Most people pack a vanity case the way they pack a handbag: everything goes in, the lid closes, and by the time it arrives somewhere the contents have redistributed themselves into a single layer at the bottom.
A structured case is designed to prevent this, but only if you load it in the right order.
Work in Layers
- Heaviest and flattest at the base. Compacts, palettes, and glass bottles laid flat. These form a stable floor for everything else.
- Upright items around the walls. Brushes, pencils, and mascaras stood on end against the sides, where the structure of the case holds them in place.
- Small and fragile in the lid. Rings, studs, and anything you do not want crushed goes in the lid compartment, not loose in the base.
- Soft items last. A folded cloth or cotton pads on top fills the remaining air, which is what stops everything shifting in transit.
The Ten-Second Rule
Pack so that anything you use daily can be reached without unpacking anything else. If your everyday moisturizer is under three palettes, you have optimized for the wrong thing. The case is a tool you open every morning, not a storage box you open on arrival.
Handling Liquids
- Decant anything you will not finish into small sealed containers. Less weight, and far less to clean up if something goes.
- Wrap the caps of anything glass in a strip of tape before flying. Pressure changes loosen threads.
- Keep liquids together in one section rather than spread throughout, so a leak stays contained.
- Check your airline's cabin liquid limits before deciding what travels with you.
What Not to Bring
The single biggest improvement most people can make is packing less. A useful test: for each item, name the specific occasion on the trip when you will use it. Anything that fails that test stays home. Multi-use products — a balm that works on lips and cheeks, a tinted SPF instead of separate steps — buy back more space than any packing technique.
Between Trips
Empty it, wipe out the interior, and leave it somewhere dry with the zip partly open. Residue left sitting in a closed case for months is how liners stain permanently.
More on looking after the exterior in How to Care for Pebbled Leather.