xSparkage Confessions of a Makeup Junkie
Something I tend to get asked is “What should I bring for my trip to ____?” This is something I never really thought about doing a post/video about, as I feel like it really depends on you- what you’re doing while on your trip, where exactly you are traveling to, how long will you be gone, will you be with friends/family who have products you can use, etc etc.
This weekend I’m traveling back to Phoenix for Easter to visit my family and possibly go out with some friends. I’m only going to be gone just over 4 days, so I didn’t need to bring much. I decided to bring my go-to essentials for everyday wear, along with a palette of bright and neutral shadows, as I’m not sure what type of makeup I’ll feel like wearing everyday, and generally when I’m home someone wants me to do their makeup, so I’d rather be prepared than not!
Here are the products that I am taking with me for this trip. Not too much, and I’ll go through each thing:
Yaby- Best of Both Worlds Palette: This palette has a nice mixture of bright, pastel, matte and shimmer colors, making it a really great palette to take with me. Yaby colors are really nicely pigmented and the Best of Both Worlds palette is great for me to travel with because of the diverse colors and textures, so I will have a good selection of colors to choose from, but the palette itself is nice and small and takes up very little space.
Urban Decay Naked Palette: This coveted palette is great for anyone, anytime! It has a great selection of natural eyeshadows ranging from very light to dark and smokey, and flatters any skintone. I brought this along as well because it’s always a good idea to have a few natural colors with you, and the colors in this palette are beautiful and convenient. This is my favorite palette Urban Decay has made, because of it’s versitality and the simple packaging.
Dinair Airbrush System & Foundation: I know, I know, most people would just pack a liquid foundation to travel with instead of taking an airbrush system. Personally, as many of you may know, I absolutely love and adore my airbrush system, and the Dinair system is nice and compact and really doesn’t take up much room in my bag. I take the quarter ounce sized foundations because they take up less room in the quart-sized bag you have to put liquids in, and that space fills up fast!
MAC Prep & Prime Vibrancy Eye: This is a new product from MAC that came out in early April, and is an under eye primer that works to smooth out the delicate skin underneath your eyes, as well as brightening the eye area subtly. I find that this works great as a base for my under-eye concealers so that they smooth onto the skin without sinking into any fine lines.
Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer: In my book, this product is an absolute necessity and is incomparable for neutralizing dark circles. The concealer itself is an orangey peach color (salmon, of course!) which works to neutralize any dark pigmentation on the skin. This is applied only on dark circles, nowhere else, as it will cause normal pigmented skin to look sallow.
YSL Touche Eclat: This has been referred to as “8 hours of sleep in a tube” and it holds up to that standard. This is an amazing brightening concealer, and I generally swipe this on under my eyes after using the Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer to brighten and color correct the area (the Salmon Concealer will cancel out dark circles, but the skin still needs to be brought back to my natural color). If I’m wanting to feel especially pretty, I’ll also use this on my forehead, the bridge of my nose, and chin to really brighten up my face with looking oily and shiny.
Benefit Hoola Bronzer: I have to say, I’m not the biggest fan of the packaging on the Benefit Blushes, but this is really a perfect contour color for me. It’s matte, which I prefer in a contouring color (when contouring, you want to darken the natural shadows of your face, and those are matte!) I like that it comes with a brush, but I generally just use a regular blush brush to apply it to the hollows of my cheeks, my temples, around my hairline, the sides of my nose, and my jawline.
Tarte Amazonian 12-hour Blush in Tipsy, Dollface: These blushes have become a staple for me. I am a huge fan of peachy-orangey blushes, and Tipsy is the perfect color for that. Dollface is a cute bright light pink, another favorite. I grabbed both because as much as I love Tipsy, sometimes it just won’t work with a look because it is a little different. These last all day long too, which is another reason why I love them!
YSL Celebration Palette: This has been my go-to highlighter since I got it in February. The reason I like it so much is it’s a beautiful light beige, has just the right amount of shimmer, and doesn’t give that oily-sheen look that some highlighters can because they’re overpacked with shimmery glitter. In all honesty, I’m sure that a lot of other products could do the same job for much cheaper (MAC’s Shroom eyeshadow works as an awesome cheek highligher!) but this one is convenient to grab as it’s not in an eyeshadow palette, so it came with!
