If you've read some of my previous blog posts, you'll know that I travel quite a lot as I am in a long distance relationship. I live in England and my boyfriend lives in Ireland, so I fly over to stay with him a few times a year. Trying to pack all my necessities into one small carry on suitcase is rather hard! But one of the hardest things to condense has to be my make up and beauty items. As you will probably know, I use LUSH a lot, every single day and I have a lot of it. As I only take carry on luggage, I'm limited to how much I can take, in ml and in amount of products. It is rather annoying, but I don't want to pay £40 to have a larger case and then have to wait for it when I get of the plane. After travelling for three years, I know what I need and what I miss if I don't have it, so I thought I would share with you all my travel must haves!
Zoella Beauty 'Zoella Midi Cosmetics Bag' - £9
All beauty products need a really nice make up bag to live in and I couldn't resist this little beaut after seeing Zoe show all her subscribers her new additions to the original collection. This bag is a perfect size for travelling and fits my necessities in perfectly. The material is really nice and the pattern is to die for! I love it!
Figs & Rouge Avanche + 'Mattifying Emulsion' - £24
I've only been trying out this product for a couple of weeks and I already really like it. This primer is like no product I've used before. I'm used to primers having a silicone texture or feeling like a cream, but after you have applied this emulsion as they call it, it leaves a feeling on your skin, kind of like a tight face mask. I quite like it, it's really different from anything I've ever used before and it really does help to stop my make up dropping off my face during the day. I'm going to keep trying this out and let you all know the long term effects this primer has on my skin.
Kat Von D 'Lock It' foundation - £27
As soon as this foundation came out, I heard nothing but raving reviews about it. I heard the coverage was amazing and that this foundation stayed on your skin without bunching and falling of your face. The only downside is that it's guess work picking your colour. I went for Light Cool but I think I should have went for Light Neutral. I like the build ability on this foundation and how it applies with a blender. This has became my holy grail foundation, but not a one I wear every day, it's a bit too much high coverage to wear on a daily basis and I'm trying to take better care of my skin, so clogging it with a load of high coverage foundation isn't the best thing for it!
Essence 'All About Matt' translucent compact powder - £3
I bought this compact on a whim as I can't seem to find a good translucent powder that I really like. I was it was only £3 and thought that wasn't too much to loose if I didn't like it. To my surprise, I love it! I dab this powder on to set my foundation and concealer and it helps to make it stay put all day. It's a light powder that doesn't clog and also helps to make your skin feel nice and smooth.
Sleek 'Face Form' contour palette - £10
This palette is perfect for travelling! I find that most bronzers are pretty large, and therefore not travel friendly. This compact is great as I can grab my bronzer, blush and a highlight all in one. I love the bronzer for contouring, it's a really good colour for chizzling out those cheek bones. I like the blush, although I would prefer a lighter shade as I like more baby pink cheeks and I do like the highlighter, it's not as dazzling for me as I really like for the cheekbones, but it looks lovely to highlight the nose and brow bone. Overall, this palette is great for needing everything in one place and the colours all look lovely together.
Sleek 'Shimmering Solstice' highlighting palette - £10
Now this, is highlighter as I like it. Bright, bold and blinding! This is the best highlighter palette I own, the colours are stunning, which you can see here in a previous blog post that I dedicated entirely to this palette. This is a great palette to travel with as you get three powders that you can use on any kind of make up style. I don't really reach for the cream version, but I might start trying to incorporate this product into a make up look.
Urban Decay 'Primer Potion' - £17
I have never ever used an eye shadow primer that I like more than the Primer Potion. I have tried multiple drug store primers and the Too Faced Shadow Insurance. Literally, none have even came close to comparing to this one. I have had tube after tube of this total necessity! I won't even bother to wear eye shadow if I've ran out of this as I just don't feel like the intensity is good enough, If you pay a lot for your eye shadow, I couldn't recommend this product enough!
Urban Decay 'Naked 3' eye shadow palette - £39.50
And following on from the previous item, I love using these pink and smokey shades on top of that primer. This was my first high end buy and I have never looked back! Nothing beats an Urban Decay eye shadow, the colours are amazing and used on top of their primer, the pigmentation is unbelievable and the stay power is amazing. This is my favourite Naked palette that Urban Decay have released as I feel these eye shadows really compliment each other well and you can create so many different styles with this palette.
Kat Von D 'Ink Liner' - £16
This product has changed my life forever. I am a winged eye liner kind of girl and if I don't have my winged eye liner on, I look weird. I've had comments asking,' Are you feeling okay?' and the old, 'You look different today?' questions when I'm not wearing my liquid eyeliner. I have tried and tested so many different liquid eye liners. I've tried pots, gel liner, brush liner, felt tip liner.. I've tried so many and I just couldn't find my holy grail liner, till now. I bought this liner by accident, I actually meant to buy the Tattoo Liner, not the Ink Liner but tried it anyway as I couldn't return it. Usually, when I'm at work, by 10am I have black under my eyes and a semi circle of liner under my eyebrows. I am not even joking, it's 9pm and I've had this eyeliner on since 7am, and IT'S STILL IN PERFECT PLACE. There's been no smudging, no flaking and no breaking up. It's amazing!
