The Travelite® FAQ

Cosmetics consumer advocate Paula Begoun (who has authored a number of books on practical cosmetic tips and sells her own line of skin care and cosmetics), recently discussed the topic of how to pack your cosmetics for travel in her syndicated radio show. You can listen to an archive of her show here.

Paula explained that she flies between 150,000 to 200,000 miles per year for her job (since she oversees overseas manufacturing of her products), and that she has a standard regimen she follows when flying. Some of her more handy tips include:

Laying out everything you plan to pack, on your bed – this lets you see if you’re taking anything unnecessary, and also lets you see if you’re missing anything important.

Wearing sunscreen on the plane – this is something most people don’t think about. But when you are flying at 30,000 feet during the day, you are getting a lot of UV rays through the windows.

Wear shoes that expand – Paula talked about all the women she saw in the airport wearing high heels who are in agony because their feet swell when they fly. Paula recommends comfortable stylish shoes from manufacturers like Merrell and Clark, and orders her shoes from Zappos.com (so do I!). She warns against wearing flip-flips because they provide no support.

Wear loose, comfortable clothing – Paula is particularly keen on wearing jersey knits, and mentioned MyShape.com as a great Web site for purchasing comfortable clothes for full figures, and Missook for women with a bigger budget. While I agree that jersey knits are comfortable, I have to disagree with Paula here, because jersey knits are a pain to hand wash. Unless you plan to stay in a hotel with laundry machines, stick with travel-friendly fabrics like “scrunch cloth” from Orvis.

Wear easy-to-remove make-up on the flight – Paula recommends that you go ahead and remove your make-up once you settle down on your flight, using a baby wet wipe, which will take everything off except the stubborn mascara. Once your make-up is off, she recommends keeping your face moist with face cream to combat the dry air in the cabin.

Paula carries the following in her quart-sized resealable bag, which she keeps in her carry-on:

• Nasal decongestant spray (such as Afrin) – this helps you breathe easier and prevents pressure problems when your plane is about to land. If you are tight on room in your quart-sized bag, my suggestion is a nasal decongestant inhaler stick (like Vicks Vapor Inhaler). The stick is the same size as a stick of lip balm, and is a solid. Be careful: Both of these products clear your sinuses by shrinking the membrane, and you don’t want to use it all the time.
• Your favorite fragrance – this makes you feel a little more feminine. Be careful not to spritz on too much; the last thing people like to do is smell strong perfume in an enclosed cabin. Just a dab on your neck will do.
• Your entire full skin care routine, in travel-sized containers – Paula recommends toner, cleanser, moisturizer, etc. for her regimen.
• Travel-sized stick of deodorant
• Toothbrush and toothpaste
• Moisturizer for your hands, like shea butter or cocoa butter – the Body Shop has little travel-sized tins of their Body Butter that is perfect for this. She says your hands will only feel greasy for a short while, but that the extra thick moisturizer will keep your hands from drying out during the flight.
• Lubricating eye drops – since your eyes dry out as much as your skin does.
• Silicone serum for your hair – keeps hair from frizzing out. She recommends the Garnier Fructis Brilliantine Shine Glossy Spray, which conveniently comes in 3-ounce spray bottles.

Paula likes to remove all her make-up on the flight, and then go through her entire skin care regimen and put her make-up on before the plane lands. If you brush your teeth and get all your make-up back on, you will feel like a civilized person when you land, and you’ll be able to hit the ground running.

For the most part, I think she’s got the right idea. Since I recommend taking everything with you in your carry-on, though, it means you need to be a little more organized about what you pack in your quart-sized toiletry bag. For example, the silicone serum spray might be handy since it comes in a 3-ounce bottle, the reason Garnier sells the product in a 3-ounce bottle is because most people will only need two sprays to tame their hair. Nobody in the world will run out of this product during their vacation trip… so there’s incentive for the Travelite packer to transfer the silicone serum into say a 1-ounce spritzer bottle.

I went on a weekend getaway to Pismo Beach—perfect little spot. In addition to an afternoon on a walking tour of Hearst Castle, one of the things I did was visit San Luis Obispo’s downtown area, with its little coffee shops and retail stores geared towards the college students from nearby Cal Poly SLO.

