Travel Makeup Essentials

I love travelling, as anyone who follows me on Insta knows. Given, however, that back home in Mumbai we rarely - if ever - wear makeup, deciding what to carry with me when travelling was initially quite the problem. Either I wound up with way too much stuff, or I was missing the essentials and had to wind up buying them. Not to mention, in what form should you carry your products? Powders, liquids, pencils, chubby sticks, the list goes on and on. Over the years, I've learned what's best and what makes a mess. Consider this the starting point of your makeup kit when travelling.

Primers: Not everyone uses primers, but if they are essentials in your makeup kit I would suggest the type that you can squeeze out of a tube or pump out of a bottle. Liquid primers and spray-ons don't always love the highly pressurised airplane cabins and holds. No matter how well packed, if they don't leak into your luggage, you will get half the bottle overflowing the first time you use it in your hotel room. 

Foundation: I am a big believer in powders. First of all, they mattify your face. Always a plus on a holiday in the sun. Secondly, they can be applied in several different ways. Want good coverage? Wet your sponge. Prefer a light dusting? Use a large kabuki brush. It's easy to take a powder from day to night. You can even use it like loose powder to set your makeup. So versatile. The compacts usually come with a makeup sponge, so no need to pack extra items. And let's not forget that you can carry your powders in your carry-on luggage. So if your significant other is meeting you, a quick nip to the loo and voila! You look like a disembarking movie star.

Concealer: If you're one of the lucky few who can afford to skip this step, my jealousy knows no bounds. For those of us who do need it, my advice is those chubby sticks. They cover everything and are very blendable. An alternative is the pump kind, especially if you need to mix a shade or two to get your perfect match. 

Eyeshadows: When it comes to eyeshadows, I say either go with a palette or carry the shadow sticks. If you're particularly fond of a certain type of look, buy a palette for that and carry it. If you opt for the sticks, know that if you carry neutral colours, you can probably skip carry kajal and eyeliners. They're space savers, very blendable and come in some amazing colours.

Highlighters: While highlighter palettes might be bandied about like they're the living end, travelling requires something more concise. I suggest a simple chubby stick in a rose gold or champagne goldfish shade. The thickness means that you can use a brush to apply it should you want to. It also means you can chuck it in your in-flight bag.

Lipglosses, Lipsticks & more: The thing I love most about those super thick lip pencils is that they're so multi-tasking. You can line your lips with them. You can use them as lipstick. And they're so easy to blend, that they double as blush too. It's one of the reasons why I haven't included any suggestions for blushers. I think that a tiny swipe of a chubby lip pencil well blended out is all the blush Indian skin needs. Since most Indian skin tones (both fair & dusky) tend to have yellow undertones (not pink like Caucasian skin) an overdose of blush does scream 'circus clown'. It's better to err on the side of caution, and keep your blush light. If you feel that lip colour tends to be glossier than you'd like on your cheeks, a light dusting of powder on top will make the colour matte.


These are usually all the things that I have in my makeup bag when I travel. I also tend to skip carrying liner and use the stick shadows instead. What are your essentials when travelling? Do let me know!

Till next time,

MumbaiGirl