Anastasia Beverley Hills 'Dipbrow Pomade' - £15
For years I used powder brow products after trying a brow pencil once and bring scarred for life. I'd heard a lot of good things about the Dipbrow Pomade by ABH, but I didn't realise just how good this was till I tried it myself. I love how I can carve out my brows really precisely with this product and the colour is perfect. This product also lasts forever, I don't know how long it's going to take me to get through the whole pot, it'll probably dry out before I get round to emptying it!
Too Faced 'Better than Sex' and 'Better than Sex Waterproof' mascara - £19.50 each
I hate that I still use this product. If you've read my previous post about Too Faced and how I used to love this brand but since they sold themselves to Estee Lauder I refuse to purchase their items. I haven't purchased these since they sold out, I already had a back up of each of them. I just can't find a good cruelty free mascara! I tried a NARS one and it felt like my eyelashes were literally bring scratched out. I haven't loved a mascara as much as I loved Rollerlash by Benefit, but I just can't brinf myself to buy it as they aren't cruelty free. If anybody has any cruelty free mascara recommendations, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
Kat Von D 'Everlasting Liquid Lipstick' - £17 and NARS lipsticks - £21 each
I always travel with a great collection of lipsticks. Nude lipsticks of course! I actually really love purple lips, and Reece likes it on me, but just doesn't like that I won't kiss him if I have it on, so I just take a few of my nude lipsticks with me when I travel over. All the NARS lipsticks are sheer or satin and do provide a touch up during the day, but they leave your lips feeling very moisturised and healthy. I recently got the Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid lipstick and I really like it! It feels light weight on the lips, drys down completely really quick and doesn't feel sticky. It stays on longer than most liquid lipsticks, but not forever!
Urban Decay 'De Slick' setting spray - £10
I gave into the setting spray hype a couple of years ago and bought a bottle of this and really liked it. It wasn't till recently that I started buying it again and remembered why I liked it so much. This spray really does help to keep your make up on and also smells amazing! If you have oily skin like me and your make up starts to slip throughout the day, I would recommend trying out this setting spray, spritzing it over your face once you have completed your make up to lock your face on for the day!
LUSH 'Enzymion' facial moisturiser - £14.95
I love this moisturiser purely because of the way it makes my skin feel instantly after I use it. As soon as I have applied this to my face, I can feel the instant matte feeling, which is a total god send for me and my oily pores! The scent of this moisturiser is also gorgeous, as is all LUSH products! I do want to try out some of their other moisturisers, but I'm really loving this one at the moment.
LUSH 'Let the Good Times Roll' face cleanser - £7.25
My ride or die cleanser. I've been using this fresh cleanser for a couple of years now and I absolutely love it. I take a small chunk in my hand, add a teeny drop of water and mix till a I get a thick paste. I then rub the product in circles into my skin, exfoliating and cleansing. I focus on my forehead, nose and cheeks and it really gets into those pores and cleans them out. The scent of this product is to die for and I have been requesting for years that LUSH bring out more products in this scent!
LUSH Tea Tree Toner Water - £4.75
This is a product that I haven't used in a while, but as soon as I grabbed a fresh bottle I fell in love again! I love this for spritzing on my face after I've taken my make up off to refresh my skin or spraying on a no make up day to give my skin a bit of a wake up. This is a must have in the summer months as the tea tree oil will help with unwanted spots!
LUSH Bubbly shower gel - £4.95
I always take a LUSH shower gel over to Reece's with me as I can use it to wash my hair and my body, hi multi purpose! I can take this one and leave it there till next time I'm over as I have two 100g bottles of Bubbly and a 500g, so I have plenty here at home! This shower gel was released for Christmas 2016 and smells like light oranges. It's a gorgeous scent and leaves your skin feeling super clean after washing with it!
LUSH American Cream hair conditioner - £5.45
Another holy grail product! I could not live my life without my American Cream. I am so in love with this product! After years of colouring my hair and spending hours curling and straightening it, I've let all the colour grow out and I've started to appreciate my natural wave instead of trying to create perfect curls. This product has helped keep my hair super super soft and smelling amazing thoughout this process. I never though I would ever like my hair as much as I do after using this product, it's a heavy conditioner but doesn't weigh your hair down. I find it helps to tame my frizzy bits and keeps my curls looking cute! The best thing about this conditioner has to be the scent, American Cream smells like strawberry milkshake and I love it! I need everything in this scent, a perfume, a shower gel, a shampoo!
LUSH Kitchen '29 High Street,' 'Honey I Washed the Kids' and 'Snow Fairy' solid perfumes - £9 each
I like travelling with solid perfumes as I don't have to squeeze them into my tiny plastic bag that I have to hand over at passport control as they aren't liquid! This is a great travel hack that not many people know about. When I get it out and start rubbing on my wrists, I''ve been asked before, 're you applying lip balm to keep your tattoos vibrant?' and I always get a funny look when I say no, this is perfume! I love all three of these scents, 29 High Street being a depiction of what the store smells like as soon as you set foot in them doors, Honey I Washed the Kids being a sweet honey scent that you can get in many forms like soap, shower gel, baths bombs and more! And of course, LUSH's most famous scent, Snow Fairy. The infamous scent that drags everybody into LUSH during Christmas and reels them in for years and years to come!
This may seem like a lot, and it kind of is.. But this is nothing compared to my entire make up and LUSH collection! I'm going to need a beauty room when me and Reece move in together!
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**Disclaimer: All views, opinions and photos are my own.**