I used to be an over-packer, now I try to travel carry-on only whenever possible. Does that mean leaving my facial creams, makeup and moisturizers at home? Not at all! In this post I’ll give some tips on traveling with beauty products so you can be beautiful all while staying within the allowed liquids limit for carry-on luggage.

Plenty of online retailers and other stores sell reusable 100 ml containers to fill up and take with you when traveling. They’re ideal if you want to keep using the liquid creams and shampoo you’ve been using for years without having to lug around those big bottles and tubes.

It might not even be necessary to buy those travel-sized tubes and bottles if you plan on staying at a hotel. Most hotels offer complimentary toiletries and those toiletries often consist of tiny bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. If you know that you’re going to stay at a hotel that offers those, there’s really no need to bring your own. Even more so, you can rinse the empty bottles and take them back home with you to fill them up with your own products for a next trip.

 

The above solutions are great for liquids, but have you ever thought about using solid bathroom products? Lush, for example, has solid toothpaste, solid conditioner, solid shampoo and solid deodorant. These products work just as well as their liquid versions, but the plus is that you can take as many of them in your carry-on luggage as you want. If you really want to cut out liquids, you should also check out Aroma, a brand that makes perfumes that look like lip balms, but that are actually nice smelling “skin balms.”

So, we’ve pretty much covered all the bathroom liquids you’d use to stay fresh and clean, but what about makeup? Of course it depends on the nature of your trip (business or pleasure, to a fancy hotel or to a hostel), but I’d recommend not bringing your entire makeup case. Of the basic makeup that you’ll need, mascara, eyeliner, foundation and concealer could be considered liquids. Think about replacing that foundation with a matte powder, the liquid concealer with a concealing stick, and the eyeliner with a nice eye pencil. That brings your number of makeup liquids down to one. If you’re a lip gloss gal, try going for lipstick or a colored lip balm when traveling. Eye shadow and blush are fine, so if you pack smart, the only liquid makeup item in your bag should be your mascara.

Let’s summarize:

Hygienics: If you can’t miss your liquids, pour them in travel-sized containers. You can buy some or recycle some hotel toiletry packings. If you don’t mind changing products, go for solid. You can find all the necessary items in solid form, which will make traveling carry-on only so much easier.

Beauty: Try to replace your liquid basics by their solid variants. Use an eye pencil instead of eyeliner, powder instead of foundation, a concealer stick instead of a liquid one and lipstick or a colored lip balm instead of lip gloss. Mascara should be the only liquid beauty item in your hand luggage.