Travel Light: toiletries
 

I've started my packing a while ago. But keep thinking what I can do to make the bag lighter.

I will not bring a lot of clothes on this 3 week trip to Germany because I'm planning on washing them along the way. But the things that I can not make any lighter are the liquid items like body lotion, soap, shampoo and hair conditioner. I wondered if anyone had found something that is less heavy. For example, podwer shampoo and conditioner. Or any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance :)

I go the the drugstore and get the small travel size. If I run out, I make a fun shopping experience out of going to a pharmacy in my vacation-country and try to find what I need.

Why not take the tiny travel-size ones , or none at all, and then just buy regular-size ones when you get there? The main time heavy luggage is a pain is on the way over and on the way back, unless you're doing a lot of train travel. So buy them over there and then throw them away before you come home.

and you might even find toiletries in the accommodations you'll stay in...
otherwise I use to keep samples from beauty shops or magazines.

have a great trip :-)
corinne

I understand the desire to bring your own toiletries.

I have sensitive skin, so I can't use just anything and I would hate to try a different soap or shampoo and then spend the rest of my vacation dealing with an itchy rash. It is one thing to be travelling in the US where every Walgreens sells just about the same stuff, but travelling overseas is a different story.

I have colored red hair so I must use my own shampoo and conditioner. Just buy a $1.99 pack of travel size plastic bottles and take your very favorite stuff in smaller sizes. All of mine will fit in ziplock bag. I even refill one of the small pump hairspray bottles with my own preferred brand.
I take my favorite shower gel but love bath salts and bombs I buy and use when I am there if I have the good fortune to have a tub.

Take your supplies in multiple small plastic bottles and throw them away as they are used up. For your dry toiletries use zip lock bags (for powder, pills, etc).

Be careful with some of the hotel shampoos, etc. that you have saved from previous trips, they wear out easily and start to leak. Yes, it has happened to me. I buy sturdy plastic bottles from Walmart or a discount store.

Put your own products into tiny bottles (like hotels give away or bought from a travel store) just enough for 3 weeks. I do this for liquid body soap, shampoo, conditioner, hair gel, etc.

I also like to buy a nice new larger bottle of body lotion after I arrive which then makes a great souvenier.

Don't waste space using a "cosmetics case". I carry a fairly huge array of lotions & potions and can fit them all into 2 ziplock bags for a trip of that length.

Pert is just one product (in the USA) that is a combination shampoo + conditioner. Try it at home, see if you like it. Pantene makes one as well.
So, that would be one bottle, not two.
:)

If you are not allergic, I've never heard of even a simple hotel that doesn't provide soap.

If you buy a body lotion at home 'for sensitive skin' you could use it as a face lotion as well. Just check the label that it is non-comedogenic (not pimple-producing).

Shampoo makes a perfectly fine 'laundry' detergent if you are just washing a few undies or a lightly-soiled shirt in the sink. For major laundry in a machine, you can buy that there.

I know what you mean about toiletries and cosmetics--the amount to take for a weekend isn't much different, if at all, then what goes along for a long trip.

I tried a powder shampoo once when I was ill, I had to brush my hair for an hour to get the stuff out and my hair didn't feel clean anyway. Ick.

Are you staying in hotels? Never been to a hotel room which does not provide soap, so leave it at home.

Hotel's shampoo may (or may not) be of questionable quality or the wrong type - use it for laundry.

Bring or pour your shampoo in small bottle(s) and toss on the way - more room for souvenirs!

Make sure everything liquid is in soft plastic bottles, not in glass or heave plastic. Put liqids in bottles in a zipper bag.

*exactly* i never use hotel shampoo on my hair but it's OK for washing clothes in the sink. and i do use hotel provided soaps rather than bother to carry my own. if you must pack your own soap i find liquid is more convenient than toting around a soggy bar.

Me too. My hair stands up as stiff as a broom when I used the hotel shampoo. And I did try and bring their shampoo bottles home planning to fill them with my own stuff. They leak!

