Beauty on the Go

I'm off to the Essence Music Festival -- back in New Orleans, my favorite U.S, city, outside of Manhattan. Here's the shameless plug: It isn't too late to get your tickets via Ticketmaster! Beyoncé, Ludacris, Lionel Richie and more are waiting to entertain you...

Anyway, organizing my toiletries takes more time than coordinating my outfits. It doesn't matter whether I'm going to a hotel or my auntie's house, I need my beauty stuff -- it's grounding for me. If my hair is pressed, it's a flat iron and sheen spray. When it's hot and humid, I'm loving a curly fro, and I need some sort of headband or scrunchie, leave-in conditioner, a brush and alcohol-free gel. I know, I know, that's a lot, but the hair needs this cocktail to act right.

Let's move on to body products. Take careful note: Halter dresses, short skirts and sexy sandals should never be worn with dusty elbows and knees or cracked heels. Got that? Your everyday lotion may not be enough for these situations; shea butter's better. I love the little packs of Frederic Fekkai Shea Butter Body Crème Luxeuse Portables (beauty.com). They're small, lightweight packs of shea butter cream that can easily fit in a back pocket or glove compartment. Because teeny hotel soaps are ridiculous and my auntie's rose-scented bath soap is just not my thing, I always pack a travel-size body wash. You'll love Bliss Sinkside Six-pack (blissworld.com). You may not need the included shampoo and conditioner, but the lotion, soap, face wash and body wash make the set worth it. Plus, the lemon and sage scent is clean, none of that overpowering coconut, mango, watermelon business. If you need more serious skin care, then you may want to go with the Philosophy Does Your Skin Need a Drink hydrating set (philosophy.com), which contains the stellar Hope in a Jar face cream for all skin types and Hope in a Tube lip and eye cream. My skin is usually oily, but after flying it's dehydrated. This combo always fixes me up.

Now I know this sounds crazy because it's clearly July, but I love my cashmere socks from my Johnstons Jet Set travel pack (johnstonscashmere.com), I'm always freezing on the plane, so the softy socks take care of me. The set comes in a small drawstring bag with a pair of cashmere socks, a cashmere pillow cover for the yucky airplane pillows and a cashmere blanket. A little luxury never hurt anyone.

Any travel-right beauty tips? Send them my way. I want to hear all about them.

Photos: Frederic Fekkai Shea Butter Body Crème Luxeuse Portables (top left); Bliss Sinkside Six-pack (top right); Johnstons Jet Set travel pack (bottom)

Comments

[Julia]

I love Bobbi Brown Empties. You can put any product in the containers and they come with labels. http://www.bobbibrowncosmetics.com/templates/products/sp_nonshaded.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CATEGORY2564&PRODUCT_ID=PROD6520I never travel without my Vitamin Enriched Face Base. It's moisturizing on the plane and it minimizes fine lines and wrinkles. I also recommend Witch Hazel Towelettes. It's a natural toner and you don't have to worry about leakage.

[Teri]

I had just moved to Boston with a fairly new pixie cut, but it was soon time to relax it and there was not a salon in sight that catered to black hair. Until, I came upon a tiny hole in the wall salon that charged 60 bucks for a relaxer and blowdry. What a mistake. The stylist was a middle-aged Asian woman who kept exclaiming about how "very curly" my new growth was. I,the naieve 20 year old I was, just nodded and smiled completely unaware that she was re-relaxing the straightened half of my hair. When I finally returned home at the end of the semester, one of the first things my mom said to me was, "what happened to your hair?" I didn't think it had looked that bad. But after my usual stylist at home told me that my hair was damaged, I threw in braids for 6 months and, like you, fell in love with my new growth. I made the step to return to my natural and I've been donning my "very curly" hair for 3 years now! I love it, even though I'm often tempted to cut it into a low fro, and I'm never going back to straightening my hair! My staple product is shea butter - I mix it with just about any new product that I use and I like to condition with Pantene Hydrating Curls. I've also nixed shampoos altogether and instead I use a teaspoon or 2 of baking soda in warm water to get rid of build-up. Works just fine for me.