daisy with it on. Combining it with a coffee also always helps.

Setting powder: Carrying loose setting powder is a chore, because it gets everywhere. Everywhere. A compact setting powder is a safe product. It fits into a small bag and also keeps your under eyes crease-free. Sometimes, I find that loose setting powders settle more into my fine lines. A compact one like the Rimmel Stay Matte is reliable and keeps your skin smooth.

Brushes, Bronzer and Highlighter

Brushes: The brush you see in this picture is the only face brush I carry, apart from my Beauty Blender. It’s a double ended Tarte brush. The white fluffy end is used for bronzer, while the dense darker end is used for setting powder. I don’t powder my whole face, so a small brush like that helps. I only need to apply it where I’ve put concealer (otherwise I tend to look a tad bit cakey). Foundation and concealer goes on with the makeup sponge, of course. If anything, I’m proof that you don’t need to have a million brushes with you to have a great makeup look going.

Bronzer: There’s no preference here as such. I’d suggest that you take a bronzer which isn’t too big in size, and that’s about it. Powder bronzers over creams, of course, the creams are just messier while traveling. The one I’m currently using is a Sephora bronzer. I also choose bronzer over blush, so I don’t carry any blushes with me when I’m out and about.

Highlighters: Mini sizes, like the Fenty Beauty one in the shade Hu$tla Baby you see in this picture, are your friend when it comes to travel makeup. You can use your finger to apply the highlighter (no brushes needed!). But if you’re looking for something which will truly glide on without any brushes, you need to add a satin-finish or almost wet-looking highlighter to your travel makeup bag. The Colourpop Super Shock Cheek highlighters are great for that purpose. The one pictured here is the shade Off Tropic. It has a champagne undertone and feels a bit like putty. It’s really fun to play with and looks great on the eyes as well. As it’s a universal shade, it works with any look, so you’re killing plenty of makeup birds with one stone.

Eyeshadows

Brushes: I just carry a Morphe fluffy blending brush with me, and use the small one in the Milani palette to buff out shadow under the eyes. A blending brush is your closest companion regardless of whether you’re travelling. Once you’ve put a transition and crease shade using the blending brush, you can use your finger to tap on some shimmer and you’re good to go. A complete eye shadow look that requires no pain, but has all the gain. If you’re in a hurry to go somewhere, just using this method is great, and you’ll reach where you need to be on time.

Palettes: No big palettes. Repeat after me: no big palettes. I know it feels really bad when you leave all the big, beautiful eyeshadow palettes back home. But you don’t need them. You need to save time, space, and be practical about your travel makeup requirements. Taking two small ones – one which offers a nude look and one which has some colour in it is all that you should carry with you. The Milani Everyday Eyes palette is wonderful for its nude and brown shades, and that pop of orange for when you feel like it. The Huda Beauty Mauve Obsessions is pigmented, colourful, and has a great transition and a cut crease setting shade as well! Both palettes offer a perfect mix of both mattes and shimmers.

Eyes and Lips

Eyeliner: Most eyeliners are easy to carry, unless you’re into gel eyeliners. Personally, felt tip eyeliners are the perfect travel makeup. Pictured here is the Wet ‘n’ Wild Felt Tip Eyeliner, which is supremely black and doesn’t smudge one bit. I also love the Ink Liner from Kat Von D, which doesn’t dry out as fast as the Wet ‘n’ Wild one, but it’s slightly larger in size.

Mascara: My favourite mascara is the L’Oreal Lash Paradise. Like many others, I bought it after Tati on YouTube raved about it, and I’m already on my second purchase of it. I also love the Lash Sensational from Maybelline, but the brush for the L’Oreal one is much nicer. The one I have is also waterproof, so it’ll keep your lashes curled and last all day long!

Lips: The idea for lipsticks when it comes to travel makeup should be the same as eyeshadow. One nude one: the NYX Lip Lingerie in the shade French Maid is amazing for brown skin. And, one bright and bold one: the MAC Flat Out Fabulous works very well when I used the Mauve Obsessions palette. The MAC is what I’m wearing on my author profile picture on this blog! The picture was taken when I took a weekend trip to Bordeaux from Paris.

The Ensemble

My Beauty Blender is missing from this final picture because it was too dirty to get involved in the travel makeup photo shoot. These are the only products I travel around with, all fitting in a small camera frame. The one thing to keep in mind about travel makeup is that you should only carry things that you’ve tried before, even packaging aside. You don’t want to be in a new place and be halfway through getting ready and realise that a new product looks hideous. Even worse, when you’re supposed to be out of your hostel or AirBnB in 15 minutes.

I don’t have a post about Bordeaux yet, but I have plenty of Paris already put up: you can check them out here. If you’re interested in any of the products for travel makeup mentioned, you can click on the links provided in the post to get them.