10 PRODUCTS YOU NEED IN YOUR MAKEUP BAG

By Gloria Knott | August 18, 2015

Summer is ending, which means the busy season of fall is approaching. As girls constantly on the go (traveling, working, studying, you name it!), our makeup bags are super essential. But what products should be in our cosmetic bags? And how can we determine how many products are too many products? (I mean, when I pack for a trip I basically bring my whole closet. You’d be silly to think my makeup bag is any different.)

Here are ten essentials you need to carry with you at all times – trust me.

CORRECTOR CONCEALER

Maybelline Cover Stick

Instead of carrying a heavy liquid foundation and makeup sponges in your makeup bag, throw a corrector concealer in your bag. If you’re on the go and need a quick touch up in areas where your foundation may have disappeared, this should be your go-to product. Liquid foundation is messy and hard to apply when you’re in a rush and away from your vanity at home. Plus, you generally don’t want to pack on more foundation to cover up your earlier foundation. So that’s why this genius product will save your life. It’s small, portable, and touches up blemishes like no foundation could!

PRESSED POWDER

Cover Girl Pressed Powder

You definitely want to avoid loose powder for your cosmetic bag – I mean, if that baby spills, you’ll have an endless amount of powder all over the place. And powder isn’t that easy to clean up! So instead of loose powder, I like Covergirl’s pressed powder. The compact comes in small packaging and includes its own sponge and mirror, which means you don’t have to carry a separate sponge or mirror with you! Convenient, right? When I’m traveling and need to get rid of the shininess from my foundation, this is my go-to product.

OIL ABOSRBING SHEETS

Clean & Clear Oil Absorbing Sheets

These are probably the most valuable addition you’ll ever put in your makeup bag. If you’re running around all day and your face gets oily like mine does, these will be your life saver. They come in portable packaging, so it’s easy to simply toss them in your bag and that’s literally it. And all it takes is one little sheet to remove the oils from your face – one, tiny little sheet! You NEED these in your makeup bag.

A COMB

I know, I know, it might sound kind of weird, but trust me on this one. I have long, thick hair, and it gets tangled basically 20 minutes after I brush it in the morning. And I hate going the whole day knowing my hair is as tangled as a rat’s nest. Since a brush is too big and bulky, a comb works perfectly. It’s thin, light, and takes the tangles out of your hair just as well as your favorite brush.

HAND SANITIZER

On more than one occasion, I’ll be in a public place and I’ll touch something gross. Something that’ll leave my hands dirty or sticky, or just all around gross. Hand sanitizer fixes this problem easily. Since the scents of generic sanitizers are often very strong and pungent, head over to Bath & Body Works and pick out some of their assorted hand sanitizers. They come in little bottles in all sorts of amazing scents. And here’s a huge tip: Some of their hand sanitizers have glitter! A product that makes you feel clean, smell nice, AND has glitter? Where could you ever go wrong?

CHAPSTICK OR LIP BALM

One of my least favorite feelings is going the entire day with chapped lips. It’s irritating and sometimes painful. Putting chapstick or lip balm in your makeup bag may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s astonishing how many times I’ve left my house without my handy tube of chapstick. And I definitely regret it every time. And here’s another tip: You can even get a tinted lip balm (hello, EOS and Baby Lips!) so you won’t have to pack a lipstick or gloss in your cosmetic bag. Tinted lip balms help cure your chapped lips, while also giving off an amazing color. What a beautiful solution!

TISSUE

This is an absolute staple in my bag during allergy season (ain’t nobody got time for teary eyes and a runny nose!). But tissue isn’t only vital for the days when you’re suffering from allergies! You never know when you’ll need to blow your nose, right? Tissues can also work if you have something small you need to clean up quickly, such as condensation on your water bottle or hand sanitizer leaking. Go for the smaller travel packs and simply place one in your bag, super handy!

HAIR TIES AND BOBBY PINS

I can’t tell you how many times I start the morning with my hair down and end up throwing it in a ponytail by late afternoon. It’s even worse when I take time on my hair, just to unknowingly walk outside into a giant windstorm. That being said, ponytails are a go-to hairstyle, which can only mean one thing: Hair ties are an absolute must. Same for bobby pins. Bobby pins are an essential for those days when you want to keep your hair out of your eyes or just pin back your fly aways.

PERFUME ROLLERBALLS

Perfume is generally heavy and fragile – not something you want to keep in your makeup bag. I mean, what if it spills or the glass bottle breaks? No fun. If only there was a solution for that… oh wait! There is. PERFUME ROLLERBALLS. These come in convenient little sticks, making them completely portable. When you feel you need to freshen up, simply roll the stick on your skin and you will smell fresh in no time. If your favorite perfume doesn’t come in a roller bottle, you can buy empty roller containers and pour your perfume inside them. Perfection!

MASCARA

On the days when I really don’t feel like doing my makeup, I’ll add a little bit of mascara to my lashes just to add a little something to my face. Mascara is definitely the makeup product I can’t live without. So, by the end of the day when my lashes are looking a little weak, mascara is obviously a perfect solution. I usually use Maybelline’s Colossal Cat Eyes mascara in the morning. So instead of putting an expensive mascara in my makeup bag, I like to throw Maybelline’s Great Lash mascara in my bag (which is actually significantly cheaper in price). I find that it’s hard to apply the Cat Eyes mascara on top of more Cat Eyes mascara, but the Great Lash mascara is lighter, and therefore easier to apply over my earlier mascara. Now you can bat those luscious lashes all day every day!

With these ten items in your cosmetic bag, you are 100% guaranteed to survive every beauty malfunction there could ever be.