How to pack light and still look beautiful

Before I flew to Japan last week, I knew I didn't wanna be bogged down by lots and lots of beauty products while I was traveling or while I was away. At the same time, I hate it when you scrimp on items in your suitcase, and then realize too late that you desperately needed it just to function on a basic level. So here are all the beauty products (not makeup, but like toiletries) I took with me on a very very long international flight, all of which fit into a fairly small cosmetic bag:

1) Dove Beauty Bar- for my face. Planes tend to dry your skin out, so a moisturizing wash is important!
2) Detangler & wide-tooth comb. Because I have the world's tangliest hair.
3) Perfume strips from my vast collection of magazines. They turned out to be very useful, and are spill-proof! No worrying about a smashed perfume bottle in your suitcase. Plus I got to try out a bunch of new perfumes.
4) A Ziploc bag filled with several wet wipes. These are great for keeping your face clean on a long plane ride, and also for taking the easy way out on skincare when you're severely jet-lagged.
5) A container of bobby pins (they're in an old CVS prescription bottle. It's not pretty, but it works).
6) A small bottle of tea tree oil. I love this stuff. It tingles and disinfects your pores. I like it better than benzoyl peroxide treatments.
7) The world's smallest squeeze bottle filled with contact solution (in the pic, it has a blue lid). It holds enough for 2-3 days, which you won't need more than in your carry-on. I had a regular-sized bottle in my checked bag.
8) Olay Total Effects Eye Transforming Cream. It's in a tiny pot that's perfect for traveling, and brights up the nastiness underneath my eyes.
9) Toothbrush & travel-sized toothpaste. My toothbrush is lime green (surprise!).
10) Contact case & an extra pair of contacts. Because there's nothing worse than losing a contact away from home. Trust me, I've done it. Several times. And finally by the age of 21, I've learned something.
11) Deodorant. Um, no explanation necessary. Almost all deodorants are less than 3 oz, so don't buy a travel-sized one! There's almost nothing in there. You'll end up wasting your money.
12) A travel bottle that I filled with Suave Kids 2-1 shampoo & conditioner in Fairy Berry Strawberry. I love this stuff. I use it for my hair, body wash, and shaving gel when I'm traveling. It's just so easy, so cheap, and so wonderful smelling!
13) A travel bottle that I filled with my Lubriderm lotion with AHA's. It's the only thing that helps the "chicken skin" on my arms. Oh, and since it has AHA's in it, you can also use it on your face when it's dull.
14) Lime green disposable razor.
15) A tiny bottle of hand sanitizer from Bath & Body Works in White Citrus. Mmmm, that's my favorite scent from B&BW. But I'm very partial to citrusy smells. I think this tiny airplane-perfect bottle is $2.
16) An empty lip gloss pot that I filled with my moisturizer- St. Ives Collagen Elastin Facial Moisturizer. This is a great product. And also a great idea. Definitely save your leftover lip gloss (or eye cream) pots for travel uses. You'll end up saving money.
17) A ponytail holder. Actually I think I had several of these, because I have a weird habit of stuffing a few into the pockets of every pair of pants I own. I'm paranoid about being stranded somewhere with really really bad hair and no ponytail holder. What a nightmare.

The only thing I wish I'd had? Some kind of face scrub. My skin got kinda dull during the trip, and I really wished I had something to correct that. Oh, well. I'll remember that for the next time I unexpectedly get to fly halfway across the world.

What about lip products?? How do you pare those down?? This is nothing new, but I really love lipstick and feel weirdly insecure without about 7 in my purse at all times (because you never know hen you'll need lavender or cherry or nude!). That was until I had a brilliant idea:

A small lipstick palette! I got this one at Dollar Tree and it has really great colors! I used nothing else all week. Each pan has enough product for 3-4 uses, so this would last you for a longer trip too. Not bad, huh? I was really proud of myself for how light my purse felt :).