Travel makeup and brushes packing tips and inside my cosmetics bags

By mid-next week, I fly to Doha, and I can't wait, mostly because it is well over a year since I last travelled abroad, and I don't like gathering moss, as it were. Anyway, about packing makeup, skin care and toiletries while travelling. I've just begun packing for my trip and thought I'd share my doings.
First, you need to choose a cosmetics bag for travel. Or more than one. There are plenty of good travel makeup bags out there. Picking one depends on the duration of your travel and whether you want one bag for everything. I say yes to the latter and I'll be away for 12 days. So, if you're not a very light traveller who makes do with one gloss and a BB cream and a toothbrush, don't take along a coin-pouch for your makeup. Here's my tip - choose a travel makeup bag with separate compartments for skin care, toiletries and makeup and even smaller compartments for brushes, including toothbrushes.

Here are my travel makeup bags:

First up is my Thirty-One Cosmetics Grey Poppy Quilted Bag. I picked this up from LookFantastic when they had an offer going. This is my favourite travel bag, but I won't be taking it along next week as I'll be buying makeup from Sephora and Boots, and won't need to take along so much!

Have a look at that gorgeous grey poppy quilting. This bag is super-soft and has compartments everywhere and for everything. There are separate transparent pouches for makeup, skin care and toiletries, just as I wanted. This is absolutely made to order. I keep the biggest of the pouches for my travel-foundations, lippies and eye liners. Just like my stash, there's a mix of drugstore and high-end makeup, from Bourjois and Natural Collection to Shiseido, Estee Lauder and Chanel.
Must-haves in my travel makeup bag are the Shiseido Sheer Mattifying Compact in O40 (black rectangular compact to the bottom right) and Chanel Rouge Double Intensite lippy in Rose Garnet (top right black box). These will be coming with me, no matter where and how, and I have plenty of back-ups.

 

The Thirty-One Cosmetics Bag also contains separate elastic inserts for brushes, eye pencils and a toothbrush. I've squeezed in the Real Techniques eye brushes, which I don't like, and an emery board and the MUA eye primer as well. This section is protected by a transparent plastic flap, so your brushes won't be damaged. Clever!

And there is a compartment just for palettes! I've just unpacked from my antiquing trip so you only have the Sleek Contouring Kit and the Bourjois Smoky Eye Trio in Vert Trendy. I tell you, this travel bag has enough room to house a Scouts camp.

There are nifty zipper compartments everywhere to sneak in blotting paper and eye creams and feminine hygiene products.

In the other large zipper section, you have two more, smaller, transparent pouches - I keep skin care and toiletries here, including dental floss and toothpaste!

More sections to store wet wipes, detangling combs, tissue, sachets and whatever else you feel like lugging along.

Next up is a new makeup bag and I'm going to be taking this one along with me next week - it's from Debenhams and doesn't look as luxe as the Thirty One Cosmetics Bag, but is roomy enough, nonetheless.

I love the bright design on the Debenhams cosmetics bag - it is a trifle smaller that the Thirty-One Cosmetics Bag. Inside, you have two large sections - one for makeup and one for skin care and bath. There's also a fold-away purse that can hold sachets, band-aids and your medication. You can stash away pre-packed brushes like the Too Faced Essential set (reviewed) or the Eco Tools set in here, since both have separate external packaging, but there isn't anything separate for brushes. There's another zipper outside for more sachets and a comb or hairclip.

Oops, please forgive my PJs for sneaking into that picture!
The next one has nostalgic value though I don't use it except for overnight or weekend-only trips. I had owned a Gillette Kit pilfered from my Dad who kept the contents - it served me well for 15 mostly  non-makeup-loving years before it fell apart last year. So I cleverly gifted Dad another Gillette Kit and quietly nicked the bag once he was done with the shaving cream and stuff. There are just three compartments; two small ones at the sides for tiny bottles and tubes and a larger one for everything else. But very handy for a weekend away!

I've never used this Benefit cosmetics pouch I got for my birthday to store makeup, but I use it to keep extra tennis balls, since I can never find the fiddly things when I want them (speaking of which, I haven't seen either of my racquets after the summer....)! It's a cute pouch, though I doubt it is practical enough for my travel needs. Please click on the pictures to enlarge them.

How to pack your makeup brushes while travelling:

For those who love keeping their brushes separate and not in one haphazard makeup bag where you have to dig every morning, separate brush pouches are a must. I haven't invested in these, since I have a few brush pouches which I received as gifts with purchase from Bourjois, Max Factor (now MIA) and Revlon. Of these, I love the Bourjois brush pouch as you can roll it up and stash it between the t-shirts and the PJs, or stuff it into one of the larger makeup bags.

I'm going to be taking along this pink brush pouch from Bourjois with me next week, and it contains my Beautyblender Pro (reviewed) in a little case (came with a Clinique lipstick my aunt gave me) and my Beautyblender Detailers brushes (previewed). Since these are the only applicators I am currently using (and will be using for a long while), this pouch is all I need, and there's enough room for more lipsticks and things. 

For those who don't like their brushes rolled up, there's Revlon's purse-style brush pouch which has separate sections for six brushes on the flap, and a little mirror, apart from room for storing three or four Sleek eyeshadow palettes :) All my brush pouches were gifts with purchase and are at least two years old.

Coming soon: What I pack into my travel bag - the makeup I will be taking along in the Debenhams bag and Bourjois pouch for my 12-day trip. Stay tuned!