In June, to my dismay, I had to travel for work for the first time in five years. It was my first flight at all in five years – so I was well out of practice doing things like creatively stuffing a quart bag with toiletries. I saw some awesome wisdom from frequent flyers to use contact lens cases for travel and stop blowing money on waste generating, expensive price-per-ounce/mL travel sizes.
Let me explain.
Times Change
My needs have changed in this five year span. For example, I used to bring primer and setting spray and liquid foundation. Separate shampoo and conditioner in little bottles, body wash, the works. My quart bag resembled Tetris.
Now, I use bar soap, which buys me space, but in California or similarly dry areas I need full-body moisturizer or I am miserable – which wouldn’t have been as big of a deal before. Now, my skin is more fussy about dry conditions, so I wanted extra facial skin hydration going into my flights. I skipped primer and setting spray, opting instead for a balm foundation that thankfully didn’t count as a liquid (and is also gorgeous). I needed a blowout cream hairspray, which I didn’t before.
But I’m religious about sunscreen, vitamin C, my retinoid, and Aquaphor. I want all of these things for my comfort and to put on my ‘best face’ for a high-stakes moment in my career, but I can’t bring all of them in a quart bag even in travel size containers. Recently, I received some Ries airless travel bottles – which are lovely and probably great if you’re driving or checking a bag, but if you’re going carry-on only, no way.
Contact Lens Cases for Travel Products
I’m also far from the first woman with this dilemma – and the ladies that faced this first have an inexpensive, highly accessible answer: contact lens cases.
You might be thinking, “No way, contact lens cases for travel products?! They are way too small to bring what I need. Unrealistic!” But I think you’d be surprised – I was.
My trip was Sunday, returning via a Wednesday night red-eye (getting home around 6AM ET). So – four days of supplies, with more moisturizing stuff than I would normally use because I live in a temperate area and am used to humidity so being in dry settings is tough.
What I Fit into my Contact Lens Cases
Now, I can’t get everything into a contact lens case – hairspray, mouthwash, obviously. But here’s a list of everything I put in a contact lens case well:
- Facial Cleanser – Prequel Gleanser (wow, I haven’t talked about this yet. It’s great!)
- Facial Moisturizer – CeraVe Moisturizing Cream (2 wells because this is nice for body)
- Sunscreen – Nivea Japan Super Water Gel (2 wells just in case)
- Vitamin C – What I was using wasn’t worth an honorable mention
- Retinoid – Rx Tretinoin from Nurx
- All-Purpose Barrier / Lip Balm – Aquaphor
- Blowout Cream – IGK Beach Club
- Hair Balm – IGK Mistress (California + DIY blowouts = hair needs extra moisture too)
I was surprised that the only thing I used all of was my Vitamin C. I still had some of everything else left, enough for at least one if not more uses.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need fancy contact lens cases for travel toiletries, either. If you are a contact-wearer and use nice lens cases for your actual lenses, I really recommend getting some cheap ones for this. I got this 12 pack for around $4, and I only used 5 of the cases. The great thing, too, is that these are super easy to clean so they are reusable – that’s important to me, but I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to just toss them to make life easer.
Cost wise, I saved a ton of money not trying to buy 1) travel sizes of products or 2) individual travel containers with dubious leak protection that are still WAY too big given my needs and constraints. I now keep sunscreen and Aquaphor in my purse this way and wouldn’t travel any other way.