Here are the contents of my (cruelty free) make up bag for a two week holiday

I must confess: this is more for my own benefit than anyone else’s. Essentially, as the world’s worst packer, I thought it would be a mighty convenient exercise to take my Italy make up selection and dress it up as ‘content’. That way, I would be forced to undertake this small element of packing earlier than the night before flying, because I would need to make decisions and take photos and such. Whatcha gonna do?

I find narrowing down my options for just about every category of the things you have to pack for a holiday difficult – clothes, shoes, even earrings or nail polish. Struggles of an indecisive person, I suppose; but I’m sure even some of those with a little more capability in the decision making realm than me will be familiar with the desire to have *options* in how they present themselves. It’s somewhat ironic, considering I put basically the same make up on every morning, but the moment I have to limit my choices I get rather flustered: what if there should be an emergency situation in which only a metallic green eye look will do, and all I’ve brought is a palette of neutrals? It’s never happened yet, and I’m not sure I even know what a metallic green eye look is, but you never know.

There’s also the practical element. For two weeks the likelihood is you have hold luggage rather than just a cabin bag, but that doesn’t mean you want your make up to take over the whole thing and occupy valuable space where another unnecessary top could sit. Some degree of control is needed, but when I’m on holiday I also enjoy the process of doing my make up differently than I would at home for evenings in new places. Here’s what I’ve gone for – and as always, everything is cruelty free.

BASE

Sorry to go all sensible on you, but the most important base item I’m taking is the Tropic Tinted Skin Shade* – it’s an spf with a little colour in (I went into more detail about it here), and this is what I’ll be wearing on my face every day. To layer on top of that on some days and for the evening is GOSH Foundation Drops, my everyday foundation which is super light weight with buildable coverage. I’ve limited myself with great restraint to one concealer and chose the MUA Pro / Base concealer; firstly because it’s a great all-rounder for under the eyes, redness and blemishes, and secondly because it’s £2.50 so I don’t mind anything happening to it. I’ve tried loads of MUA concealers before and always regret even considering that one so cheap could be any good, but they’ve finally brought one out that I actually rate.

Because warmer weather means a shinier face and more chance of melted make up, I’ve got the GOSH Primer Plus Hydration* and the GOSH BB Powder, both of which are firm favourites. I’ve also popped in a little sample of the Nude by Nature Radiant Loose Powder Foundation* which I got at an event ages ago but is too dark for me – you know, just on the off chance that my face reaches anything above ‘paper white’, or just to add a bit of colour.

FACE

For my face, I’m taking two new-to-me products, which could be a risky decision. I picked these up very recently on the basis that they are good ‘every occasion’ shades (so I wouldn’t need to take multiple blushes, for example); the ELF Contouring Blush and Bronzing Powder duo in ‘Fiji’, which is a perfect matte contour shade for me and a really lovely matte blush, and the ELF Baked Highlight in ‘Moonlight Pearls’, which is a pretty shimmery-but-not-too-shimmery highlight in a nice little compact size. I tried both for a few days (because it would be really annoying to realise they were terrible once I was away) and I’m impressed so far.

EYES

I’ve gone all out with two eyeshadow palettes, but have justified it because they’re both smallish and very travel friendly. The first is the MUA Soft Suedes palette – a lovely selection of neutral matte shades – and the second is the MUA Rusted Wonders palette, a coppery, shimmery delight that isn’t as everyday appropriate but which I love playing with. I’m also taking the 3ina Eye Gloss*, a really fun product which I was recently sent which I can picture with lots of bronzer, red lips, a sweep of mascara, and preferably a large glass of wine.

Said mascara for this trip will be the Barry M Lash Vegas 2 mascara – I’ve only used this a couple of times, and my review so far would be ‘good but not great’, but it’s the only one I have that isn’t basically finished. The Barry M On Point Precision Eyeliner, on the other hand, is great; very easy to control, so as to limit how much of a mess I can make of the cat eye process. Finally, for brows, is a product I honestly cannot say enough good things about. Eyelure were kind enough to send me some of their products, and the Brow Pomade in Soft Brown* has been such a stand out for me. It’s the perfect ashy shade for hair that isn’t super light but isn’t dark either (many mid shades have reddish tones in them and don’t match my brows), and has overtaken all of my other brow products. It would probably save more space to take a pencil for a holiday, but I love this so much that it just has to come with me.

LIPS

I’m always convinced that a red lip is an essential, so in went a beautiful red in the form of the GOSH Liquid Matte Lips* – my favourite matte lip paints because they don’t make your lips feel like they’re wearing a face mask that could crack at any moment (anyone know what I mean by that?!). A nice nude also seemed appropriate, for which I chose the Nyx Intense Butter Gloss in Tres Leches, which is creamy and has fairly impressive lasting power for this type of product. Finally I went left field with a bold and brilliant pink, since I was also sent the 3INA Intense Lipstick in shade 307* and felt like a holiday was the perfect chance to play with such a colour. I do feel I’m probably missing something here, but there doesn’t seem much point in taking anything else since that something is probably lip balm/bare lips.

Tools

I’m aware that this is getting long, so here are the tools I’m using – please assume that I rate them highly, because as you can see some of them are very well used and loved!

Foundation brush and contour brush (which I’m using for highlight) from the RealTechniques Flawless Base set
EcoTools kabuki brush for powder and blush brush for…blush, obviously
GOSH Contour brush* for which the use is quite obvious
GOSH Slanted brush for eyebrow pomade – these are my favourite duo in a long time
Autograph Dual Action eye brush so that I don’t have to take more than one eyeshadow brush, although I think this will probably be a stretch

And that’s everything! I appreciate that to some people this will be a lot and to some it will be less than they would take (to which I would say; it doesn’t really matter how much make up someone else puts on their face, does it) but all I know is it fits in your average sized make up bag and won’t be encroaching on anything else in my luggage.

What are your holiday make up essentials?

*Products marked with an asterisk are ones which I was lucky enough to be sent by the relevant brand. As always, thoughts and imagery are my own.