TSA-Approved Tips for Carry on Beauty Products: Top Tips You Should Know

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No matter how long or short a trip is (to an extent), I will always travel with carry-on luggage. I don’t like having to arrive early at the airport to deal with checked luggage, and I don’t like waiting around for luggage to arrive once I reach my destination.

Although this makes my airport trips a whole lot more speedy, it’s not necessarily the easiest when it comes to traveling with beauty products.

As someone with a skincare routine that easily takes 15 minutes on a good morning/night and a makeup routine made up of a majority of liquid products, fitting everything into a quart-sized bag allocated to travelers at the airport has been…a challenge.

After travels where perfume bottles were thrown in the bin in front of my eyes, products exploding at some point of the journey, and having to sacrifice my favorite foundation that couldn’t fit into the bag, I decided to be more serious about my beauty-packing strategy.

I think I’ve now become pretty good at navigating how to pack beauty products for a carry-on flight—if I do say so myself.

Going through the transportation security administration (TSA) can be a royal pain, but, I hope you find some useful tips to make packing for your next journey abroad as stress-free as possible—Happy travels! ✈️

Tips For Packing Beauty Products In Your Travel Carry-on Bag

Packing beauty products for a carry-on flight can be a minefield, but follow these tips and you’ll be a pro next time you travel.

Bring as many solid products as you can

One of my biggest handy tips that helps me to cut down on the number of liquids has been finding solid alternatives for my favorite liquid beauty products.

For example, I love a good solid shampoo, the Good Molecules solid face wash, and the Mitchum solid deodorants–these are all things that don’t need to be put in your liquids bag so create room for the things that you don’t have solid alternatives for.

Not to mention that these solid products are normally much better for the environment anyway as they aren’t housed in single-use plastics. Obviously, there are things like contact lens solutions or other medically necessary liquids that you can’t find solid versions of, but when it comes to products like facial cleansers or solid perfume, it’s an easy switch to make.

It doesn’t just end with hair and body products, I also like to take a stick foundation and a pot of concealer with me on my travels.

Those solid products are a great way to avoid paying extra for checked luggage, keep up your consistent skincare routine, and keep everything under the 3.4 ounces mark.

Think about what products to prioritize

When it comes to choosing what liquids to take with you in your carry-on rather than your checked bag, it can be hard to narrow things down when you have a long skincare routine and haircare routine–choosing which products make the cut normally comes down to what your priorities are.

In the previous point, I mentioned that I bring solid shampoo with me, but I also like to use styling products when I’m out of the shower like air dry cream and smoothing oils, which you can’t get as a solid product. Because I can’t take all of the hair products I’d want with me, I stick to the one that’s most important–a smoothing hair oil.

Similarly, with my skincare routine, there’s no way I would be able to fit all of my products into the small quart-sized bag, even if I tried.

So I’m left to compromise on what are my skincare essentials really are. Usually, I’ll stick to the following skin care product options:

• Niacinamide serum
• Hydrating serum
• Moisturiser
• SPF
• Azelaic Acid serum (for my PM routine)

These five products are the absolute minimum that I can get away with and will work to keep my skin in shape while I’m away.

All of the products above usually come in smaller-sized containers, so they can either go in my carry-on bag for the plane or just go under the seat in my personal item. I do like to pack light when it comes to a trip, so makeup is left to the essentials and I forget about things like styling tools, nail polish, etc.

Buy products at the airport

I also tend to buy products when I get to the airport to avoid them taking up space in my liquids bag before an upcoming trip. You go through security right before you get to the duty-free shopping area, and once you get through this step you can buy as many liquids as you like as you won’t be checked again before going on the plane.

BUT! Be careful if you have a connecting flight along the way as you will have to go through security and get your liquids checked again! So buy any products at your connecting airport.

The products I buy at airports are usually products that are the boring basics that are essential, but not the things that I need to bring with me from home, like toothpaste, hand sanitizer, a skincare product like eye cream or cleanser, and shower gel.

