Travel Beauty Essentials

Thanks to Lunchbox for sponsoring today’s post. As always, all stated opinions are my honest and genuine thoughts. 

After traveling to Laguna Beach, New York, Asheville, Colorado Springs, Boca Raton, and Key West in less than a year, I’m finally getting my travel game together. I used to through a bunch of stuff in a bag the morning of my flight and hope for the best, but I’ve learned my lesson. In order to get the most out of your trip, it’s important to plan ahead. While I’m getting better at organizing my trip (and my luggage), I still have trouble arriving at my destination with a socially-acceptable appearance. I’m notorious for falling asleep within five minutes of take-off, so I always depart the plane with looking disheveled and half asleep. To make matters worse, long flights seem to have the magical ability to suck the life out of your skin in only a few hours. No matter how much I moisturize before my flight, I inevitably leave the plane with dry and lackluster skin. I’m currently planning for my next trip, so I’ve decided it’s time to test out a new travel beauty regimen specifically for freshen up my look in minutes after a long day of travel. In today’s post, I’m sharing my favorite travel beauty essentials that help me look and feel refreshed in no time!

I organize my travel beauty essentials into three bags: beauty basics, makeup, and hygiene items. I always start with my beauty basics bag, which includes Dove dry spray, rosewater facial mist, perfume, lip balm, and hand cream. These five items are absolute necessities for trips of any length because they can solve a variety of beauty problems in seconds. My Dove dry spray is my deodorant of choice for refreshing mid-day after a long flight or even after a trip to the gym or the beach. This product can obviously be applied to the underarms, but the light spray formula can also be applied to almost anywhere you feel sweaty. After a long day of running through airports, standing in hot airline lines, and sitting in a teeny-tiny chair next to a smelly passenger, I tend to spray this stuff from head to toe. It’s also great to spritz on your feet. It helps me prevent blisters in non-breathable shoes by preventing excess sweat and, therefore, decreasing friction between my shoes and my feet. In addition to its antiperspirant qualities, it also has a refreshing scent that instantly makes me feel clean and a cool temperature that’s incredibly refreshing. I also pack a mini rollerball of perfume just in case I need an extra dose of fragrance.

While the hustle and bustle of airports can leave you feeling dirty and gross, the high altitude of flights can leave your skin dehydrated and devitalized. As soon as I  step off my flight, I spritz my face heavily with a soothing rosewater mist to add a dose of moisture to my skin. If you’re wearing makeup, this mist can also reduce the powdery, caked-on appearance of makeup that’s been left on for too long. If you’re not a fan of rosewater, no worries; any facial mist will do. Next, I slather on my favorite lip balm to heal the chapped lips I inevitably develop while traveling, and I rub my hands, elbows, and forearms with a dollop of hand cream. Both of these products can also double as an emergency facial moisturizer, cuticle creme, and frizz serum.

I normally wear minimal makeup on travel days. As I mentioned earlier, I fall asleep as soon as the airplane starts moving, so it’s basically pointless to spend time applying makeup. If I have time at the airport or at the end of my flight, I’ll sometimes add a little bit of concealer, bronzer, blush, mascara, and lipgloss to add color to my complexion. If you really want to get fancy, you can use some of these products in more than one capacity. Concealer is brilliant at camouflaging undereye circles and blemishes, but it’s also a great base for eyeshadow and a natural looking highlight for your cheekbones and the bridge of your nose. Your bronzer can also double as eyeshadow, face powder, or brow powder in a pinch. I normally spend about 3 minutes applying this quick makeup look, but it makes me look healthy and wide-awake.

The last bag in my travel beauty essentials kit contains basic hygiene items because let’s face it, airports and airplanes are disgusting. I like to keep a mini toothbrush and toothpaste with me at all times in addition to disposable toothbrushes and dental floss. These items take up little space, but they can make a huge difference in you feel. I also recommend packing hand sanitizer, any necessary medicines, and vitamin C powder to get rid of any airport cooties! Even though they’re not hygiene products, I like to keep my hair elastics and bobby pins in this bag, so that they won’t get lost. I usually keep a travel-sized dry shampoo in my purse to add volume to my lifeless traveling hair, but these hair necessities can help me create a chic up-do in seconds. If you need a few ideas for how to style dirty hair, check out my post on easy second-day hairstyles.

All of these items fit neatly into a small bag in my purse, and I keep my Dove dry spray in the front pocket of my checked bag. Once I arrive at the airport, it goes back into my purse to keep me fresh during the remainder of my flight. If you want to try out dry spray deodorant, check out the selection of Dove, Degree, and Axe products at Walmart. They’re the perfect on-the-go product for your purse, suitcase, or gym bag! Now that you’ve learned all about my travel beauty essentials, I’d love to hear your favorite travel beauty tips. If you have a favorite product or beauty trick for refreshing after a long day of travel, leave a comment below!