What's The Best Way To Pack Makeup? 3 Great Ideas to Try

12/25/2019

Everytime you travel you realize you could have packed less, packed better, streamlined some process, or been more organized. It’s a way of constantly assessing and improving yourself and your practices. I actually quite like this about travel. This is even more true when you travel for long periods of time in only carry on bags.

I am trying to figure out the best way to travel with your makeup and related items and here are some things I have tried so far:

The Hanging Toiletry Bag

Most of us have or have seen a bag like this before. It closes with Velcro or a zipper and when you open it there is a little hanger at the top so you can hang it in the bathroom and unzip whichever compartment you need at the time.

Pros of the Hanging Toiletry Bag:

Multiple compartments can keep things organized
One compartment is plastic, perfect for containing liquid items that could possibly leak
Built in hanger is very convenient as you don’t always have bathroom counter space to lay a toiletry bag on

Cons of the Hanging Toiletry Bag:

Bulky for packing - if you are trying to keep everything to carry on only space is at a premium
You still have to pack your liquids seperate if you are flying so you can have them scanned at security

Seperate Pouches within a Packing Cube

This is the system I am testing on my next big trip. In onelong packing cube I am placing a few different smaller pouches. One will have brushes. One has my foundation, contour and blush. One has shadows and liners. You get the idea. In theory if this works, I will get to memorize which pouch has which type of makeup item that I need and they will stay neat and well organized all within the space of the one long narrow packing cube. I can also easily pull this one cube out of luggage and take it to the bathroom at a Priority Pass lounge, for instance, to refresh!

I will report back how this worked after my upcoming travels!

The main advantage that I see is that everything can be organized in potentially a more compact way than just having one large makeup bag and tossing everything in. A disadvantage is that it could be cumbersome to have to open multiple pouches especially if you have a small space like an airport bathroom that you want to refresh in.

The Makeup Pouch

This makeup pouch is actually really cool and I took it with me to Europe and Asia. I liked that you could toss all your makeup in there and pull the string to cinch it closed into a pouch. When you arrive somewhere you just uncinch it and you have all your items clearly visible on the inside surface of the bag.

Pros of the Makeup Pouch:

Everything in one spot
You don’t have to lay your stuff on gross surfaces
Generally a cool idea

Cons of the makeup pouch:

Again, can be bulky because of the irregular shape it cinches into
Some items could get smashed like makeup brushes