I wasn’t always a skincare girl. I used to wash my face with a natural cleanser, apply castor oil and call it a day.

Then, on a relatively recent trip to Norway, a very loving friend informed me that my skin looked terrible.

She wasn’t wrong. Thankfully, she also knew exactly what I needed to do about it.

Fast-forward a few months and I now follow a skincare routine religiously every night. As someone who isn’t generally known for her ability to sustain routines, this has surprised me—but my skin is extremely grateful.

It did create a new problem, though: how was I supposed to take all this skincare away with me?

Full-sized products were out of the question. Most of them weren’t available in travel sizes and, even if they had been, I still had shampoo, conditioner and everything else to consider.

The Full List

The first step was to assess everything I wanted to fit into the traditional 20cm × 20cm liquids bag.

Here is what my list looked like:

• Beauty of Joseon Ginseng Cleansing Oil
• CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser
• Beauty of Joseon Rice Milk Toner
• The Ordinary retinol serum
• Moonfire Wolf Lash Envy serum
• Moonfire Wolf Brow Game serum
• CeraVe PM Facial Moisturising Lotion
• CeraVe AM Facial Moisturising Lotion with SPF
• Coco & Eve Boost Therapy Hair Density Serum
• magnesium sleep spray
• toothpaste
• deodorant
• the bare minimum amount of makeup
• shampoo and conditioner
• Frizz Ease serum
• suncream
• perfume

That is a lot of products, as I’m sure you can imagine, and I was wholly unwilling to sacrifice any of them.

That included the makeup, which always seems slightly ridiculous because I rarely wear it from day to day. I still want the option, though. If we go out for a meal one evening, I want to be able to wear makeup should the mood take me.

Start With the Solids

The first thing I did was move anything that could reasonably be solid out of my liquids bag.

For me, that meant a solid deodorant, a contour-and-highlighter duo and my main suncream.

Helpful, certainly—but it didn’t exactly make the rest of the list disappear.

Why Ordinary Travel Bottles Didn’t Work

We have all seen the standard travel-container sets: a clear bag containing three or four bottles, each one far larger than it needs to be.

That wasn’t going to work for me. I had too many products and needed much smaller quantities of each.

I Googled. I searched Pinterest. I couldn’t find anything that worked on the scale I wanted.

Eventually, I sat and stared at my toiletries in complete bewilderment, as though looking at them for long enough might cause the answer to reveal itself.

It did not.

I did, however, finally ask myself a useful question: How much of each product am I actually using?

The answer was hardly any.

The Eye-Drop-Bottle Revelation

Instead of searching exclusively for travel toiletry bottles, I began looking for any small container capable of holding a tiny amount of liquid. I also found the smallest silicone shampoo bottles I could—30ml—which were far more sensible for shampoo and conditioner.

Then I discovered empty eye-drop-style bottles.

You know the ones: tiny, clear plastic bottles with narrow dropper tips that are extremely easy to squeeze.

Those ones.

They were exactly what I needed, and I haven’t looked back.

The dropper opening gives me control over how much product comes out, and the bottles are small enough for me to carry a separate cleanser, toner and collection of serums without sacrificing half the bag to containers that are mostly empty.

I label every bottle clearly, test it for leaks before travelling and make sure the container is suitable for the product going into it. This is particularly important with active ingredients, which may need protection from air or light—and it prevents a skincare bottle from being mistaken for something intended for your eyes.

A Full Routine in a Smaller Bag

Here they all are, packed inside a 15cm × 15cm bag—smaller than the traditional liquids allowance and with room still available.

I packed them for the trip I’m currently on: a three-day jaunt to Devon. Admittedly, I came by car and could have brought every full-sized bottle I own, but the little containers hold so much that there was no reason to.

I keep them packed inside my travel toiletry bag, ready to come out again whenever it’s time to go away. I simply check the contents, refill anything running low and I’m ready.

There is also something deeply satisfying about having a maximalist’s options in a minimalist’s bag.

Airport liquid rules can vary, particularly as some airports introduce newer scanners, so always check the rules at your departure, connection and return airports before travelling. When the traditional restrictions apply, liquids generally need to be in containers of no more than 100ml and fit comfortably inside one transparent, resealable one-litre bag.

What are your best tips for travelling with liquids—and is there anything you still refuse to leave at home?