Stila Smudge Stick Liner in Stingray, Silver Dollar: In just about every video using black eyeliner on the waterline that I have put up for the last year, Stingray has played a roll. By far, it is the best eyeliner pencil for the waterline that I have ever used. It shows up super dark without having to apply a lot, and stays there for quite some time. It’s not my favorite for applying around the eyes though, as it only gives you a few seconds to smudge before it sets and stays set. I also grabbed the silver because It looks beautiful under eyes.
NYX Glitter Eyeliner Pencil in Aqua Glitter: My favorite trick for turning a simple natural eyeshadow look into something special, but still wearable- glitter eyeliner! Glitter eyeliner, weather it’s a liquid or a pencil, is a simple way to add a bit of glam to an everyday look without going overboard. This one are pretty smudged under the eyes or used as a base for eyeshadow.
MAC Fascinating Eye Kohl: White Eyeliner is never a bad thing to have on hand, I always remember to bring one!
Eyeko Black Graffiti Eyeliner Pen: Eyeko’s eyeliner pens are the best eyeliner pens I’ve found; the draw a nice, sharp opaque line with little effort and don’t dry out like other pens I’ve used. I grabbed this instead of normal liquid liner to save bag space for other essential liquids.
MAC Fling Eyebrow Pencil: Self-explanitory, This is my eyebrow pencil. Generally I only try and apply it to the underside of my brows to give definition, and to any areas that the hairs are sparse.
ELF Eyebrow Gel: Again, self-explanitory. I use this to set my brows, as my brows tend to go all over when they’re longer (they like to curl, not so fun)
Lancome Cils Super Lengthening Mascara Primer: This is an amazing mascara primer. It works really well to lengthen and separate my lashes, so that my mascara can be the best it can be!
Armani Beauty Eyes To Kill Mascara: This became my favorite mascara after the first time I used it. I’m almost mad I love absolutely everything I’ve tried from Armani Beauty, as it’s WAY more expensive than my normal price range for beauty stuff! Ah well, it’s a good example of “you get what you pay for”. This mascara makes my eyelashes touch the ceiling, its false lash in a tube. LOVE!
Clinique Lower Lash Mascara: This is the cutest little mascara I’ve ever used! The brush is about the length of the tip of my pinky nail, its so small! It works great at getting those little lashes on the lower lid (tongue twister)
Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Anime: I don’t usually bring many lip products when I travel. If I’m doing a bright eye look, I’ll just wear chapstick, but I do love doing really bold lip colors once in a while, as it’s eye-catching and unexpected. Anime is almost sunglass-worthy bright, and lasts aaalllll day! (My runner up to bring was their new color in Beta. It’s like orange popsicle bright, and I LOVE the way it looks on!)
Jack Black Intensive Lip Therapy: This is the BEST lip conditioning product I’ve ever used! Really moisturizing and actually fixes the chapped lips problem fast.
Harajuku Girls Perfume in Angel: If I’m going on a short trip and don’t wanna check a bag, I need to really pick and choose what goes into that quart-sized bag, and perfume can take up a lot of room when you really don’t need to bring the entire thing. I LOVE perfume samples and sets of minis (not just perfume, actually. I’m a total sucker for gift sets and anything that has mini versions of regular things!!) because you get an itty-bitty sized bottle, and it’s still more than enough for a trip.
Zoya Rica Nail Polish: I always like to bring at least one polish with me, and this was my favorite Zoya polish from their new collections. It’s a really unique color- coral, orange, but pink, and the super sparkly that only Zoya colors can be!
Sigma Brush Set: I like to have a set of brushes that are used solely for traveling, because they come in a handy brush roll, and I tend to put off packing until the last minute, and it’s easier for me to just grab a pre-packed brush roll then to go through all of my brushes to choose which ones to take (and if I do that, I can almost guarantee I’d take about 20 more than I actually needed!) I’m new to Sigma brushes, and have been keeping them separate from the rest of my brushes because I don’t want them to get lost in the mix, and so this will be a great way to get to know them. The brushes shown are a bit of a mix of two Sigma brush sets, as neither separate had all the brushes I wanted.
Sigma case: This is the perfect size for everything shown- the brush roll, the dinair airbrush compressor, everything! I really like this, it’s cute, a great size for traveling, and the color is beautiful! There are a few pockets inside, so I packed the cheek products in a zipper compartment, and the eye pencils and mascara in another.
Things I forgot to photograph:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance: It’s in the top photo, but a given. Need my TFSI :)
Too Faced Primed & Poreless: Trying out this face primer.. so far, so good!
And that’s about it! Hope this was helpful, it was fun to write :) Let me know if you have any questions!
