Makeup Palettes & Eyeliners On-the-go

One of my favorite parts of traveling abroad is that you have many opportunities to replenish your makeup supply at the duty free stores lining the corridors of the airport. Since I enjoy traveling light, I usually go with buying a few nicer items. Here's a list of my must-buys when I go through duty free stores.

Makeup palettes: 

Makeup palettes, especially ones that happen to have all colors that you can/will use, are a great way to save space. I currently use one from Lancome that I got a couple years ago when leaving Korea. I can even use the dark brown in it on my eyebrows so this one palette completely takes care of my eyes (minus eyeliner & mascara) and blush.

However, I always throw out the brushes that are included and use my own. Brushes (and a good primer) can make up for products that might be a little subpar. Unfortunately, this seems to work both ways where I can have great quality eye shadow, but it will look horrible if applied with the sponge brushes that are included.

Eyeliner:

On the most minimalistic trips, I take just an eyebrow pencil and eyeliner. If I could only take one makeup item, it would be eyeliner, hands down. That's how important it is for me. I've tried quite a few in my day, but I've found that the eyeliners that are easiest to travel with are those that don't require a brush or sharpening.

My favorite eyeliner, if I can afford it, is the Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof (30USD) in black. This goes on smoothly and doesn't smudge very much. I mean, you can't really expect any eyeliner to stay for 12 hours while traveling.

If I'm on a bit of a budget, I go for the MAC Technakohl Liner (15USD), also in black. I used to swear by this one until I splurged once and tried the Chanel waterproof one. 

*I just ran out of this one and am only consoled by the fact that I have a bit of the Chanel splurge left since I used it so sparingly (not anymore!). 

Eyebrow pencil:

I absolutely love this retractable one from The Face Shop (Korean Brand). No, I haven't been able to make it back to Seoul; I had a friend pick one up for me while she was there. I wear color #06, which is a dark brown, but still lighter than my natural brows, hopefully keeping my eyebrows from overpowering the rest of my face.


I must apologize. I meant to take fun photos of these products, but have packed the makeup palate up (with the rest of my room).

Handsewn Pencil Pouch

At the request of Erica from Caught on a Whim, I present to you, my most recent DIY project!

As some of you may know, I'm prepping to board a ship for 85 days to sail around the world while interpreting (Japanese/English). As an interpreter, we're not only in charge of actual communication, we also participate in creating and running some activities on board.

Needless to say, I need to carry around a lot of stuff, including pens/pencils/stapleless staplers/Japanese masking tape/etc. More importantly, since I'd already gathered the supplies, I needed a bag to put it all in. Pencil pouches are much more common in Japan than in the US, but it would still be a struggle to find just the right size.

Confession: I didn't really put much energy into trying to find one of the right size since I had some relatively stainless placemats I'd made before that I no longer needed laying around my apt. I stopped by a fabric store just to pick up a YKK zipper, and voila!

It was my second attempt at using a zipper, but I think it turned out alright.

I'm also packing up my whole room right now and keep finding knick knacks that I don't really know what to do with. In the case of this little badge depicting london sight-seeing buses that I got in a tiny countryside town in Japan, I pinned it on my brand new pencil case to add a little flair!

Country-chic seems to be quite popular in Japan right now, which is why I'd originally picked up the fabric I used on the outside and I added the rabbits with moons on the inside for a more traditional Japanese print/feel. At the time that I bought these fabric scraps, I figured that I'd go for things that felt more or less Japanese since I was buying them in Japan. It'd be much less fun if I bought a pattern that could be purchased just anywhere.

PS- For anyone who thinks that they can't sew: I started sewing in Tokyo, where I don't have a sewing machine. If I can do it, you can too. I mean, this isn't perfect in any way, but it's fairly sturdy so it does the trick!