I've found I can't make toiletries any lighter (if I had such powers I'd spend them all on my hips anyway), but I force myself to control the number I take.

I have two small cosmetics bags that came with sturdy, sample sized bottles (both 6x8 inches. They were bonuses from my salon for spending an inordinate amount of cash there). I fill one with as much makeup as it will hold, then stop packing. I fill the little bottles in the other one with hair and skin products, put them in the bag and when it's full, I stop packing.

I've found that although I'm a product junkie at home, I can get by without three kinds of lotion when I'm traveling.

I doubt you're this kind of girl, but if you are, go to an outdoor store and look for a product called Campsuds. This biodegradeable liquid detergent is good for hair, skin, laundry and dishes and it's highly concentrated. It's fine short-term ( I use when camping), but it is a bit harsh on hair for 3 weeks of use.

Anyone have other ideas? I'd love to hear 'em.

Hey tiaw, referring to your other post...if you didn't have to pack all those other items you wouldn't have to worry so much about your toiletries! Just a thought, hehe.

good point about paring down the cosmetics and hair products to a minimum.
Whenever I feel I'm not looking my absolute best (that requires more and more products these days) I say to myself
"I'll never see these people again."
:)

Amen, Elaine. I figure they don't know how good I can +really+ look, so it doesn't matter!

My DH, on the other hand, knows how +really+ bad I can look, so anything better than the just-rolled-out-of-bed look is a bonus to him.

It all evens out in the end, right?

Hey - another idea: Check with your salon if you use their products. All of my Aveda stuff is available in travel/sample sizes from them, but they don't put it on the shelves. I have to ask for it.

www.thecontainerstore.com has a huge selection of cheap travel bottles. No point in packing 8 ounces of shampoo when you'll only use 2 along the way. Fill a 2 ounce bottle 3/4 full (too full and it will leak) and see how long it lasts at home. If that's not enough for you for 3 weeks, pack 4 ounce bottles.

I also save up those nifty tiny Aveda bottles whenever I stay in a Kimpton Hotel for even smaller amounts of liquid.

You can stuff your toys with travel size toiletries to save space.

I have always used hotel shampoo bottles - refilled with my own products. I have never had one leak. I've done this dozens & dozens of times. The bottles you can purchase for travel are way too big for what I need.

Lush (okay, peoples, I know it's bourgeois and so forth) does a lovely line in solid shampoo bars, including one that I use that's a shampoo/conditioner combo that actually works (called Godiva; jasmine/honey type scent.) They also have solid body butters that would take the place of lotion.

On the other hand, I tend to take lots of my favorite bath stuff with me as I love a good soak after a long day's travel!

I bought travel size bottles at my local hiking/sporting goods store a few years ago. They are made for backpackers and I've used them for for many trips and they've never leaked.

when revfilling bottles with shapoos, conditionsers, creams and lotions, DH always places good plasic rope over the bottle top and the closes the lid over it. Works great. I take travel size toiletries. small everthing..

Tuscanlifeedit--did you mean plastic wrap (thin plastic film for wrapping food)? If so, that sounds like a good suggestion. Thanks for the idea! :-)

I travel frequently for business and toiletries are the one area I refuse to skimp on. I keep a travel kit with full sizes of face lotion, eye cream, etc. The best part is I never have to pack toiletries - just grab my travel bag. I really don't care about the weight. I'll wash underware out in the sink and wear the same shoes everyday before I go without "my essentials".

IO have heard of (though never tried) of storing some make up items in one of those pill containers with seperate compartments for day of th e week. If you cut off a chunk of lipstick, blush etc. it may work, seems like q-tips would be ok for aplication, i wouldnt use it for "runny" type items. I do use a pill container for all those little bits of things i may want, vitamines, asprin, allergy meds etc. Put one type in each day, do not mix the pills.

I don't like to keep cosmetics in storage that long, and I don't want to cut up my good lipsticks or blush, so I don't think I'd be scraping bits of them into little containers.
What I tend to do with cosmetics, is save the powders or lipsticks or foundations, etc that are nearing the end. I also save the 'gift with purchase' cosmetic sample sizes, even if I don't normally use those products. Those are good for samples of face lotions or mascaras.
I travel with those for longer trips, and throw them out before coming home.

