Kel and I are in Dublin and I continue to be deeply unsettled (what day even is it??) and wiped out after two loooong days on the University College Dublin campus (they work us hard over here, lol. But they were absolutely wonderful. Great, engaged audiences, and some profound, vulnerable feminist talk, especially with the assistant professor group).
So today I just share my lovely travel setup. I love it. I have spent years perfecting it. It’s so good. And read to the end for an amazing travel dress!

As you can see, I have a lighted mini makeup mirror (1x and 10x) a complete set of brushes in small travel sizes, a set of mini glass bottles of my skin care regimen, plus travel sizes of all my hair care products. AND, lest you miss it, a Pink. Sparkle. Travel. Size. Hair Straightener (found on clearance for $18 at Sally Beauty).
Not shown is the bag I use to transport all this, which is in itself the product of endless experimentation. With the right bag, I can carry my full size eyeshadow and contour palette – which I can’t live without – because everything else is so miniaturized!

Note the adorable fold-up organizers: $6.38 for a pack of two on Amazon! I pack them flat at the bottom of my suitcase (in a little Ipsy bag I had around) and set them up at each new stop to keep my brushes and products perfectly organized! They weigh nothing and bring huge value. The palettes and flat items like travel size blush and highlighter stack neatly beside them.

Here you see tiny glass vials that I fill with my Sabbatical Beauty Asian Powerhouse Marine, and Dorian Gray serums, my Sabbatical Beauty Sleeping Beauty oil, my Volition Snow Mushroom serum, my Lancer Omega Hydrating Oil. Also stored here are small jars of my Sabbatical Beauty Donkey Milk cream and Perricone Cold Plasma Eye Cream. The plastic container is a small food storage container I found in a pack of four at Safeway and immediately realized was the perfect size to stack my glass vials sideways in two layers (I secure with a rubber band). The travel size Big Sexy Hair Spray and Play and Root Boost are packed separately but placed in the plastic holder to keep the vials from tipping over.

I carry my primers (face and eye) in repurposed Sabbatical Beauty travel size jars (about 1 inch in size), and got travel options for my Hourglass blush and Ofra highlighter (glasses for scale!)

Here I am looking cute for today’s events at University College Dublin! (One older woman in the audience came over to me during the break to exclaim – “I love your work, etcv. etc., and…. oh my god you LOOK AMAZING, THIS WHOLE ENSEMBLE {waves broadly at my shoes, outfit, face, and hair} I LOVE IT!” “Thank you SO much!,” i responded, “I work really, really hard at it!” “Do you?” She replied, and nodded solemnly.) Other travel items in plastic bags–eyebrow gel, sample foundation, etc.)
See my handy Beauty Bakerie Syruptitious in the mirror! But I didn’t wear it! I’m continuing my experiments in bold lips here on tour, and yesterday wore my new love, Maybelline Artist. Which I loved (and my outfit was SO CUTE–matching polka dots with a subtle stripe jacket). But I did have the vague sense that the bold color didn’t “play” quite as well on the UCD campus as it did in Eugene. Why, I have no idea…. It just seemed a bit … overdone.

Today I wore Rimmel Provocalips in Kiss Fatal. It worked better on campus. It lasted great through a 6 hour day:


And finally, a huge shout-out to this Pact Organic Featherweight Sweatshirt Dress. This beauty is $45, totally organic, amazingly soft, and made by a lovely company with sustainable practices in Boulder! You can wear it as a tunic, or belt it for a minidress, or layer as above with a deconstructed jacket and tights and boots for a sharp “event” outfit! It’s the ULTIMATE travel dress!
Love love these posts! Thanks also for the rec on the Pact dress–just ordered one for myself (and a few other things, what a great site!!), will be great for an upcoming conference.