Sample This

If you've ever had a jar of La Mer spill in your makeup bag in your checked suitcase, you know our pain. But what's a girl to do? For the past year (as anyone who has been on a plane well knows) we’ve had to chose between packing all our liquids and checking our suitcase in or jamming all our lipglosses, moisturizers and face washes in a little plastic baggie, so we could carry them on. Since checking your bag can easily add an hour to the flight, we don’t have to tell you it’s preferable not to, unless of course you have 18 pairs of shoes with you.

So—how do you travel and still stay moisturized? We head to the sample counter at our favorite store. Now we can breeze through security and land with all our precious products in tact. Some places that are extremely generous with their FREE minis:
Kiehl’s: At a recent stop at the NYC store, the accommodating sales lady loaded us up with travel-friendly sample sizes of two kinds of face wash. They were in a handy sealed foil packet so we didn’t even have to worry about it leaking at any altitude.
Mario Badescu: They offer everything from face washes to toner to their famous masks in handy miniature size.
Nordstrom's: Almost all counters will kindly give you a small pod full of sample product, easy to slip into your carry on.

Tip: Samples are also handy on the other end, when you realize you forgot your eye gel that erases memories of the night before instantaneously.