Travel-Friendly Makeup and Skincare: What I Brought for my Holiday

If you've been following me on Instagram or on Twitter, you'll know that I recently went to the north part of Vietnam for a holiday! And I figure that perhaps some of you may want to know what beauty items did I pack along with me for my week-long holiday?

Travel-Friendly Makeup and Skincare: Here's what I packed!

The weather in Vietnam was good, ranging from just above 10 degrees Celsius in the mountainous areas at night, to a good mid-20s degrees Celsius in the city areas during the day. We expected it to rain when we were in the hilly paddy areas of Sa Pa at some point, but it didn't, so that was great! The next thing you know, though, it started snowing (a rare occurrence for that area) once we left the area, so there you go, the weather can be unpredicatable. But for the most part I brought along my usual staples when it came to skincare. And for makeup, it was a mix of usual staples, as well a "cheap stuff that I won't cry over if it gets lost/gets broken/get banged up and that does not suck". So without further ado, here you go!


Travel-friendly skincare basics that I brought along with me on holiday.
For skincare, I brought along my favourite moisturizer of the moment, my Kiehl's Skin Rescuer (review here). This was basically the moisturizer I was using for both day and night, because 1) it was moisturizing enough to function even in 10 degree nights with a somewhat dry-ish climate, and 2) I was too lazy to pack a separate night moisturizer

For eye creams, I used my trusty old Body Shop Vitamin E Eye Cream. This is really more a light daytime eye cream for me, but again, I was also using it at night for the same reasons (1) and (2) as with the Kiehl's Skin Rescuer. Except that maybe something heavier would have been ideal given that the weather was cold. But oh well.

My other super important skincare item? Sunscreen! I use my usual Avene Ultra High Protection Emulsion 50+, which I've been using for a few years now. Basically since my University days....holy smokes, it's been over 5 yerrs since I first started using this product! I really should blog about it, but I just get so lazy to blog about basics. But I will rectify that. One day. Anyway, I like this although it's pretty greasy and not exactly very cosmetically elegant, but

Lastly, I brought along some pimple products, because you know how I always have pimples, right? I got DHC's Acne Spot Therapy, as well as a Kitoko Kalani Acne Ampoule (which I really like and need to blog bout sometime!). Kitoko Kalani is a fairly niche Asian brand, and although they do have makeup and skincare items, I seem to find their stuff mostly in facial salons and the like.


Travel-friendly makeup essentials: This is a super stripped-down selection of colours for me!
For makeup, I brought along a combination of stuff I couldn't live without, and stuff that I wouldn't cry over if I lost it, broke it, etc. The stuff I couldn't live without were my brushes. I brought along the Stila #21 Face Brush, my Body Shop Blusher Brush, and my Stila #5 All Over Shadow Brush (used for packing on colour densely, like an all-over lid colour). I've written about my Stila #21 brush in a post from way back when, and I've also blogged about my The Body Shop Blusher Brush before too, but I haven't blogged about the Stila #5 brush although it's been a staple of mine. Stila products seem to get discontinued or undergo changes and so on quite often, but at least the brushes have been around for awhile. Thank goodness, because I really like their brushes (not the #1 Blush Brush though, that one is horrible).

Anyway, brushes aside, my makeup was quite simple, I brought one eyeshadow, Ulta Naked, which is one of my "my eyelides but better" colours. I brought it along because I have backups of this, so even if I lost it, I wouldn't cry about it. (And yes, can you see pan on that product? Yay for pan porn!) I also brought along a lipgloss, Benefit Dallas Ultra Plush Lipgloss, a really lovely warm pinky-brown shade, and an old-school Cargo blush in Tonga, which is just about the prettiest neutral pinky-brown you could ever find in a blush. I brought them along NOT because I wouldn't cry if they were lost, but because they are my perfect "go with everything" colours for a nice, natural look. So no matter what I was doing or wearing, they would be appropriate. Sometimes if you can't live without it, you just have to bring it along!

Lastly, I brought along my Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner Pencils. I brought two colours, Rockstar and Bourbon, because those are my two most-used Urban Decay Eyeliner Pencils (and I have backups, so if I dropped them in the sea at Halong Bay by accident or something, I wouldn't cry). I also brought along two of my favourite and most-used lipbalms, my Apivita Blackcurrant Tinted Lip Balm, which I previously raved about, and my Jane BePure Mineral Lipbalm in Amber, which I previously used in an FOTD from way back when. I still like the Jane Lipbalm, and like all good things, I have a few backups of this (does Jane still even make this?).

So yes, this does mean that for the entire trip, I was wearing just one blush, one eyeshadow colour and one lipgloss (well, I switched it out with the lipbalms sometimes). Yes. Just ONE of each. And no, I didn't pack mascara so I had no mascara! OMG the horrors, haha. So yes, everyday of my trip, I looked like this:


Me at Lao Tsai Village in Sapa, Vietnam. The waterfall is so beautiful! (Also, I was squinting in the sunlight. Darn it!)
Yes, that is my makeup in action. It doesn't really look like much, but for what it's worth, given that my itinerary involved walking around paddy fields for 4 hours and other (to me anyway) strenuous activities, I figured keeping it clean and simple was best. Here's another shot of my makeup in action:


Me with some lovely Hmong ladies from Cat Cat Village in Sapa, Vietnam. (I'm not squinting in this one.)
So there you go! These are some of my trip essentials I took along with me! I'm sorry for not posting more shots from Vietnam (I took a lot of photos and haven't sorted through them yet!), but if you want to see some on-the-go phone shots, my Instagram account had those. I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam, and I would totally go there again in a heartbeat!