Given the choice between packing my makeup bag for 5 days away and the 12 Labours of Hercules, I’d take his job any day. Infact, he got off lightly, slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra? Piece of cake. Try choosing between NARS Torrid and NARS Deep Throat. That’s what you call a task.
I’m not gonna accompany the photos with review-type commentary but if you have any questions, shout ’em at me.
Lancome makeup bag
Stuffed!
random hairbands | oilatum natural repair face cream (night) | dermalogica active moist (day) | tweezerman tweezers | qtips for eyeliner fixing | cindy crawford wrinkle smooth (primer) capsules
bareMinerals Original mineral foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Custom Foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Shine Illuminator | Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation | Cosmetics a la Carte Concealer
Benefit Powder Time Lover | Illamasua Rumour Blush | MAC Soft and Gentle MSF | NARS Torrid Blush
Stargazer Liquid Eyeliner in Black | Benefit Eye Bright | Pixi Fairy Light Solo #2 Champagne Glow | Benefit They’re Real Mascara | Smashbox Soft Effects Powder Eyeliner | Elizabeth Arden Quad in Velvet Plumtones | Inglot Freedom Eyeshadow Palette
NYX Hot Red Lip Pencil | Rouge Baiser #405 L’Authentique | Burberry Lip Cover in #16 Claret | Urban Decay Super-Saturated Gloss in Big Bang | Cosmetics a la Carte Lip Gloss in Vanilla | Shiseido Automatic Lip Crayon in LC4
NARS Yachiyo | Sonia Kashuk Duo Fibre Stippling | Trish McEvoy Sheer Blush | Bare Minerals Flawless Face | ELF Small Precision | Smashbow #3 Blending | ELF Small Angled | Boots No7 Eyeshadow | MAC 217 Blender | NARS #12 Small Dome Eye | ProMakeupBrushes #11 Spoolie | Paula Dorf Sheer Crease | Lancome Lip | Pair of filthy Beauty Blenders
Revlon Cuticle Trimmer | Suqqu Brow Powder in Nibiiro | ROC Fold Up Mirror | Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin
.
What do you mean “excessive”? How easy do you find it to pack a ‘going away’ bag?
Gosh! You know what’s impressive? That they all fit into your makeup bag! 😀 I don’t usually use much makeup when I travel so I go with the bare minimum. Its the skincare I have a headache with.
haha, you should know that’s not a ‘little’ makeup bag – it looks innocent enough but it’s about the size of an A4 piece of paper and about 4″ wide!
The rest of my skincare (cleansers and other wet stuff) got thrown in a plastic bag but I didn’t take any serums or body moisturisers
agreeing with Paris B. No idea how you can fit all that in your makeup bag. Hercules can retire, this is more impressive. Revlon Cuticle Trimmer: ooo, I’d to know how to use that! love the look of the Roc Foldable Mirror, particularly interested to know {clonky English to follow} how it opens and if it can stand on its own and you can use folded out on the table and you can see yourself in there. I hope you know what I mean.
loved to see what brushes you took out with you:
– how the heck can you use that Boots No7 Eyeshadow, it’s not shaped properly, feels like a mop, i can’t do anything with it!
– ooo needs to dig my new elf precision brush. it’s somewhere in my box of doom
– love the look of the paula dorf sheer crease!!!
– and yay for your 217. I was feeling self conscious about the colour of mine (having seen makeupsavvy brushes which look so white as if they are new). Mine looks a bit more battered than yours though xx
Did you use to only red lip before or did that stem from wanting initially to wind up Mr L? 🙂 xx
The cuticle trimmer I use to kill horrible hangnails mostly or when the skin at the side gets positively rhino-like, I shave a bit off and moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. Probably shouldn’t but I haven’t suffered any ill effects.
The boots No7 I use as a laydown brush for the lid colour, nothing more!
I like the precision brush for smudging my eyeliner on the lower lashline or softening eyeshadow there, not for concealing.
Yeah, my 217s are all stained!
The only proper red there is the Le Baiser one! The Burberry is a kind of warm rose (the way I wear it) and the Shiseido is a brick shade! xxx
I hate packing, at the time I feel that I’ve covered all bases and it’s gone well but I undoubtedly end up forget numerous vital products. I cannot believe all of that fits into your make up bag! xx
It was a bit of a squeeze as you can see but no seams were burst!
You have such lovely make up items! I love the look of those funky NARS brushes lol xx
The NARS Yachiyo is luverly! I shouldn’t cart it about because it’s a bit delicate but I couldn’t NOT take it – I think I’ve warped the handle a bit :/
I’m not so bad with makeup packing for holidays – lots of eyeliner, a concealer, waterproof and regular mascaras and one Estee Lauder Summer Holiday palette from a couple of years back that covers all the basics and I’m good to go.
