25 Travel-Sized Beauty Products That Are Totally on Trend

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From activated charcoal to green tea, the beauty world is full of new fads claiming benefits for your skin, teeth, and overall health. Want to sample the trends without spending a mint? Buying travel-sized beauty products doesn’t break the bank and makes it easy to try each trend out for yourself, either at home or on the road.

Travel-Sized Beauty Products Following the Latest Beauty Trends

I tested out some of the latest beauty trends with travel-sized products to find out which fads are worth investing in.

Beauty Trend: Charcoal

The Claim: Activated charcoal acts as a detoxifier with benefits such as treating acne, making pores smaller and cleaner, whitening teeth, and treating open wounds, bites, or infections. (Source: Reader’s Digest, Best Health)

The Result: Charcoal powder whitened my teeth after a few treatments, but the results aren’t long lasting, so I recommend it more for an immediate job. Additionally, I often use a charcoal mask as a spot treatment for pimples at night and notice reduced redness and more clarity in the morning.

Try It for Yourself: Some travel-friendly products that use activated charcoal  are charcoal sheet face masks and charcoal toothpaste. (I picked ones with little mess, as the powder can be difficult to contain.) 

Beauty Trend: Turmeric

The Claim: Turmeric can help with weight loss, has anti-inflammatory properties, aids in digestion, and can reduce symptoms of psoriasis, acne, and eczema. Even if you don’t have any of these skin conditions, turmeric can help with preventing wrinkles, exfoliation, and making skin appear brighter and clearer. (Source: Stylecraze)

The Result: I enjoy turmeric as an essential oil in a diffuser and also as a brightening face mask.

Try It for Yourself: These travel-sized beauty products use turmeric as one of the main ingredients and are great additions to your toiletry bag: Organic Turmeric Soap Bar and Arya Essentials Detoxifying Masque. Or travel with a travel-friendly essential oil like this one.

Beauty Trend: Deodorant Stones

The Claim: Deodorant stones are popular for their natural ingredients and lack of potentially harmful ingredients, like parabens and aluminum, found in most antiperspirants. (Source: National Cancer Institute)

The Result: Deodorant stones are travel-friendly because they are less likely to break or crack like a normal deodorant stick. Note that these are natural products, so they’re fragrance-free and prevent odors rather than cover them up.

Try It for Yourself: Check out Himalayan Salt Ball and Thai Crystal Deodorant Stone, both travel-friendly options.

Beauty Trend: Milk and Probiotics

The Claim: While milk is known for its calcium benefits, dairy is also a great ingredient for your skin. Beauty products with milk help improve your complexion, shrink pores, and are great moisturizers. Take this a step further with probiotics. Applying probiotics topically to your skin can reduce inflammation and block harmful bacteria from air pollution. (Source: Elle and Vogue)

The Result: Not only do I love the smell of beauty products with milk, but I also find them incredibly moisturizing, especially during the dry winter months. I tend to apply them with lighter coverage to avoid clogging my pores.

Try It for Yourself: Test out this beauty trend with BIOMILK Probiotic Day Cream and Beekman 1802 Goat Milk Hand Cream.

Beauty Trend: Rosehip Oil

The Claim: Potential skincare benefits of this beauty trend include brightening skin, treating wrinkles, firming skin, evening out skin tone, and treating scars with anti-inflammatory fatty acids. (Source: Rodale’s Organic Life)

The Result: I love traveling with rosehip oil and adding a dab of it to my moisturizer, especially after a long flight. You can also use it on hair and nails.

Try It for Yourself: Thesis’ cold-pressed formula is totally organic and works well under makeup.

Beauty Trend: Coconut Oil

The Claim: Known for its moisturizing, anti-aging, and anti-viral properties, you can find coconut oil-based products everywhere these days. You can use it for sunburn relief (and even light sun protection), as a hair de-frizzer, on a dry scalp, to moisturize, as shaving cream, or as a perfume scent. Plus, coconut oil is also used for oil pulling, which involves swishing the oil after brushing for about 10 minutes and is a remedy for teeth whitening and overall oral health. (Source: Allure)

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The Result: Coconut oil’s versatility makes it incredibly travel-friendly because it can take the place of several single-use products. That’s why I always have it in my toiletry bag. 

