Ermergerd I’m going on a trip! Girls weekend in Jamaica with my Mom & Sister. I’m super pumped to drink cocktails by the pool, slather on sunscreen and do nothing for several days.

Well, actually by the time you read this I’ll pretty much be on my way back from that trip. Womp wompppp. I have to fly alone for part of the way. Just me, myself and I hopping on all sorts of planes and multi-airline connections, super fun! Just kidding that’s not fun at all. But instead of focusing on that part, let’s talk bags! Specifically, how to pack a carry on.

It’s a very rare occasion that I choose to travel with just a carry on bag, but considering the aforementioned multi-airline connections I figure this time it’s my best option. The fact that it’s a laid back beachy-vacation makes it easier, but it’s still tricky to make sure you have what you need.

Ok so you know how you have to put all of your liquids into a quart sized ziplock bag, and they all need to be in containers under 3.4 oz? There’s good news and bad news. Bad news is that a lot of beauty products are liquid. Good news is, you can fit a lot more into a quart sized bag than you think. You just have to plan ahead.

Divide and Conquer:

Don’t be the person in the security line trying to take out all their liquids and stuff them into a ziplock at the last second. Best case scenario you’ll make an absolute mess of your cosmetics bag, and go on your merry way. Worst case scenario, it won’t all fit or an item will be more than 3.4 oz and you’ll have to throw something away. You’ll be standing there making the Sophie’s choice of makeup wishing you had thought about it before you left the house. When you’re packing, separate all your liquid, gel or aerosol beauty items into the ziplock and store them in your bag separately from anything powdered, or solid.

If you aren’t sure what qualifies as liquid there is a really handy search engine on the TSA website that you can use to look up individual items, you can find that HERE .

Pictured above is what is going in my liquids bag. It looks like a lot, right? But it fits I schwear! have a look . . .

Boom, packed. Like a boss. But how did I decide what makes the cut? When choosing the items I followed a few simple rules:

KEEP IT SIMPLE:

Now isn’t the time to experiment with your look, try an elaborate hairstyle or add steps to your skincare routine. Choose simple, staple items that you know you will want to use, and ditch things that seem overly ambitious for a trip. C’mon let’s get real, you aren’t really going to press glitter over an elaborate smokey eye after a day by the pool anyway. If it’s not that type of trip and you have an event to attend, know how you are going to do your makeup ahead of time to cut down on bringing extra items that you won’t actually use.

THINK SMALL:

Obviously, you should choose travel size items whenever possible. You can’t just go out and replace everything you own with travel sized versions though, or if you can you must be ballin’ out of control good for you! Try to bring things that are already on the small size, and especially avoid things that have bulky packaging. For example, for fragrance I chose to bring a slim rollerball rather than a full bottle and for brow gel I chose Benefit “Gimme Brow” over my much larger MAC Brow Set.

The full list of items that made the cut:

• Hair Oil - I love this Agave one, I reviewed it HERE
• Salt Spray - Gives Fast easy texture, and I had this one in a travel size. Double score.
• Eye Cream - I have a travel sized pump of Philosophy Time In A Bottle For Eyes so it works out well because it’s good stuff and it’s very travel friendly.
• Face Serum - Another sample size. I’ve used this Clinique Laser focus serum before so I know it agrees with my skin, and the small two week supply fit’s nicely in my ziplock bag.
• Face Oil - the Body Shop Serum In Oil is my go-to must-have skincare product these days, so I don’t mind bringing the full size bottle. I would rather it take up a lot of space than to go without it.
• Foundation - Well, actually what I’m bringing is Smashbox CC Cream, but I use it like a foundation because it’s pretty high coverage.
• Tinted Moisturizer/ BB Cream - For daytime in the sun I want light coverage and a little bit of sun protection, so this travel size of the Bobbi Brown BB Cream is perfect.
• Concealer - Pick one that can be used on it’s own for multiple parts of your face
• Brow Gel - Like I said earlier I have a few that I use but I choses Gimme Brow because it’s in such a small package.
• Mascara - I’m actually trying out my first set of eyelash extensions at the moment, so I’m not bringing regular mascara. But the tiny “bottom lash” mascara from Clinique is nice and small so it’s a good choice for my bottom lashes.
• Eye Primer - I didn’t have a small one, and I actually prefer mixing together the original Urban Decay Primer Potion and the “Eden” colored one, so this ended up taking quite a bit of the real estate in the bag. At this point I did pretty well with everything else though so I figured I could swing it.
• Face Primer - If I didn’t have a sample size I would have skipped it altogether because the Smashbox CC cream works just fine on it’s own. But since I had this sample size of the HourglassVeil Primer I figured I would bring it. It’s very luxurious and it makes the skin so smooth and soft.
• Fragrance - I went with a roller ball, but sample sizes work great or you can get an atomizer and decant your favorite fragrance into a tiny portable spray!
• Nail Polish & Top Coat - I’m bringing the one I’m wearing (Which is OPI Amazon Amazoff) plus a top coat, just in case I need to touch my tips up a little bit.

Obviously, this is just for ideas and inspiration. You don’t have to bring the same items as me or the same brands, it’s just to give you an idea how I pared down my selection.

(EDIT: Now that I’m back from the trip I probably could have done with even less, but that’s because it was a really low key trip. Mostly I just swam all day. )

As far as non-liquids are concerned I really just went with the absolute basics.

• One Blush
• One Bronzer
• A multitasking concealer
• Contour color
• One Lipstick
• One Lip Balm
• Anastasia DipBrow
• Setting Powder
• Brushes
• Hair Ties
• Makeup Wipes
• Non Acetone Nail Wipes
• Basic Eyeshadows

The key is to think of simple, classic, everyday looks that you might actually be able to do on the go, or in crappy lighting or something. Having a really great travel bag like this with a mirror helps too. I got this with a Tarte holiday set, but amazon has a lot of great choices for makeup travel bags as well.

Oh! and don’t think I’m crazy for not bringing sunblock. I know I will go through basically a whole bottle so I will just buy one at the resort.

Some final words of wisdom. As much as I love a cute weekender bag, I swapped mine out for a pretty sweet backpack this trip, and it was the best decision I made all week! So much easier to carry around than a tote style bag. Also, checking in to a flight and having the boarding pass on your phone is the best thing to happen to aviation since the Wright brothers. Seriously.

Do you have any tips on how to pack a carry on? I’m sure this won’t be the last time I have to make this work 😉