Where I get really stuck is ‘prawduct’. I end up carting masks, serums, gels and creams for exfoliating and refining, anti-shine, super-matifying and blemish control as well as sunscreen and super-hydrating night cream ‘in case I get dehydrated’. And that’s just for the face. The body is a whole ‘nother source of hellacious decisions – which scrub? Which body lotion? Gah!
Plus, I’m a perfumista, so I just HAVE to pack half a dozen fragrances just in case I desperately ‘need’ a fix of lavender/musk/oriental/green/chypre/leather…
You can guess that I have luggage on wheels, can’t you? (Well there’s also the shoe habit to reckon with…) 🙂
ooh no I was really good with the other stuff – no serums or exfoliators. I figured I could survive with a microfibre cloth, my cleanser and a couple of sample sachets of DHC cleansing oil + the two moisturisers above.
As for body, I even bought an el-cheapo shampoo from Boots at the station. I don’t think I had any room for anything else once I’d packed the makeup LOL
Ahhh perfumes, well I packed all my Molton Brown sample vials and a couple of perfume oils (those little roll on things). Mr. L would kill me if I even contemplated a shoe habit! x
I can’t believe it all fits into your little makeup bag! I normally take along several makeup and toiletries bags!
It’s amazing how you managed to fit all that into one makeup bag! i find it super difficult to choose what to take with me aswell! What if I needed something and it wasn’t there? So I simply pack all the things that I use on a day to day basis and maybe an eyeshadow pallette. And that’s it!
I’m such a minimalist when I travel. One small bag and that’s it — one each of the essentials (foundation, eyeshadow – usually a very small palette, liner, blush/lipstick, mascara), a multi-tasking brush and that’s about it.
For skin care — one wash, one moisturizer, one sunscreen and any spot treatment I’m using.
I hate packing and unpacking so much… the less I bring, the less I need to unpack later.
That’s not too bad at all. And I’m surprised too how it fits in your make up bag. I usually take one bag for skincare, foundation, powder, eyeliner, mascara and brushes and one bag for colour like eyeshadows, blushes and lip stuff. I hate packing by the way, I have so much stuff, but can only take so much with me, and then I’m scared to take my nice, expensive, limited edition stuff in case they get lost or broken. Nightmare!
This might sound dumb. What is that pink thing in the brushes picture? *awkward*
Not dumb at all, I should have labelled things. It’s a beauty blender – I did a full review here.
http://www.lipglossiping.com/2010/04/my-beauty-blender-trial/
You can also get generic versions. Cosmo does one which gets really good reviews and can be picked up in Superdrug.
I’m ok at packing makeup but wouldn’t take anything expensive but I do take decent brushes and pack them in brush rolls. When I went to the US I put my makeup in my luggage but had my brushes with me in my hand luggage. I’d also recommend brush guards for travelling, especially if you have to pack brushes with the rest of your makeup.
That is some very talented packing! Like ParisB, I tend to pack light when I travel, seeking products that pull double duty, like an eyeshadow that serves as a facial highlighter, and a cream blush that can be worn on the lips. I can pare my skincare down to nearly nothing, but I’d have a really hard time deciding which lip products I wanted to bring and would probably end up taking most of them!
apart from all great stuff i just loved those hot pink foundation applicators they are so adorable
Do you really think you need that much makeup for five days? I’m not trying to be rude here, but it genuinely makes me feel sorry for you.
I’m not trying to be rude here but… *insert rudeness right here*
Lauren/Ellie (see commenter below because you both share the same IP address) – you should direct that pity a little closer to home. You’re a bit more deserving of it than I am.
I absolutrly hate packing – for everything and anything. I used to just chuck everything in, but now I’m more organized but still as lazy haha, I just travel super-light! 🙂
xx
You did NOT fit all that into one bag. I refuse to believe it. Also, that NARS Yachiyo brush is the single most beautiful thing I have seen all day.
@Minza; I think it’s a Beautyblender – it’s for applying foundation 🙂
…and this is why I like multi-purpose products and sleek multi-product compacts!
Ah I see, not a fan of opinions. OK.
You are a classified mental. Please get off my blog.
I wouldn’t say that is excessive at all. I think that is just the right amount. You never know what your vacation could bring, a girl must be prepared, always.
LOL, and I’m like, “you can go on vacation with just one bag of makeup, and not feel naked?!” 😛 I’m ridiculously terrible at paring down and packing light – there’s always one more thing I *might* need!
