My favorite travel products are ones that I have bought for myself and bring with me again and again. I am an Amazon Associate, and I earn from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure: last month, I made 42¢, lol. You don’t have to click on my links, though. You can find the product directly on the Amazon page as well. And many of the items I list you may already have at home!
This post contains my top picks for skincare, health, and makeup when I travel. I can share my detailed packing list as well as my “pre-trip to-do checklist” closer to takeoff, if you’re interested. Let’s dive in, shall we?
I’ll split up my recommendations into categories, so feel free to skip ahead to what interests you.
Looking more travel-related tips? You might enjoy:
Tiny (and Brilliant!) Travel Products - Airplane Edition
Favorite Travel Products - Gear
Favorite Travel Products - Accessories & Shoes
Useful Apps for Travel
Using Your Cell Phone Abroad
Using Your Apple Watch For Travel Can Save You Time, Energy, and Worry
Skincare
Refillable travel-size bottles
When I travel, I normally save space in my suitcase by using the hotel shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Nevertheless, I do have some products from home that I can’t do without. For those, I fill travel bottles. Ages ago, used to get CVS travel-size bottles, but they are too small for two weeks of product, and it’s really hard to get the last of the product out of them. So, I fill travel bottles.
This is another product where there are heaps of choices out there if you do a search on Amazon. You do want ones that are soft, so you can get every last bit of product out, leak-proof (of course), and have a wide-mouth so it’s easy to transfer without spilling. I also prefer the ones that are color-coded rather than labeled, because I don’t normally wear my glasses in the shower. 😜 Pro tip: when you get back home, continue to use the travel bottles until they’re empty. Unless you’re traveling again within a month or so, the product will dry up in the tube, making it hard to get clean.
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The picture links to the set, but they do come in a smaller, 1.7 ounce and a larger, 3.4 ounce size groupings.
Pro-tip: I don’t bring my full-size skin and hair products with me, but I’ll often buy full size products while I’m traveling if I find one that smells nice. It makes for a great souvenir because when I use them at home, the scents remind me of my trip.
Moisturizer
When I travel, I try to find products that can pull double-duty or better, and here’s a favorite. This small vial of Argan Oil heals dry skin on the face and body, smooths frizzy hair, softens cuticles, and helps with makeup removal. I have sensitive skin, and it doesn’t bother me at all.
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Fast and Easy Facial Cleanser
Here we’ve got a quadruple-duty product. These facial pads work as a cleanser, exfoliant, makeup remover, and toner. And, since it’s not a not liquid, you don’t have to pack it in your special see-through container for show and tell with the TSA. They smell amazing too! When I hug my kids goodnight, I get compliments on how good I smell. (I don’t normally get told how great I smell at the end of a long day 😂.) I like to count how many days I’ll be gone and put just enough pads in a Ziplock snack bag.
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If they’re sold out on Amazon, you can find them on the Arcona website. I pay shipping for them if I have to, and I’m allergic to shipping costs.
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Health
Medicine & Supplement Management
Lots of people use pill organizers for travel. I’m not a fan. They are bulky and hard, and they take up the same amount of space at the end of the trip (empty!) as they did at the beginning.
Enter: pill bags. They take up no room at all, and you can label them however you like. You can fill one for each date/time (so you have a bag for morning and a bag for evening medicines each day). You can also use the little bags to store a travel amount of over-the-counter medicines/supplements, like Advil or melatonin, instead of taking a too-large container.
For your flight, you can pack alllll your medications in the bowels of your carry-on, and tuck just that day’s little bags in an outer pocket of your personal item for easy access.
IMPORTANT: Do not use pill bags to carry restricted medicines (like Adderall or Oxycodone). You should always keep controlled medicines in their original containers!
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These bags are tiny heroes. I found all kinds of other uses for them during my Bordeaux to Bilbao trip. I didn’t even bring any empty ones with me; I just kept reusing the ones I brought.
Non-medicine uses:
- Storing small change so it wasn’t loose in my bag
- I put artificial sweetener in there so I’d always have some in my purse for any cappuccino or café au lait I might drink. (Did it look like I had drugs in that baggie? Yes. Yes it did)
- When I travel, I like to bring perfume samples with me. It’s a good way to use them up as well as conserve space. I put 3-4 samples in one little bag, and then I don’t have to worry about them opening and spilling.
- Mini-garbage bag. Hear me out: sometimes there is no garbage nearby, and you accumulate little bits of trash (receipts, a plastic seal, a protein bar wrapper). It was nice not having those floating around my purse.
- Probably my most innovative use of the bag was for the last day of my stay. Since I’d been away a month, I had bought a few full-sized bottles of product (sunscreen, conditioner, hair product, whatever). You can’t take it in your carry-on, and you can’t pack it the night before because you need it the day of. I decided to squeeze out one day’s amount of product into a baggie. Then I was able to pack and shut my checked luggage the night before.
