What's In My Travel Makeup Bag?

 

I'm really sorry that I haven't kept up to schedule with this blog, but as you may have read from my previous post, something came up. Yesterday, one of my family cats passed away, because he was ill with an inoperable tumour that was progressing quickly. We had to make the unfortunate choice to have him euthanised, but we wanted to do it on our terms, to spoil him with all the love we had first. I had time to come to terms with the diagnosis over the past week, but it didn't make letting him go any easier. It was so hard watching him go, but I'll always remember my last look at those beautiful eyes of his. Even now, 36 hours later, my heart still breaks and I am crying again.

I tried to upload this yesterday, but I had such a hard time even functioning, and Nemo's passing had taken its toll on me. I could barely keep awake, and all I felt like doing was locking myself in the bedroom and crying my eyes out for the rest of the night.

I've got two more days till we're to fly out, and I've been trying hard to keep myself occupied and distracted, but I don't have the slightest scrap of excitement for this trip. I'm trying, I really am. If not for my sake, then for Sean's, after all, he's never been overseas before and he needs to recharge his batteries after a long and grueling first three months of work. However, I really need to get myself into the mood for travel, so this is why I decided to do a "What's In My Makeup Bag" post. Unlike my last visit to Japan, where I only brought some foundation and an eyeliner, I wanted to bring a bit more. While thinking about what I wanted to bring on the trip, I realised that because I wanted to carry this in my carry-on, it meant I needed to limit the number of liquids as much as possible. I didn't need a full face every day, but enough makeup to hide my ever-present dark circles and blemishes, as well as create a fresh-faced dewy appearance.

Face

• Too Faced Hangover Primer (Sample from Mecca Maxima)
• Cover FX Mattifying Primer (Sample from Sephora)
• e.l.f. Studio Maximum Coverage Concealer
• Wet n Wild Ultimate Sheer Tinted Moisturiser SPF 15 in Natural
• essence All About Matt! Fixing Compact Powder
• SAVVY by DB Trio Highlighter
• Milani Foundation in Body Glow (decanted into a small pot)
• Australis Banana Powder 

I'm still in the middle of trying to find my perfect face primer, and so far nothing has worked well with my oily and dehydrated skin, and I refuse to buy new primers just to try them out when getting free samples from Mecca or Sephora is just as effective. It lets me try them out at least a few times to get an idea of how they go with my skin. I picked up the Australis Banana Powder earlier today because everyone was raving about how amazing they were, and after trying it out for myself, I can see why. The Trio Highlighter has a light warm pink blush included, so it saves quite a bit of space.

Eyes

• Cover FX Smoothing Eye Primer (Sample from Sephora)
• essence Single All About Bronze Eyeshadow Palette
• Milani Kohl Pencil
• Milani Easybrow Pencil in Dark Brown
• ModelCo VolumEyes Mascara
• Milani Shadow Eyez in Champagne Toast (not pictured)

I forgot to include the Shadow Eyes pencil in the picture, as I was quickly running out of daylight to photograph these. I really liked how easy it is to apply the shadow to my lids and blend it out, and it can be used on its own, or in conjunction with another shadow for a more vivid look. I picked up the ModelCo mascara at DownUnder Makeup over the weekend, and my goodness, it's almost exactly what I'm looking for in a volumising mascara! I returned my Shadow Insurance primer because I found that it did not last as long as I liked (about 5-6 hours before it started to crease like crazy) so I picked up a sample of Cover FX's primer to try it out.

Lips

• Hurraw! Lip Balm in Vanilla Bean
• e.l.f. Studio Moisturising lipstick in Ravishing Rose
• Klara Cosmetics Kiss-Proof Lips in Passion Pink

There isn't much to say about this section. The Hurraw! lip balm is pretty awesome at moisturising my lips and providing a little bit of a gloss when I'm not wearing any lipstick.

So that's everything I'm bringing with me to Japan. Sometimes I feel like I'm bringing too much, but then I think about how simple or bland my appearance will be without something or other, and then I squash that voice down. Finishing this post has brought back a little bit of that excitement for the trip, so there's hope yet!

What makeup do you bring with you while traveling?