Honestly, I don’t understand how some travellers don’t take any make up with them. I’ve read SO many posts saying don’t bring your make-up, you won’t wear it, it’ll be too hot, no-one wears make-up… Bullshit. Excuse my French.
Ok so maybe if you’re building houses in Uganda, you might not put your face on… And I admit there were days I didn’t wear any… But I guarantee if you don’t bring any you’ll regret it.
I’m not saying bring the whole lot (although I know a few who did) but you need the basics at the very least. And if you’re WHV-ing it for a year, you most definitely need to bring the normal supply. If you wear make-up to work in London, you’ll wear make up to work in Vancouver. Fact.
For hot climates, I am once again going to refer to my travels in Asia. I saw very few people bare faced, although it differs from place to place. Sure there were times I braved it, a few days in Cambodia and Vietnam come to mind, but most days I slapped on mascara, eyeliner and carmex lip balm. It is too hot to wear foundation and the like, but the sun gives you a nice glow so you won’t need it. And your skin will be tanned soon enough and won’t match your war paint anyway.
When you go out, you want to look good no matter where you are. For example, I wore a LOT of make-up to full moon party:
I even bought false eyelashes from Khao San Road. And I didn’t look out of place on the beach. Bring a lipstick or two to dress up your night look. It’s not like it’s going to take up space.
If there’s an item that you love and makes you feel like you, BRING it. For me it’s my MAC gel eyeliner (Fluidline in Blacktrack), and it’s the one thing I can’t live without. For one of my travelling pals it’s her eyebrow pencil. Everyone has something they don’t want to be parted with – so don’t.
Something I’ve found on my return is that I have a couple of memorable experiences that I didn’t wear any/enough make-up to, and the photos are awful. Case in point is the night we met the Irish guy from Misfits in Siem Reap and I look shocking. It was after a full day of exploring Angkor Wat, I hadn’t intended to go out, scraped my hair back – dire results.
Lessons learnt? Bring make-up, wear make-up, look fabulous, have the lovely photos to show for it.
Hey, love this blog – just what I (and probably many more like me) need!
I do have a question re: foundation though, basically I have awful skin and getting a tan doesn’t give me that nice glow, it makes my cheeks go red (not from sunburn, I think just from heat) and my face gets uncontrollably shiny!
And by shiny, I really do mean shiny! I can control it at home because I have constant access to powder and such. But what on earth am I going to do while away in Asia? Do you have any tips/advice? Or maybe you know someone else with similar ‘issues’ and know what they do?
Skin tone is definitely the number 1 thing that makes me self conscious so grinning and bearing it is an absolute last resort!
Thanks so much!
Laura
Thanks hun 🙂 Ooh that’s a tricky one… I mean ultimately I think you should bring anything you can’t live without.
The only thing is in hot climates you’re also putting sunscreen on your face as well as insect repellent sometimes… so foundation may be a tough one. I definitely think you should bring powder for shininess if that’s an issue, maybe translucent powder because your skin colour will change. And there’s always old fashioned blotting paper? Bit retro. I also took my touche eclat and a bit of blusher to wear at night when it’s cooler.
I would take your essentials and see how you feel when you’re there. It’s not like make-up takes up that much room, right? And you want to be enjoying yourself, not worrying about how you look.
Quick tip – do NOT buy face make-up in Asia. Everything is whitening. Not what you want.
I hope that helps! x