All right… the basics are pretty much covered (elegantly) in All about Appearances, so I won’t even reiterate her comments. You can read them here.

But my basic travelling kit is:

- Daily facial SPF 30 moisturizer

- SPF50 lotion (for my body) which doubles as a body moisturizer in a pinch

- Waterproof eyemakeup remover (which I use as a general makeup remover as well, so
I wouldn’t have to buy/bring another bottle of a general makeup remover. Consolidation of products is key here!)

- Contact lens + extras, and a large bottle of contact lens solution (don’t cheap out on this), along with your glasses and the case for them. If there’s space, put the contact lens case inside the glasses case to maximize space and make finding your contacts easier

- Body moisturizer (like Oil of Olay’s Concentrate), that you can use double duty as a hand moisturizer because the bottle is small enough to fit on a tote/purse. Or just skip it all together and stick to the SPF 50-60 body lotion above.

- Deodorant/Perfume (Perfume is a sort-of-nice-to-have, I have the Sephora sample vials of my favourites (Vera Wang Princess, Hilary Duff With Love, etc)), but deodorant is a must. Please for the sake of this blog and others, don’t forsake it.

- Shampoo/Conditioner (leave the heavy conditioning hair masks, and special treatments at home, unless you’re going for 3-6 months). The hotel shampoos/conditioners are awful. They’re extremely drying for your hair and in general, nowhere as good as what you’d bring.

- Cotton swabs, Cotton pads and extra hairbands – all useful for cleaning your ears out, wiping makeup off, pulling your hair back when you need to etc. I’d also recommend a headband, to keep the hair off your face when you’re washing it.

- You can bring a body wash if you’d like, but only if your skin gets very dry and needs a special moisturizing one like Aveeno. Other than that, a good pouf ball and hotel body wash does wonders.

- Your hair products – try and cut it down.. I usually let my hair air dry, but I slick it full of the UV protectant stuff by Tresemme, and a bit of Bumble and Bumble defrizz. So by doing that, I not only save my hair from heavy drying heat, I don’t have to bring a hairdryer. It’s a two-fer-one!

- ..and of course, your makeup, your brushes…I have the POP Brown Eyes Class case, which has 9 different shadows in it, 2-3 of which are hideous on my skintone, no matter how great they make look against brown eyes. And I have a Sephora Professionnel makeup case (Yes. I invested good coin in it, but I needed a new set of brushes and I needed a case. Two-for-on strikes again!), and my concealer, nail clippers, eyelash curler (this thing is hard to carry, being so awkward and not able to lay flat at all), nail clippers, a nail file.. the list goes on. Basically what I need to make up myself at a moment’s notice. Oh and one lone brown eyeliner

There you have it! All you need to travel.

I just heard a story about my friends’ friend that married into a very, very rich family. She has servants galore, and should never open her own front door, pick up mail, cook food, do errands, do laundry, buy groceries or worry about anything in the world.

I heard this.. and thought: How awful. How incredibly awful to not be able to do the most mundane of things. I understand if you’re working insane hours, it’s great to have people to help you do these things, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t do any of this. She doesn’t garden – they have a gardener, she doesn’t cook food – they have a chef. She isn’t on any volunteer boards, she isn’t working (what for? they’re rich), and even when she walks the dog, people mistake her for being the maid because no one walks their own dog. The have maids for that. Or dog walkers.

It’s one thing to be rich.. but to be THAT rich and not do anything with your life. It’d feel more like a gilded prison rather than a luxury. Me, I’d rather be financially well off (my idea of well off, is a net worth in the positive with healthy retirement and savings funds, not in the negative like it is now), and be able to work at a job that I really enjoy. Or at the very least, volunteer for an organization I believe in. Or take classes on cooking (although what’s the point? she has a chef for the food)…