On a less neurotic note, though, I think you brought along just the right amount. And all the products, of course, look absolutely lovely!
Thank you my lovely! x
Oooooh, nice! I agree with Geek Faerie, I bring around the same amount of stuff. I’d hate to be on vacation and have none of my makeup, so I put as much of my favourites in my makeup bag as it’ll hold. Why travel super-light when you could feel comfortable knowing you’ve got multiple kick-ass options for a red lip instead? Plus you run a freaking popular makeup blog, you have a reputation to uphold! 😉
One thing I always do is put my lotions/washes in a separate waterproof bag, as every time I fly somewhere one tube of liquidy stuff inevitably pops open and gets all over all my other stuff!
I still sob at the memory of my cleansing oil leaking all over my clothes in my suitcase!
Did you actually manage to use all of that stuff? I always find that I pack way too much makeup (more than you’ve got here..but I stick to one foundation and then about five mascaras, three black eyeliners and then my coloured ones and then enough lipsticks to last me two weeks..and that’s not to mention my blushers and highlighters..and eyeshadows. I end up using one mascara, the one eyeliner and one lipstick which is such a waste. I always promise I won’t take as much with me next time but it never works out.
In closing, that Illamasqua blusher, why do you like it so much? Also, will it work on my skintone?
I didn’t use the Inglot palette, the Illamasqua blush, the Rouge Baiser or the NYX Lip Pencil – everything else though, yes!
See the foundations… the CALC one is *really* moisturising and I never know if a change of water is gonna dry my skin out… I ended up wearing that in the day and then the one evening I went somewhere a bit ‘nicer’, I used the Lancome. The BareMinerals I use ontop (lightly) as a setting powder.
I like the Illamasqua blusher as a bronzer, I don’t think it would work for you… it’s really ‘clay’ like, I think it would look ashen and dull on your skin x
You did a fantastic job Charlotte, and I bet you looked amazing every day. Makeup, if done properly, is artistry, and you can never tell in advance exactly what you’ll need to create the perfect look on any given occasion. Taking just a few pieces with you would be like limiting Da Vinci to just red, green and brown paint! When I went on holiday with my daughters a few weeks ago, one of whom is a talented artist and aspiring makeup artist, we took three large bags of makeup to make sure we had exactly the right products to create beautiful looks, whatever we were wearing and wherever we were going (including hiking through forests and across moors).
Of course, people with no imagination or artistic talent may choose to just slap on the same few old products every day, but that tends to be boring middle aged ladies and clueless, inexperienced teenagers who have yet to acquire any understanding of how to use makeup appropriately and effectively 🙂 xxx
@ Lauren/Ellie: You really have no reason to feel sorry for Charlotte. She is beautiful, intelligent, witty, has a beautiful daughter and a wonderful, informative blog that many people, inclusing myself, visit every day. There’s very little that Charlotte doesn’t know about makeup; she’s considered an expert in her field and her opinions are highly valued and respected. Perhaps if you read the articles she publishes, instead of making idiotic comments that just show your jealousy and lack of knowledge, you might learn something worthwhile. Eventually you might even become as accomplished as Charlotte – now that’s something to aspire to 🙂
Love that makeup bag! That Benefit Powder Time Lover is a beauty.
Can I just ask how you use the Benefit Eyebright? I own one but have no idea how/where to apply it! Thanks.
PS, taking credit card to BareMinerals soon for full make-over plus brushes, any recommendations?
Hi Rachel, I use it on the lower waterline to brighten my eyes and on good skin days (when I’m not dry), I use it on the edge of my lower socket line – where the dark circles end and blend lightly inward x
I haven’t been on a vacation long or short enough to require an overnight bag. Even then, I like to buy a whole new set of make up wherever I am… I love to have reasons to shop in another country 😀
Was that makeup bag a Lancome gift with purchase?? It is beyond adorable!! WHere/when did you find it??? I’m just a little obsessed..
Hi Nina, It was! Check on eBay though – people are selling theirs x
Lol, the last time I traveled I was so attentively following the TSA’s liquid rule (I love lip gloss) so I ended up packing several lip balm,lipsticks and tints…all in red…I fail at packing.
*Scrolls down… then back up again*
How the Hell do they all fit in that bag?!
Don’t underestimate how big that bag is… it’s like a mini suitcase 😉
Holy balls, SO MANY PRETTIES ^___^
The husband would faint if I took that!
Then again when we went away this year I took nothing, I took my day make-up bag last year and didn’t wear make-up once, so didn’t bother this year!