We love specialty travel kits, and many brands – both high end and budget – offer a collection of beauty essentials made for travel, among them Mac, Cake and Dermalogica. These kits include tiny takes on a brand’s most popular products, sometimes adapted to suit travel tired eyes, weary legs or plane-parched skin. However for those with special beauty needs, these kits can prove tricky, missing out that one bottle that makes your skin zing or your hair shine.
If you’re dedicated to your regular beauty products there’s no better solution than some good old-fashioned decanting. Travel sized plastic bottles can be picked up for just a few cents in local pharmacies, Target or Walmart stores. Fill these with your usual creams and lotions and label carefully before you pack in a waterproof toiletry bag for home-style skin and hair care on the go.
Streamlining your beauty regime is important when traveling. Not only are you limited by what you can fit into a suitcase and your baggage weight allowance too, but you’ll need to consider whether your usual products will do the job in a different climate. For example, if you’re traveling to sunnier climes will your thick winter face cream be redundant? Could you dump the face powder and foundation for a light tinted moisturizer? Will a leave in serum do the job for your ‘do instead of a mousse or spray?
Being prepared for the journey as well as the holiday is vital too, especially when you’re going from A to B by airplane. Air travel is notoriously bad for beauty so being prepared to do battle with the dry air and bacteria of the jumbo can keep you fresh well into your holiday. Slather on a moisturizer and have a lip balm to hand, skip the heavy make up and use an anti-bacterial hand rub throughout the journey to help stop the transfer of germs from the plane interior to your face where they’ll cause holiday breakouts.
When traveling, nails, hair and make up are easily wrecked in crowds, humidity and while dragging luggage around an airport. Make life easy with a pre-holiday trim to keep hair smart, keeping make up to a minimum and swapping your usual bright nail polish for a neutral manicure in pink, beige or simply ending with a high shine buff. Chipped nails are a no-no while an expensive looking manicure could get you that upgrade you crave.
During a flight and while on holiday, it’s important to drink plenty of water to keep skin firm and plump, eyes bright and hair glossy. Keep working on the foundations of your beauty regime while you’re away and you should be able to minimize make up and products, rocking an au naturel beauty as you relax.
