Travel Tuesday: Holidays Begin in Duty-Free

One of the many perks about living in Europe is the availability of low-cost flights to a wide variety of destinations across the continent. The downside of these flights is the timings are usually out of your control and often are first thing in the morning. Luke and I benefited from one such flight on our recent trip to the south of France (which I’ll be taking about in a series of blog posts over the coming weeks).

On this occasion our flight left London Luton Airport for Bordeaux at 8:00am, which means we had to wake up pretty early to get to the airport on time. Anyone who knows me will know how much I love my sleep, so the idea of waking up even earlier to put on make-up before a flight is not something I'm prepared to do. The only problem is a make-up free face can sometimes make for some pretty horrendous first photos of the holiday. Never fear there is a solution that allows you to get the best of both worlds – sleep and make-up and here it is:

Put your make-up on at the airport!

I don’t mean just putting your make-up in your carry on and putting it on once you get past security. In most international airports there is this wonderful section called Duty-Free where you can purchase a wide variety of things from gifts to alcohol. You can mostly get these same items at home but somehow they seem like must buys in the two hours you have to wait between security and boarding.

Source

One of the things you can get in most, if not all, duty-free sections is make-up, thus making it the perfect solution! The duty-free gives you the opportunity to go make-up free to the airport and arrive with a made-up face at the destination.

I’m always on the lookout for a new foundation or mascara but I usually end up disappointed after I buy. Putting my make-up in the duty-free gives me the chance to test new items I’ve previously been interested in without having to purchase. The products I tried were;

• No7 Triple Protection Tinted Moisturiser
• Dior Rose Petale Blusher
• Rimmel Scandaleyes Mascara
• Burberry Body Perfume

At first I felt a bit guilty walking around the different stalls and doing my make-up but I soon noticed there were actually several other women doing the exact same thing. I did end up making a purchase of mascara because I liked it, surely the exact reason for testers in the first place!

I feel no shame in putting my make-up on in duty-free and next time I travel I’ll do it again! Yes ladies and gentlemen, from no one the holiday begins at duty-free!

First photo of the holiday at La Co(o)rniche in Pyla-sur-Mer

Q: Do you have any silly travel tips to share? Have you ever used the duty-free section to put on your make-up?

Erin x