I love to travel.

Whether it’s a quick romantic escapade to the mountains, a short trip to the beach or a long retreat to some foreign land, Manish and I always try to settle in a small vacation every few months, if we have both the time and the money.

This spring, we decided to take a week-long family trip to Dubai. Though it was exciting to look for a perfect place to stay, plan all the fun activities we’ll be doing, the real challenge was packing, especially for skincare.

You never know how your skin will react to a new environment with different climate conditions, water quality and possibly strong sun exposure. And I had to learn this lesson the hard way.

I can never forget how agitated my skin was when I piled on a couple of exfoliators and antioxidants on a beach trip a few years ago. Hence, not to make the same mistake, I decided to buy only a few tried and tested skincare basics in mini sizes from Sephora for my recent Dubai trip.

It’s always better to focus on the essentials – travel-sized skincare basics that will fit neatly into your bag while keeping your skin healthy, instead of focusing on a full 8-step skincare routine and lugging in all your fancy skincare items.

So, in this post, I’m going to walk you through my list of top 5 travel skincare essentials that will ensure your skin stays fresh, hydrated, and protected during the entire trip. Also, if you’re going to be out in the sun a lot, make sure all of your travel skincare essentials are very gentle with no active ingredients.

1. A good cleanser

A good cleanser is a must-have for any travel skincare essentials bag. Since during your trip, you’ll be outdoors most of the time, your skin will be attracting a lot of dust, germs and impurities.

A good cleanser eliminates all of these impurities, deep cleans your pores while maintaining the hydration and natural skin barrier of your facial skin. Some good picks are:

• Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser
• Simple Kind to Skin Refreshing Face Wash
• Kiehl’s Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash

2. A light-weight multi-functional moisturizer

Lightweight moisturizers with hyaluronic acid, aloe vera, cica and ceramides are star multitaskers. They work great as primers, night creams and skin-soothing balms.

Not only do these moisturizers keep your skin glowing and hydrated, but they also help calm any skin inflammation or allergy picked up during travel. Some mention-worthy recommendations are:

• CeraVe Moisturizer for dry skin
• Bioderma Atoderm Crème
• Simple Barrier Repair Restorative Rich Cream
• Eau Thermale Avene Hydrance Rich Hydrating Cream
• Neutrogena Daily Face Moisturizer

3. Multiple mini tubes of sunscreen

When it comes to sun protection, always ensure you carry more than enough. It doesn’t matter if you’ve packed your favourite dress or not, if you’ve kept your water bottle or not, as long as you’ve packed sufficient sun protection, you’re good!

Mineral-tinted sun protection creams with SPF 50 in gel formulas are your best bet for safeguarding skin against sun damage during travel. Some good sunscreen recommendations are:

• Supergoop! Glowscreen Soft Radiance Drops Mineral SPF 40
• ISDIN Photo Eryfotona Ageless Ultra-Light Tinted Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50
• Neutrogena Pureskin+ Tinted Sunscreen
• Elta MD UV Elements Tinted Broad-Spectrum Sunscreen
• Eucerin Age Defense Face Sunscreen Tinted Lotion
• La Roch-Posay Anthelios Mineral Tinted Sunscreen

4. An eye cream

An eye cream in your travel skincare essentials kit is an extremely important product that gets overlooked. Using an eye cream ensures that the sensitive skin around your eyes stays moisturized, protected, and looks refreshed.

And this becomes all the more important during travel, especially if you’re dealing with time zone changes, lack of sleep, diet changes and travelling stressors.

An effective eye cream typically contains ingredients like caffeine, peptides, antioxidants and hydrating agents to manage problems like puffiness, dullness, dryness, and wrinkles. Some good options to look out for:

• The Ordinary Caffeine 5% + EGCG Depuffing Eye Serum for puffiness
• Sephora Collection Lift & Firm Smoothing & Firming Eye Cream for lifting and firming
• Olay Regenerist Retinol24 Night Eyes Cream for fine lines and wrinkles
• Caudalie Vinoperfect Brightening Eye Cream for dark circles
• CeraVe Reparative Eye Cream for dullness, hydration and overall rejuvenation

5. A tinted lip balm with SPF

A tinted lip balm with SPF serves multiple purposes: hydration, a pop of color, and sun protection—all-in-one. So, you don’t need to pack different items like a separate lip balm, lipstick, and sunscreen for your lips.

It’s all combined in one compact product and is perfect for those looking to streamline their travel skincare essentials. Some great recommendations to consider:

• Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment SPF 15
• Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm SPF 15
• Coola Mineral Lip Balm SPF 30
• Neutrogena Hydro Boost Lip Shine SPF 15
• Clarins Lip Balm Crayon SPF 15

With these top 5 travel skincare essentials packed, you can relax knowing your skin will stay healthy and happy throughout the trip. Minimizing the number of products you need to carry is key when you’re travelling. The goal here is to keep it simple yet effective so you can enjoy your vacation while having glowing skin on the go.