My Weekend Trip Makeup Bag

I’m really bad at packing lightly.

You can ask anyone I’ve ever travelled with, and they’ll tell you that I’m really, really, really good at overpacking. But this time, I was going on a weekend retreat trip to Karuizawa with my club, and as one of the planners, I had to bring snacks for everyone. That meant drastically cutting down the amount of stuff that I could bring for myself. My duffle bag was filled to the brim with snacks, so I just had to stuff everything into my backpack. 

(Let’s take a moment to look at how stunning Karuizawa Shiraito Falls is.)

It was going to be cold in Karuizawa, so I couldn’t exactly pack less clothes, and after thinking of what I usually bring on a trip, I realized that I have the tendency to pack a lot more makeup than I need. Who needs to bring three eyeshadow palettes for a trip? I’m not going on a beauty influencer brand trip, I never am, so why do I plan to do all these elaborate makeup looks that I actually don’t have the time for? It’s also very hard for me to wake up early, so it’s not like I ever have a lot of time to get ready, to begin with. So to prevent overpacking, I found a little pencil pouch (of course it’s Winnie the Pooh) and shoved only my essentials in it. 

Here’s a quick rundown of what was in the pouch:

• Face: Cushion foundation, cream concealer, blush, highlighter
• Brows: Brow pencil, brow gel
• Eyes: Pink sparkly liquid eyeshadow, pink glitter colour stick, liquid eyeliner
• Lips: Lip liner, lip gloss, lip balm
• Miscellaneous: 3 brushes, wipes, a small mirror, eye drops 

Yes, I’m aware that the flat lay is really ugly, but please have mercy…I’m not a professional.

Maybe you think this is a lot of makeup, but for me, compared to the amount that I used to lug around, it was amazing that I could cut it down by so much. (No reference photo because it’s actually shameful.) And I actually used everything! I did a very simple makeup look, using the blush on my cheeks as well as on my eyes. Then I ran my pink glitter colour stick thing over my eyes to make the pink really pop. I used the liquid eyeshadow in the corner of my eyes, and did the rest of my face normally. As in I slap on foundation haphazardly, attempt to make my brows twins, or sisters, or just related to each other somehow, and draw eyeliner that will never even out. 

This is such a silly angle of my face but it’s the only photo where you can kind of sort of see my makeup. And who knew that I didn’t have to lose half my luggage space to makeup? Definitely not me.

So here are my concluding thoughts:

• I can live with a lot less makeup than I think.
• I don’t need to bring mountains of makeup every time I leave my house.
• I’m really happy with what I did for this weekend trip!

If you have the tendency to overpack makeup, don’t worry. Try limiting the space that you allocate to makeup in your backpack or suitcase or duffle bag or whatever you use, and you’d be surprised by the results! Because I know I definitely was.　

Good luck! 

• makeup
• packing
• weekend trip