What Make-up to Pack on a Five Day Trip

I had a few hours of free time before rushing to work a bit more, so here's my guide to packing make-up for a trip. My trip is business, so it affects my colour choices, but otherwise I think these products will get you through short trips just fine!

1. Brushes

I packed six. The first one is a stippling brush I use for foundation, the second a powder brush and the pink-and-black one is for blush. There's also a narrow brush for doing eyebrows and two fluffy eyeshadow brushes.

Yogurt, Shale and Pincurl

2. Eyeshadow

I like colourful shadows and usually use loose eyeshadows, but for travelling I pack pressed shadows to prevent spilling the loose ones. For a business trip I tone my look down, so I took with me only three fairly neutral MAC shadows. The colours are Yogurt, Shale and Pincurl. Yogurt is a pale matte pink, it matches my skin well and I use it for a base or just to make my lids look neater. Shale is a metallic brown shade, but quite light, so I can do a faint smoky look with it on use it as a crease colour with Yogurt. Pincurl I don't use as much, it's a silvery metallic shade, but it looks really nice for inner corners or in the middle of the lid with Yogurt in the inner corners and Shale as crease shading. I think having a light, dark and medium shade that go well together give you the opportunity to do many different looks easily!

3. Other make-up

Here you can see my concealer, blush, BB-cream, powder, black eyeshadow (for brows), eyeshadow primer and mascara. Nothing too fancy and not too many options, only products that are quite neutral and work well.

4. Lips and Perfume

I packed only the lip stain to go with me, but actually had the tint gloss in my purse, too. I think you can totally manage with just one product! If you like to use perfume like I do, solid ones are the best options for travelling. They don't spill and a light to carry with you.

Before packing, consider what kind of a trip are you going on. If it's business, do you have formal parties to attend that would need heavier make-up? If not, your make-up bag will be a lot lighter! You can also try and pick colours and products that work well together. For yesterday's evening party I worked from the light smoky eyeshadow look I did for the day and just added a faint layer of black shadow on top to make it more intense. Also the lip stain I have is fairly natural with only one coat, but bolder with two coats. As for blush, mine isn't highly pigmented, so swiping on just a thin layer gives you a good day look and a few more will do for the evenings.

PS. Yesterday was awesome, the party was at the oldest stone house in all of Iceland on an island. There was a viking fighting show, three course meal and I just caught a glimpse of the Northern Lights as I headed out for the boat back to the mainland. Magical!