I went on vacation to Baltimore and New York City to visit some very good friends. Here’s my vacation in pictures. Enjoy. 🙂
My Vacation In Pictures
Category Archives: Vacation
Travel Makeup Bag – Off to Baltimore and New York City!
Tomorrow morning I’m off on a much needed vacation to visit some friends in the US. I’ll be headed to Baltimore for six days first and then back up to New York City for five.
In Baltimore I’ll be visiting a close friend that I’m eager to spend more time with. We’ve signed up for the Charm City Shamrock 5k run on Sunday and I’m excited to look as ridiculous as possible with the green hair extensions I’ve picked up and as much glitter as I can find. There’s a chance I’ll get to visit Washington D.C., but that isn’t set in stone yet.
In New York City I’ll be visiting my old university roommate (and it’s frightening to think that we lived together ten years ago…) and seeing another old friend from my teen years. For shits and giggles, I also signed up for a 10k run on Roosevelt island while I’m there. Until recently, I used to visit New York City every year so I’m anxious to go back!
And not to mention… I am *seriously* excited to pick up all the makeup I can get my hands on for the far cheaper prices that they have in the US!
So let’s take a peak into what I’m bringing on vacation this time.
Once again, the bag I’m taking with me is from MAC‘s Liberty of London collection (2010). I love this bag, and until it frays and falls apart, I’ll be using it!
I’m bringing along Laura Mercier‘s Artist palette (2013) instead of my usual Urban Decay Naked. I’m doing this primarily because my Naked palette gets enough travel mileage and I think the Artist palette has a bit more selection for looks since there’s far more matte shades.
Tarte‘s Off The Cuff palette is an easy one – four blushes and a bronzer without the need for bringing multiple bulky compacts.
The green MAC quad is for St. Patrick’s Day. I’ll definitely want to go all out with green everything so I plopped in a few shades (Juxt, Bio Green, Golden Olive pigment andClub) so I can be as festive as possible!
I kept the lip products fairly simple since re-applying lipstick on vacation is mostly just frustrating to me. One lipstick (Revlon‘s Fire and Ice) and MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lip to prevent feathering should I decide to actually wear the lipstick. The NYX Butter Gloss in Vanilla Cream Pie is for when I want something easy to wear. And finally, I picked up a Nivea lip balm in Milk & Honey specifically for this trip because I didn’t actually own another stick lip balm and I didn’t want to carry around a potted product as they don’t sit easily in my pockets. Lip balms are an absolute must for me when I travel.
It doesn’t look like many lip products really… but I know I won’t wear much else even if I were to bring a few more.
Double primers you ask? Yep. I swore by Urban Decay Primer Potion for years, but it recently started creasing on me (much to my horror). I tried the NARS one and it *also* creased on me. If I double up and use them both on my lids then the creasing stops, so… double primers from now on.
I haven’t used it much, but I packed Benefit‘s Watts Up highlighter simply because it’s a sample size product and fits easily in my bag. The sheen of this highlighter is quite similar to MAC‘s Soft and Gentle.
The craft gems are for the St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock 5k race a friend and I are doing in Baltimore. Although the gems aren’t green, they’re what I had available, and I’ll definitely be plastering my face in them for the run!
More tiny products! The yaby foundation in Buff is a good shade for me right now and the tube is tiny so that was an easy one to pop in. I don’t expect to be wearing much foundation, but it’s nice to have in case I decide I want to wear some. Too Faced‘s Better Than Sex mascara is a deluxe sample size and I’m hoping to finish this one up on the trip. I’m slightly worried because it’s not waterproof and the weather forecast looks positively schizophrenic for the next few weeks. :s
The Duo lash adhesive is for the gems (and by looking at that package, it definitely needs replacing). And lastly, my beloved MAC Blacktrack
That’s everything I’ve stowed away in my makeup bag for my trip! Blog posts will continue while I’m gone as I have them sitting in queue ready to go live on the usual schedule (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays). Take care everyone. 🙂
Travel Makeup Bag – February 2014
I’m taking an extended vacation over the Family Day long weekend here in Ontario, so I’ll be heading back up to my parents house in Ottawa right after work on Wednesday (same date as this blog post if you’re reading it then). After having been ridiculously sick over Christmas vacation and not getting to hit any of the hills with my snowboard, I’ve been itching to get back up there. Toronto really doesn’t have any decent hills in the area (don’t even get me started on Blue Mountain… it’s not a mountain, it’s a sad, sad slope) so I really do need to get up to Ottawa and into Quebec to see some proper runs.
ANYWAY. All that to say I’m heading to Ottawa for about 5 days and thought I’d show you what makeup I’m bringing with me this time.
First up are the palettes. Usually I pack my Naked palette and pop in a few loose blushes, but this time I decided to take advantage of the fact that the Tarte palette actually comes with four blushes and a bronzer. The Naked is a must have, but the Tarte palette is kind of a no-brainer.
Also, sad to say, but I’ve barely used the Tarte palette since I bought it in late last year, so I really want to get some proper use out of it. Not to mention the amount of space it saves.
