Confessions of a Skincare Junkie

Some of my favorite beauty bloggers are engaged in a Makeup War this week about Travel Make-up. Beauty 411 starts the chain of 15 bloggers all writing about what they bring when they travel. It’s a fascinating jaunt and I can empathize with each!

Since I just returned home from a trip to snow country, I can attest to the difficulty of  being organized for a completely different climate and locale.  Also, since I was a conference spouse, this often includes semi-formal dinners and a banquet, so I had to plan for those as well.

My skincare items were covered in a previous post — and although it seemed like a lot, I did use all of them and I did not get dry and cracked skin (except on my feet for a few days).

Here is what I brought for make-up:

Everything in my make-up kit!

I brought fairly compact items — and limited myself to only one palette!  But splurged on bringing pencils.  It turned out to be a good move.  I had brought my beloved Smashbox concealer in a tube, but it burst at the high altitude and so my pencils really saved the day… I’m so glad that 1) I put anything in tubes in plastic snack baggies and the 2) I didn’t bring more tubed items.

The BRTC BB Cream was the perfect consistency for sub-freezing temperatures (it didn’t get above 20F the whole week we were in Aspen!) and low humidity levels. And although it looks a bit dark and greigey coming out of the tube, it practically melts into my fair skin making it look luminous and keeping it hydrated all day.  The Dream Bouncey blush in Rose Petal is a cream formula that I thought would work well in colder weather and it performed beautifully.  The trial size of Benefit’s High Beam was sort of a space-waster in that I only intended to use it once for the conference banquet on Valentine’s Day… but since we were driving, I had the space.

It was very hard choosing just *one* palette to bring, but I finally settled on a discontinued Smashbox set that I found on clearance at Sephora last summer: Be Discovered.  It’s got really lovely soft and neutral colors that are perfect for a more relaxed setting.  I also took it to China last summer. The reflection is from the plastic protector that I still keep since one of the colors is crumbling.

I also brought a sample of Hot House Flower perfume sent to me by the lovely, Tiffany of Cakepie and my favorite neutral lip color: MAC’s VivaGlam A75.

Pencils and brushes and perfume all fit in a hotel glass!

I love the portability of pencils!  I usually bring along my own plastic cup to fit everything in, but our hotel in Aspen had much prettier glasses so I used one of theirs for the week.

The essential brushes: a flat-top foundation brush that I use to buff everything out, a tiny concealer brush to make sure those little corners are covered, a crease brush, a mascara brush which I use to smooth out my brows, a shadow brush, a flat-tip liner brush, and two more shadow or crease brushes. I probably could have gotten away without the last two.

My favorite winter perfume is Princess by Vera Wang.  It also leaked at altitude, but fortunately did not make a mess.

Lippie pencils: 2 by Revlon in Honey and Crush and one by Neutrogena in Fresh Papaya.

L’Oreal’s TruMatch Superblendable Concealer Pencil in N123 is my newest find! I bought it as an impulse purchase at Walgreens (buy one get one half-price) and I’m so glad I did! Since my Smashbox concealer committed seppuku during the drive up the mountains, I really needed a concealer that covered my hereditary dark circles without highlighting puffiness and that lasted all day; this concealer did it all — and it’s not too orange which is a common defect of many drugstore “light” formulations.

ELF’s eye primer.  A steal at Target for $3.  Works like a champ.

Styli-style’s waterproof browliner in Taupe.  Finally a pencil that isn’t too brown, too orange or too dark!

Covergirl’s LashBlast 24-hour mascara in Black.  This stuff really stays on until you take it off!  And I have oily, mascara-resistant lashes.  I try other formulas but I always return to LashBlast…

Urban Decay’s Smoked pencil set in: Uzi (gray), Empire (plum), Mainline (peacock blue), Demolition (brown), Smog (bronze) and Zero (black).  I love these pencils!  The color choice is fantastic and they go on smooth and last all day — even on my lower lashline (if I set them with powder).  I ended up using Uzi, Demolition and Mainline most often. But it’s nice to have choices, especially when they take up such little space.

I had a little withdrawal from my Urban Decay Smoked Palette which I left at home…I missed those deep, rich colors… but I survived and looked just fine without them.

As for other beauty items, I never bring a hair dryer because I usually don’t use one at home, and hotels always have dryers (but not diffusers).  I can always use the hotel dryer in an emergency.  I do bring the DevaCurl travel kit which I know works with my hair better than unknown hotel samples — though I will try them if they look interesting.

I guess my travel strategy is similar to Pammy (Pammy Blogs Beauty) in that I accumulate travel sizes and start packing my travel bag a bit at a time a week before. I try to think about climate and overal dress-code of the place being visited.  Packing for a tropical vacation is very different from a snow trip. And like beautyinfozone, I use a lot of ziploc baggies. I had a major disaster a couple of years ago when a bottle of sunscreen exploded in my luggage… I vowed never to let that happen again!

Do you have a travel strategy for packing?  How do you decide what to bring and what to leave behind?