Poo-Pouri (Travel-Sized)
It’s wonderful traveling with friends and loved ones until someone takes the Browns to the Super Bowl right before you need to take a shower! The biggest issue is that many (most?) hotel restrooms don’t have exhaust fans. Enter travel-sized Poo-Pourri. You spray it on the water before busting a grumpy, and it locks the odor in.
I don’t use Poo-Pourri at home, but I make sure to bring it every time (unless I’ll be alone in my hotel room).
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Electric Travel Toothbrush
My dentist switched me from a regular toothbrush to a Philips Sonicare Electric Toothbrush about eight years ago, and it has made a huge difference for me. I have definitely had less cavities since switching over. This is the model I use, though it no longer comes with a carrying case. Here is the version with the carrying case.
The battery lasts so long that I don’t bother bringing the charger with me. If it ever runs out of charge before the end of my trip, I’ll just use it like a manual toothbrush!
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I also own this travel toothbrush that works off of a AAA battery. It works okay, but you can definitely tell it does an inferior job to the Philips.
Hanging Toiletry Bag
My hanging bag is currently not available on Amazon. You’re not missing out; it isn’t aesthetically pleasing (to me anyway). This one is a lot like it, but looks nicer. I keep jewelry in the top compartment, medicines and skincare in the second, shower products in the third, and then hair accessories in the second-to-last compartment. The very bottom compartment of my (unavailable bag) detaches, and that’s where I store my makeup and magnification mirror. That way, I can easily just take that bag to the bathroom for doing makeup. Warning: this makeup bag is bulky! It measures 12 x 9 x 4 inches.
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Amazon has tons of options. I’m considering switching over to the medium-sized version of this smaller one for when I am traveling with just a carry-on. It measures 6.7 x 4.3 x 7.5 inches.
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Hand Sanitizer/Sanitizing Wipes
I was obsessed with germs before it was cool. I always wipe down the most touched surfaces on my airplane seat/tray and in my hotel rooms. I just bring a small pack of Lysol or Clorox wipes from the grocery store.
Did you know that offering sanitizing wipes to your seat-mates on a flight creates instant rapport? It does! Try it!
If I were to get some off of Amazon, they would be these tea tree antibacterial wipes, and I would use them for sanitizing my hotel room as well as my airline arm rests and tray table.
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Sunscreen
I have an autoimmune disorder that causes my hair to fall out if I’m in the sun unprotected. So yeah, sunscreen is non-negotiable for me. I have two types that I use daily, and they were both recommended to me by my dermatologist. I like EltaMD UV Clear Tinted Face Sunscreen, SPF 41. It’s the best tinted sunscreen I’ve found in terms of blending well and not feeling like my face is thickly caked. Tinted sunscreens have iron oxides in them that protect your skin from all visible light (including environmental, indoor lights and LEDs) as well as the sun. This is especially important if you have an autoimmune disorder or if your skin tends to get hyperpigmentation.
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Elta MD Clear Face Sunscreen, SPF 46 is my all-time favorite facial sunscreen because I have incredibly dry skin. It goes on clear even though it has zinc oxide. It was the one first recommended to me by my dermatologist, and it is the one I keep coming back to when I experiment with other brands. Amazon tells me I’ve purchased it nine times.
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Sunscreen for the body is non-negotiable as well, but when traveling abroad, I just buy a bottle of sunscreen when I get to my location. When I’m not traveling, I use La Roche-Posay.
Pepto Bismol
Travel tummy issues are their own special level of hell. Sure, wherever you travel to will have pharmacies, and they’ll have tummy medicines. But when it hits you hard, the last thing you want to do is Google “pharmacies near me.” Trust me!
Pepto Bismol comes in chewables that are really easy to bring while travelling. You don’t even need to bring many of them. Just two doses should be enough to either get you through it or give you the strength to get to the pharmacy. In a pinch, Pepto can replace both Immodium and Tums. Plus it relieves nausea and stomach pain.
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Makeup
Magnification Mirror
Now here we have a travel product that I would love to not bring with me… a magnification mirror. Alas, my vision requires assistance. Whether I’m putting on eye makeup or fishing an eyelash out of my eye, I need help. This mirror is tiny; just 3.5 inches, and you can choose between three magnification strengths. If you’d prefer one that’s lighted and slightly larger, I’d go with this one.
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Streamlined Makeup
Everyone is different with this one! You have to do you! I don’t wear much makeup, so I just bring three items with me.
Boom Stick: The color is flattering on literally every skin color, can be used as lipstick, blush, and/or a highlight color on your eyelids, and the lip color sticks around for a bit because it kind of stains your lips.
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I’ll also bring a travel-sized mascara and eyeliner, but I don’t have a favorite, so I’m not linking anything. If you have an amazing mascara, send me the link!
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Conclusion
If you’ve read all of my favorite health and skincare travel products, bless you. This was a lot longer than I expected! Hopefully, it’s been helpful. I know it’s been a helpful exercise for me to write out the things that I need to start gathering together and a few things I need to buy.
If you have some items on your “must bring” list that I didn’t mention, I’d love it if you told me about it in the comments!