Try It for Yourself: Conscious Coconut makes a handy travel-sized tube of organic coconut oil, which you can use for just about everything. Trader Joe’s Coconut Oil Packets are also a great travel-sized option.

Beauty Trend: Green Tea

The Claim: Green tea is a well-known healthy ingredient for consumption, but it also works wonders on your skin. The caffeine in green tea can treat dark circles and de-puff eyes, and it’s also great for anti-aging and treating acne. (Source: Stylecraze)

The Result: I particularly like it as an ingredient in eye and face masks, as well as in a cleansing stick, especially for treating jet lag.

Try It for Yourself: 100% Pure makes a great green tea “water bomb” face mask that comes in travel-friendly packaging. For eyes, travel with To Go Spa’s eye treatment masks. And if you’re looking for a face cleanser, Neogen makes a popular cleansing stick that does double duty as an exfoliator.

Beauty Trend: H2O

The Claim: If you don’t think water can be trendy, think again. Good old H2O obviously hydrates your skin and is great for your overall health, but there are some other beauty-benefiting claims out there as well. Micellar water claims to draw out impurities on the skin by using micelles (or cleansing oil molecules), making it a great makeup remover and cleanser. Hydrating facial mists are also a great energy pick-me-up and can be used to set makeup. (Source: Huffington Post )

The Result: I love using micellar water as a makeup remover and toner. It’s also handy to travel with to areas where tap water might be harsh or not readily available, so you have it to wash your face too. I also swear by facial misters (pure water and ones mixed with rose water) as a red-eye flight essential and always take a bottle with me on the plane.

Try It for Yourself: Garnier makes a travel-size version of its popular micellar water that I personally purchase in bulk. For facial mist sprays, Evian Mist makes travel-friendly cans, or try Mario Badescu’s with aloe, herbs, and rosewater.

Beauty Trend: Plant-Based Stress Relief

The Claim: Plant-based or vegan products can make for great, natural stress relievers. Chemical-free products are environmentally friendly and less damaging to your body. (Source: Baremetics)

The Result: I like being able to travel with something that can calm me down and reminds me of home if I need it. Whether it’s tea bags or another remedy, like bath salts, plant-based stress relievers can be a traveler’s best friend.

Try It for Yourself: Herbal medicine line Wooden Spoon Herbs offers a variety of products to help with stress, like Stress Less Powder and Anxiety Ally tincture. Saje Wellness also makes a plant-based stress release nasal inhaler that’s great for long flights.

Beauty Trend: Highlighter and Contour Sticks

The Claim: This makeup trend defines your facial features using shading techniques. (Source: AdoreBeauty)

The Result: As someone who doesn’t wear a lot of makeup, I was hesitant to try this trend, but contour and highlighter sticks are actually pretty easy to use. They’re also small and solid, making them travel-friendly as well.

Try It for Yourself: These aren’t full-on contouring products or kits, but if you’re looking to test this beauty trend out, try Beauty UK’s All-in-One Kit or Mirenesse’s 101 Sculpt Brush Highlighter Kit.

Beauty Trend: Lip and Cheek Tints

The Claim: In product reviews and descriptions, lip and cheek stains tend to claim that they’re long-lasting and more hydrating than traditional lipsticks and blushes. These products are ideal for travelers since you can use a single tint on both cheeks and lips.

 The Result: I have traveled with a tint stick for a while now and love the natural pigmentation of the one I use. I still like to use lip moisturizer, but do find that the tint has longer-lasting color.

 Try It for Yourself: I use Naked Truth Beauty’s lip and cheek stick. Sonia Kashuk makes a liquid version that’s compact for travel, too.

You can shop our curated list of travel-sized beauty products that are on trend on Amazon.

Some review products are sent to us free of charge and with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions, positive and negative, and will never accept compensation to review a product.

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