Yikes, I can't imagine slicing up a lipstick! A couple tubes sure don't take up much room. Pack up small sample sizes of lotions, face creams, etc. into one "snack" or "sandwich" size ziplock. In another ziplock all the hair products. I take absolutely EVERYthing I normally use at home, but carrying full-size bottles just seems silly to me.

Plastic over the bottletop under the lid... great idea, Tuscan, thanks for sharing!!

..I travel a lot and often on a last minute basis so I literally keep a bag packed at all times. I have a cosmetic bag which is waterproof (though zip locks will do). When Lancome or Estee Lauder has a freebee with purchase I save the skin and eye creams for travel..if I run out of eye cream I just use extra face cream. I use those trow away facial towels to clean. I also found a nicely packaged set of 4 plastic bottles (empty) from Aveda and I pour shampoo, conditioner,another bit of hair goo (I think the pc word is "product"), and vita bath into the last. This saves a lot of $ as well as space as the minis are quite expensive on a per oz basis. I NEVER carry anything but minatures and I bring an absolute minimum of makeup- a foundation, a blush, 2 lipsticks 2 shades of eye shadow.

I can't bear to be without my usual arsenal of makeup, so I always pack what I normally use on a daily basis.
For face soap, I buy the Clean & Clear dissolving paper. It's a little palm sized flat plastic holder that has strips of thin paper inside. When you wet the paper in your hand, it turns into face soap - oil-free, non-comedegenic, hypoallergenic, expeledocious. Genius.

Has anyone ever tried facial cleanser (cloth: turn into soapy washcloth when wet) instead of body soap to save weight? I remember someone told me about doing this. It's exactly like what CheBird described

tiaw, yes I did the last few trips. i put a few clothes in small zip locks to carry them. it seemed like such a brilliant idea, but hardly ever used one. i won't bother with them again.

I haven't heard anyone mention perfume -is there a light weight and spill proof solution? I would hate to lug along the whole bottle and break it...

Today I had a migraine attack because someone with heavy perfume passed by my office. I ran and borrowed a small fan from a coworker to blow the smell away but it was to late. I can't tell what kind of perfume that'll do that to me. Some people with different kind of scent smell good to me from distant. But if I wear any I'll be dead. Anyway, to make the long story even longer, a friend bought me a local perfume from her country. I felt so obligated to use it but didn't want to pass out. Finally I found a spot. I put it on my ankle..... far away from my stupid too sensitive nose!

Try to use combination products, as others on this thread have suggested. I decant my own shampoo and conditioner to smaller bottles, and Dove makes a good combo that everyone in my family likes except me.

Take lotion that is scented with your perfume, and then don't take the perfume--which is usually in a very heavy decorative bottle. You can decant the lotion to a smaller plastic container, although it is a hassle. Or you can squirrel away those freebies you get in the fragrance giveaways and save the lotion for travel.

If you like bubble bath, the hotel shampoo will suffice.

mebe, I like traveling with my perfume, too. I bought an atomizer. Not the kind my grandma used to have. It's the size of a lipstick tube and squirts on kind of like an aerosol.

I saw something like what CheBird said at the Body Shop. In fact I bought one for spraying water on my face during the flight.

Thanks for the info. I never would have thought of an atomizer.I will check out the Body Shop and see what I can find.

I use glass atomizers I buy at Nordstrom's. They come with a small funnel you can use to pour the perfume. That is, if the perfume is in an open-top bottle. Most of them aren't. Then, I learned a tip from a fragrance seller. You can put the nozzle of the large perfume bottle up against the top of the atomizer, and spray it directly into the bottle. You do lose some in the transfer, but it works. I carry fragrance at home in this way, too. The atomizers are probably a quarter-ounce size. I've read that perfume/fragrance stored in a plastic bottle will change its scent, so you need to use a glass one.