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I think I may have discovered a potentially life-changing beauty packing hack this morning.
And here it is: instead of bringing the biggest makeup bag I own (which is what I usually do, BIG surprise!), I’ll bring a small one and only allow myself whatever will fit into it on the trip.
:O
Yes, I know this is Captain Obvious, but hear me out.
Clearly, someone out there has figured this out before, but it never occurred to me. Seriously, OMG! SHRINK THE BAG, KAREN!
When I take a trip somewhere, I NEED to bring along my makeup brushes. That’s one of my non-negotiables. I literally never leave home without them — literally…unless I forget them at home. 🙂 Which has happened.
It was a few summers ago… El Hub and I drove up to visit family in Redding, which is a couple hundred miles north up near the Oregon border.
As luck would have it, I completely spaced out and forgot to bring my brushes (!), so the first thing we did when we got there was go on an emergency brush run.
Never mind using a restroom or saying hi to relatives after four long hours on the road. All I could think was, “Take me to the mall! Stat!”
If I’d had one or two of these Nudestix Magnetic Matte Eye Colors with me, I probably would have freaked out less. They’re long-lasting $24 cream shadow pencils. They come in 10 neutral shades, and you don’t need to use blending brushes with them (although you can if you want).
If you hit the road a lot or frequently find yourself doing your makeup in the back of a cab or in the ladies’ room before work, I’ve got one word for you: Nudestix. All of their makeup comes in either stick or pencil form, and you can blend them with a finger (or a brush), so they’re completely not fussy. They also have a wide selection of colors for different skin tones, too, and everything is cruelty-free.
These set in about three or four minutes, which gives me enough time to blend out the edges. I don’t ever feel rushed. Most of the time, after drawing a few strokes on my lids (I don’t have to use much because they’re packed with pigment), I buff out the edges with a finger (or a MAC 217 if one’s handy).
Speaking of MAC now, a few of the Magnetic Matte shades could pass for near-dupes of some of my favorite MAC matte shadows, like Putty, which looks a little like matte beige Brule, and warm brown Terra, which reminds me of MAC Soft Brown. Oh, and warm brown Fig kindasorta looks like MAC Swiss Chocolate.
I don’t how this happened, because it feels like I’ve been looking forward to this trip forever, but I’m leaving for Hawaii in less than two weeks! — which means that I probably should start packing RIGHT NOW.
It’s all about portable beauty, and I’m hell-bent on finding multitasking makeup to bring that won’t take up a lot of room, so as to have more room to bring home dashboard hula girls, macadamia nuts and the like.
Let’s make this a series! I’m gonna call it “Take Me With You,” and the first entry is these new Nudestix Nudies. They were recently added to the Nudestix permanent line.
Nudestix is a cruelty-free Canadian brand, and everything in their line comes in a pencil or some kind of stick packaging.
Yes, this makes them great for travel.
The Nudies are multipurpose creams for your cheeks, lids and lips. They’re $30 each and come in five shades. One end has a cream stick, and the other end has a dense, soft brush to apply and blend the product.
I’ve tried two of them — cool pink Bare Back (um…which I’m pretty sure refers to something naughty) and rosy nude Naughty N’ Spice.
