Travel Lighter With These All-stick Makeup Options

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When you travel, you start playing favorites, your hands slithering around your bag like a dragon fondling its treasure hoard. Which special products deserve to go on vacation with you? As in: “This is my go-to fancy-night lipstick, this is my toned-down day lip, this is my bright day lip, these are the several eyeshadows I am most likely to wear, here is my primer, oh, you’re definitely coming, black liquid liner, don’t you worry, my precious…”

And suddenly you realize you are STILL bringing a lot of makeup for a four-day weekend. Now there is nothin’ wrong with that. But damn, it’s bulky. And then you unpack and realize your favorite, favorite highlighter…didn’t have its lid on tight enough, and opened en route. Shit.

Beautylish creative director Bec turned me on to a brilliant idea: what if every makeup product you traveled with came in stick, pen, or tube form? Literally every single thing! “It doesn’t break when you travel,” she explained. “It’s not messy, and you can just throw everything into a drinking glass when you get to the hotel!”

WTF Bec, that is BRILLIANT. Why didn’t I ever think of that? Just think of the counter space saved at the hotel or house you’re staying—you would clutter up exactly_ nothing_! I had to try this for myself, and so I took as many stick- and pen-shaped Beautylish products as my claws could clutch on a long weekend trip.

Here is how serious this trial was: I didn’t even pack a makeup bag. I wrapped a rubber band around my makeup and hit the road.

Foundation:

I used an Ellis Faas Skin Veil Pen as my foundation—hello, I did not really know that serious all-over foundation could come in a portable silver pen and still work. One click of the button at the end of the pen and a little drop of foundation comes out on the silky brush side. You can just stroke it all over your face for sheer coverage, or do a few clicks and make a more opaque base. I liked this pen a lot, but you have to be really careful not to get too excited about clicking the button and flooding the brush with precious product that won’t be used.

Concealer:

Nudestix, you’ve earned your ticket to ride the friendly skies with me. Nudestix Concealer Pencil is officially my go-to for smudging out dark circles, lil’ zits, and scar-y spots. This is a nice pencil—it’s creamy and goes on really smooth, and—bonus—you can use it to blank out your lips for a gradient lip look. And it has a lid that stays put.

Cheeks:

Come to me, stick-shaped blush. Be one with me. Teach me your non-breaking traveling ways. I used a Nudestix Lip + Cheek Pencil to hastily color my cheeks to a human-ish, pinky hue. I like these very creamy, smudgeable sticks because they do more than one thing, and do it well—you can use this on your lips for a quick, complementary day look.

Eyes:

Eyeliner tends to come in a pencil, tube, or pen form. Same with mascara. Done and done. But what about your shadow? I packed a Charlotte Tillbury Colour Chameleon eye shadow pencil in Champagne Diamonds to brighten up my lids during the day, but honestly? These pencils have shimmery glitter in them, and for me, this would be most suitable at night. If you leave the cap off, these pencils have a tendency to dry out, but a quick sharpening and tip-smudging before applying will make them good as new. For a more going-clubbing look, these come in darker, smokier shades—and are packed full of smudgeable glitter. Fool-proof insta-look.

Lips:

This is a no-brainer, but lip liner/lipstick pencils are your on-the-road friends. Carrying a tube of Lip Tar when traveling is too explosive for me (I know myself well), but OCC also makes liner/lipstick combos—pop an OCC NSFW Cosmetic Colour Pencil in with your stash of stick-makeup and you’ll have a looks-good-on-everyone bright red lipstick that doesn’t melt or mush.

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