For face products, I’m bringing the Physicians Formula Shimmer Strip in Sunset Strip (also because it’s underused), the Yaby foundation in Buff because it’s a great match for my skin and it comes in an incredibly small tube. Last up is the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Shade 2 Light which I don’t really find to be a necessity on a daily basis, but I may want to use it so I threw it in there anyway.
My Nivea lip butter in Vanilla & Macadamia tastes delicious (and reminds me of Ireland, since that’s where I bought it) and will be needed for hitting the slopes even though the packaging is kind of inconvenient. The mini Laura Mercier Lip Glace in Rose is in there in case I want to use a gloss (plus it also smells amazing). The two MAC lipsticks are Russian Red and Darkside, although I stupidly forgot to show you the actual colours. Whoops. I doubt I’ll even need this many lip products for a five day vacation, but the variety is nice for those “just in case” moments.
And these are my necessities: NARS eyeshadow primer, MAC Prep + Prime for lips, Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner in 13 Black and a MAC lip pencil in Brick for if I decide to wear Russian Red.
Last up are Illamasqua‘s Imagine
All of that fits into this relatively small makeup bag. For once I had a lot of small deluxe sample sized products which made it a lot easier to get everything crammed in there.
The makeup bag itself was part of the Liberty of London MAC collection from 2010. I’ve used this bag religiously to travel with over the years and love how it’s held up. I also love the colours and the pattern itself. If you’re wondering where my brushes are, I’ll probably end up chucking them in a Ziploc bag and stuff them between soft things somewhere between my clothing.
That’s it for this travel makeup bag. I’m extremely excited to get back out there snowboarding since it’s been far too many years!
What’s In My Travel Makeup Bag – Christmas 2013
On Saturday morning I’ll be flying to Ottawa for a week off work to celebrate Christmas with my family. Since I love looking in other people’s makeup bags, I thought I’d share with you what beauty goodies I’m bringing with me on the trip.
Now this is a bit controversial for me! Ever since I first got my hands on the Urban DecayNaked palette several years ago, it has been an absolute must have in every makeup bag I have ever brought with me on vacation. That being said, there are a lot of similar shades in the Too Faced palette, as well as several fun colours that give me a lot more options.
Plus, with two blushes and two bronzers, it makes this a very easy palette to take on vacation. While the palette is quite slim and layed out nicely, it’s also rather large, which makes it a bit cumbersome for some vacations so I wouldn’t necessarily bring it on an international vacation. However, for going back to Ottawa, this looks like it’ll be a fun palette to play with for the week.
My choice of lip products basically covers any type of makeup situation I could possibly need to cover while on vacation. The Jack Black lip balm isn’t particularly a favourite, but it’s an easy “go to” when I need something to take care of my lips if they get dry in the cold winter months. And since I’ll be doing a lot of snowboarding while on vacation, I’ll definitely need this while out on the mountain.
NYX‘s Butter Gloss in Creme Brulee is my absolute favourite gloss at the moment. It’s an easy shade to wear which makes it a very easy choice when I was packing up my makeup bag.
Of course I’m bringing along MAC‘s Prep + Prime for lips as I absolutely must have it if I’m going to be applying any kind of lipstick. MAC Russian Red lipstick and MAC Brick lip pencil are a combination that I use quite often around the holiday season. I just love this shade of red, and to me it just screams “Christmas”. And in case I don’t feel like wearing matte red lips, I’m also bringing along Revlon‘s Cherries in the Snow which is a very deep, vibrant pink shade.
I do a lot of winged liner and lately my preference has been to use a gel liner – so for that I’m bringing along MAC‘s Blacktrack fluidline. The other eye products I’m bringing are items that I use daily: L’Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black mascara in the waterproof formula, Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original to keep my eyeshadow from creasing and MAC Omega eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows.
Hard Candy‘s “bronzer” in Tiki wouldn’t be a bronzer on anyone’s skintone – instead it’s a beautiful highlight shade with a slight golden/yellow sheen. This highlighter isn’t particularly shiny or shimmery, so it’s an beautiful shade to wear on a daily basis.
The two blush compacts I’m taking are my usual vacation staples. Tarte‘s Exposed is my most used, most loved blush that goes with absolutely any eye look I create. Maybelline‘sHot Tamale cream blush is for when I want that extra brightness on the cheeks. I most like this shade for making my cheeks look like I’ve been outside in the cold weather.
I’m not planning on wearing a whole heck of a lot of foundation while on vacation, so this is mostly just for the days where I want to play with full face makeup. Covergirl‘s “CC Cream” helps even out my skin tone and since it has a pump, this was an easy choice.
MAC Turquatic is my most compact bottle of perfume and fits nicely into the makeup bag I’m bringing with me. I’ve been wearing this perfume for a few years now (it was replacement signature scent after Michael Kors stopped making the original Islandperfume). While I love the scent, I will say that the lasting power isn’t the best although that doesn’t stop me from re-purchasing this scent time after time.
Miraculously, all of that makeup fits in this Too Faced makeup bag that came with the “A Few of my Favorite Things” palette. It’s a pretty tight fit though and unfortunately my makeup brushes won’t fit in there so I’ll probably throw them all in a small ziploc bag that I’m sure will end up buried at the bottom of my suitcase!