You know after you’ve had a few days in the sun and all of a sudden your foundation is the completely wrong colour? As someone who tans pretty quickly I learned years ago to prepare for this. I know many have already had summer holidays, but my main one is yet to come. I have however had four days in Palma and got a surprisingly good tan from just that short time. Here I’ll be running through the essentials in my make up bag for summer travel.

For Palma I only had hand luggage, so it was really important to keep products low, not too bulky and transferable across purposes. Face palettes I could use on my eyes, moisturiser that doubles up as foundation…I feel like I’ve finally got my essentials sorted.

Tinted Moisturiser – Bobby Brown medium – dark

I usually wear really thick coverage foundation, but it’s not what you want on holiday. I don’t have the confidence to go bare skin, and rather than try guess what shade I’d be in a lighter coverage foundation I went for a tinted moisturiser instead. 

I’ve used this one from Bobby Brown in the past after holidays, I love how much lighter it is, and the tint really does give a nice look at the same time as being moisturising. My skin gets really dry so this solves both my coverage and skin type problems. 

I lob a good dollop on with my hands, then blend it out with a brush to make sure it’s even. 

Concealer – Bare Minerals shade Light

This is the concealer to match the foundation I usually wear but in a slightly lighter shade, and I don’t go any darker for this. I used it under my eyes and across some of the blotchy red patches and sunspots that appear after a day sunbathing. 

Blended out with a sponge this on top of the moisturiser worked great for the duration of my holiday, and I’ve been using it in the week since. I’m going to keep going with this instead of full on foundation until hopefully long after my next holiday to Italy. 

Charlotte Tilbury Glowgasm Face Palette in LoveGasm

This is my absolute favourite product of the year. Summer glow in four incredible shades and a palette than can be used across both face and eyes. 

There’s a bronzer, 2 blusher shades and a golden highlighter shade for all your face contouring needs. They’re so pigmented you don’t need to slap loads on, a little goes a very long way, especially of the rose gold 

I used it on my eyes for the evenings too, and it does give a really amazing but subtle summer glow.

Fenty Beauty Bronzer shade Island Ting

The CT palette does have a bronzer in it, but I did take my own Fenty one that I discuss in more detail here. I just like it and the colour suits my skin better. 

While I’m on about Fenty beauty, if you did want a proper foundation Fenty’s are said to be great in hot climates, especially if you sweat a lot in the heat. Ive not tried it myself so can’t recommend properly but I am tempted maybe for Italy as that sounds ideal. 

Urban Decay Naked 2 Basics eye palette 

These are a god send for me with the amount of work travel I do. I use the full size urban decay palettes all the time, and have favourite colours in each. It wouldn’t be practical to carry them all with me as they’re bulky, but I really love that they do urban minis which have a more concise range of colours, with shades that cover you from day into night if you build it up.

They have a few but I find the Naked2 basics is best suited to me. On the nights where I don’t just want neutral colours I just add some of the shades from the Charlotte Tilbury palette I mentioned above.

Charlotte Tilbury Hot Lips JK Magic

Hard to imagine there would ever be lipstick shade nicer than either Pillow Talk or Penelope Pink, but I’m a huge fan of the new JK Magic. A nude shade wearable all the time, it’s my current favourite. In the evenings I whack some of the Fenty lip balm on top too.

So those are my essentials, and I’ll be taking all to Italy in less than a months time. Let’s just hope I don’t burn my face and peel again. Don’t forget your high SPF face sun cream!

Other posts you might like:

Fenty Beauty in Newcastle and the products I’m using a month later

Bloom Beauty to your doorstep in Newcastle

Festival Fix Make up with Cosmetify