One of the shops I visited was Bath and Body Works. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s a relatively common retail store in shopping malls, and they sell nothing but toiletries. I always assumed they were a Body Shop knock-off, but their prices are actually considerably more reasonable.

Near the cash register, they had a big stand filled with little two-ounce travel-sized bottles of their products. Shampoos, lotions, conditioners and what have you. The big sign above the stand said “$1.” A dollar for a bottle—what a deal!

According to the salesperson there, this great dollar sale was officially ending today (Sunday); however, she said there was a chance that they would be allowed to continue their dollar sales in the stores because the two-ounce bottles were being replaced by three-ounce versions.

A two-ounce bottle of shower gel from Bath and Body Works. All of their bottles have the signature “cinched waist” near the top. Pick up these 2-ouncers while they’re on sale, and before they’re replaced with the giganto 3-ouncers. Image from Bath and Body Works.

“Three ounces is what you can carry with you at the airport,” the salesperson told me proudly.

So… you can wait until Bath and Body Works starts carrying the three-ounce bottles, or if you have a chance, visit your nearby store to see if theys till have the dollar sale. A buck is actually a pretty good deal for two full ounces, and they usually carry quite a few different fragrances and styles. Once the three-ounce bottles are introduced in the stores, I suspect they will probably sell for about $5 each, which I think is a little too expensive for little bottles.

Right now if you go to their Web site, they have a “3 for $5 Travel Sized Signature Collection” sale. The price isn’t quite as good as a dollar, but that’s not a bad deal at all.

Moleskine Volant notebooks hit store shelves in the U.S. Image from Moleskineus.com.

A few people have reminded me (and I have confirmed) that the colorful softcover Moleskine Volant notebooks have made it to the shelves of both Borders as well as Barnes & Noble in the US. If you were hoping to pick up these little notebooks, visit your nearest box book store!

If you’ve stayed up late at night to watch infomercials, you’ve probably seen shows touting the Bare Minerals line of talc-free mineral make-up. The products are pretty good; I use them mostly because I don’t care for liquid foundation at all, and prefer them for traveling with since I don’t have to count it in my 3-1-1 liquid bag.

Well, I’m always keeping my eyes peeled for travel-sized toiletries and cosmetics, and what do I get in my inbox the other day but an email from cosmetic store Ulta, advertising a special promotion for a “10-Day Trial of bareMinerals Foundation w/Mini Kabuki.”

It was hard to tell from the Web site, but the samples definitely looked small. Best of all, the trial sized products were free! In addition, if you spent at least $10.00 at the site, you got $3.50 off. I wound up getting a pair of travel tweezers from Tweezerman (they are the best in my opinion), and got myself a nice little package of travel goodies in the mail in less than a week!

It looks like Ulta’s offer is still valid. Hop over to their promotion page and choose the color that best fits your skin tone—”fairly light,” “light,” “medium beige” or “medium tan.” Of you aren’t sure, you can hop over to the Bare Minerals Web site and check out their skin tone color chart and detailed descriptions.

Regular Bare Minerals brushes on the left with a regular container of Mineral Veil, and the sample container of Mineral Veil and Mini Kabuki brush on the right.

The 10-day container of foundation is the same size as the eye shadow containers from Bare Minerals, but it looks like it’s not filled to the brim. If you already use foundation from them, however the inner separater is removable, so you can add more powder to the container.

The Mini Kabuki brush is not only small, but also short.

What’s unique about the offer is their Mini Kabuki brush. Most blush and foundation brushes are too long for traveling with, but the smaller travel ones tend to still have a longer stick or be too wide. This one is truly tiny. It might take a bit of coordination and some getting used to, but you can still use this tiny brush to put your foundation on. And unlike little tiny brushes that come in your blush compact, the Mini Kabuki is round and still has some heft, and uses the same type of brush material as their full-sized Buki brush.

One more thing. If you live in a city with an Ulta retail store, it looks like they will have a four-piece introductory kit available in their stores from Sunday, September 28 through Saturday, October 11. For $15, you get the baby brush, a tiny container of regular Mineral Veil, and two small containers of foundation powder. According to the mailer I got, it looks like this kit will be available online from Ulta.com as well; just type in TRYBELIEVE as your promo code.