You can either buy travel-sized containers of your favorite skincare products that come in 3.4 ounces travel sizes if you’d rather not take up too much space in your checked baggage. But, it’s also incredibly helpful to know that you can get full-sized travel beauty at this point in your trip, so as long as you’ve got the space in your carry-on, go crazy!

Find multi-use products

The next tip is to find products that are multi-purpose, like bringing a moisturizer with you that can work day and night so you don’t have to bring two different creams.

When you’re going through airport security without checked baggage, you need every spare bit of space in your clear ziplock bag, so finding these multi-use makeup and skincare products is going to save you a lot of room.

For example, blush shades that are a mix of blush and bronzer instead of bringing one of each. Or use your moisturizer as an eye cream To reduce the need of bringing lots of extra products with you.

What beauty products do you not need to put in your liquids bag?

The final tip that I have for packing beauty products for air travel is to know what things you have to put in your liquids bag and what you can get away with not packing.

For example, things like mascaras, eyeliners, and lipsticks are things that I know some people put in their liquids, but I never have–and I’ve never had any issues with that.

So make sure that these products aren’t taking up any precious space in your bag unnecessarily. Plan ahead and think about which of your favorite products need to be in travel containers, what needs to be taken out of a big bottle for the plane, and what things can go into one of your other packing containers for a long flight.

Our Favorite TSA-Approved Beauty Products For Your Carry-On Luggage

We don’t all want to take our favorite full-sized products away with us when we’re traveling. Not only do they take up too much extra space, but they can end up as money down the drain if you do find yourself having to leave something behind at security.

Here are a few of our favorite carry-on-friendly beauty products that won’t cause uproar at the TSA checkpoint.

Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter Mini

When it comes to base products, nothing says holy grail quite like the Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter base. The only issue is that it often doesn’t make the cut for our travels as the packaging is big and bulky for those who aren’t traveling with a checked bag.

Luckily for those who can’t do without this product, they have a handy mini-sized version that easily slots into your liquids bag without taking up too much space.

JVN Air Dry Cream Mini

Hair care can be a bit of a tricky one when it comes to traveling as most of the products we use are often creams, gels, or liquid — not ideal when you’re trying to save space and get everything packed into travel-friendly containers.

If you can’t get everything you want to fill a limited amount of containers, we recommend the JVN Air Dry Cream. This works as a styling cream and leave-in conditioner, doing all the hard work that you’d normally rely on an entire routine to complete.

Aquaphor Mini

Just because we’re traveling, doesn’t mean that we want to cut back too much on our skincare routine. This is why we like to keep it simple but effective by using products like Aquaphor, a do-all product that doubles up as a lip balm and slugging solution for post-airplane dry skin.

The small bottles of this are easy enough to carry in most carry-on bags so you don’t need to worry about it taking up too much room. One thing we’ve learned on our travels is that Aquaphor always comes in handy, so don’t leave home without it.

KOSAS Revealer Concealer Mini

Concealers don’t take up too much space in your bag, but we’re the kinds of people that want to save as much space as possible.

KOSAS do miniature-sized versions of a lot of their powder and liquid products, and the teeny tiny Revealer Concealer is a must-have for any beauty-obsessed traveler. The container is much smaller than the original and can easily fit into even the smallest amount of room you have left in your packed luggage.

Glossier Cloud Paint Dusk

When it comes to cosmetics, it’s normally easier to stick to the essentials, especially because most of them don’t need to be put in your liquids bag anyway unless you have a liquid foundation, bronzing gels, etc.

One product that always seems to make its way into our travel bags is the Glossier Cloud Paint, specifically the color Dusk. This shade is the perfect mixture of bronzer and blush, making it ideal for a quick on-the-go makeup look.

Get Ready For Your Flight

Follow these tips, and you’ll easily be able to pack everything you need in your carry-on bag, and not feel like you’ve had to go super minimal for your beauty routines in the process.

For me, the most important thing has to be finding solid alternatives that don’t contribute to your liquids limit, this way I’ve been able to keep travel beauty routines pretty similar to my at-home routines.