txflyer77

Personally I'm picky about toiletries and want to have my preferred brands with me.

Plus my personal travel takes me places that don't have full-service hotels.

Super Mario

The travel sized liquids sold in stores are a ripoff. I have a pack of 3-oz BPA-free bottles I can refill. I really only bring mouthwash and toothpaste each time. Most hotels have everything I need. The wild card is when I need sunscreen and alcohol. I have a few 3 oz flasks which have saved me quite a bit in alcohol.

WhyWhyZed

I have a Samsonite dop kit that I really don't like but fits everything I carry with plenty of space left over... It hangs from a hook, has a few small compartments, but the main is just a cavern that I have to take everything out of to find what I need, inevitably, in the very bottom.

I carry:

• Electric toothbrush (but no charger)
• backup regular toothbrush
• 3 oz toothpaste, or sometimes a small sample from my dentist
• Hairbrush
• battery powered electric travel razor
• battery powered beard trimmer
• backup disposable razor
• tube of shaving gel (overkill!) with travel shave brush
• Deodorant stick
• hair gel in a 1 oz travel jar
• head & shoulders travel size (for alternate or 3rd day use, otherwise what the hotel provides)
• Polysporin cream in mini tube
• Small Gold Bond Aloe lotion
• Tiny Nivea cream
• Flo-nase allergy spray
• Allergy eye drops
• spare lip balm stick
• Q tips
• Nail clippers
• emery board

Pills & the like: (i'm re-using small pill bottles, wasting space here)

• Acetaminophen
• Robax back pills (OTC in Canada)
• Dramamine in a little tube
• Melatonin tablets
• lysine tablets
• glucosomine tablets
• 3-5 bandaids
• Allergy pills (Reactine)
• Sinus decongestant pills (foil bubble pack)
• Tylenol Cold tablets (foil bubble pack)

HardToConcentrate

For toiletries, I like the small Go Tubb jars. I wouldn’t put a water like liquid in them, but they do work well with serums and shampoo.

I find they hold two weeks of product. (Face cream, serum, face cleanser, and similar products)
I don’t use their tubes. They are nice, but I find them to be bulk and heavy.

I buy small empty pump bottles from Amazon. 50 ml and 100 ml. They work well, and have a little clip that you put on the pump to stop it from compressing and dispensing product during travel. These are great for foundation, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and other products.

I’ve not had issues with either container leaking.

stut

For me, I have my ziplock bag with:

• 75ml toothpaste tube
• small tube of shaving cream
• 100ml bottle of contact lens fluid (or just pre-filled lens cases if it's a short trip)
• small bottle of First Defence
• roller deodorant
• eye drops and eye gel

I can usually fit my razor, toothbrush and folding hairbrush in at an angle too. I trust the hotel to give me soap and shampoo. Living on a smallish island, all my travel is international. I then have another full of my medication (it's all in blister packs here) in original packaging - again, the joys of international travel.

raycosm

I buy Nalgene bottles from the container store and mix and match different sizes and shapes. All the bottles are $3 or under, most under $2 for a single piece and it works much better than buying a set from Amazon that includes too many large and unnecessary bottles. I have found that I have never needed anything in a bottle larger than 2 oz if traveling for under 2 weeks, not even contact solution. Most bottles I have are 0.5 oz or 1 oz, with the only 2 oz I use for contact solution. I sanitize the contact solution bottle with hot water and alcohol whenever it gets empty as I know you are supposed to use sterile containers for contact solution. Shave cream, facial cleanser, facial moisturizers, etc go in the Nalgenes.

One tip if you fancy using a manual razor is that you can buy a generic plastic razor case (I use the one by the brand Radius on Amazon) to put a razor in there if your razor doesn't have a cover. I have sliced my finger too many times on my Gillette Mach 3 before finding this out.

Everything goes into the eBags Portage as my toiletry bag which I like because it is self standing on a countertop and also has a hook for hanging. I recommend getting at least the medium size though, I have the small and it gets very crowded. I also have an Eagle Creek Pack It Specter that I bought because the eBags was too small but I like the eBags much more.

dojpros

Between travel sized items, things likely to be there at the hotel on arrival, not really a problem. My Philmont Hiking inspired/Gear Geek self also has had me decanting certain toiletries into contact cases. i.e. my four go to cases as below:

Left Side/Right Side
Shave Cream/Shave Cream
Shave Oil/Aftershave Balm
Hair Gel/Toothpaste
Body Lotion/Deodorant

All of that fits into a re-purposed plastic shaving cream container. TB, Shave Cream Brush, Razor and above go into a 3-1-1- bag with ease.


FWIW/YMMV

OccasionalFlyerPerson

My theory is that I take soap, a small toothpaste, disposable razors, and a toothbrush. I then buy some shower gel at my destination which I use to wash my body and my hair. The soap is a backup in case I can't immediately get some shower gel.

In Tehran, it was a need to buy shower gel that finally encouraged me to screw up my courage and cross the main road my hotel was on, as I was told there was a supermarket on the other side of the main road.

Looking at this thread, I don't seem to use nearly as many toiletries as other people do.

WhyWhyZed

I bought a smallish Vaschy dop bag on Amazon. Cheap, compact, 3 zippered compartments with pockets inside each. Large center compartment holds my daily use - toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, hair gel, hair brush, deodorant, Q-tips. Very easy to find what I need. One outside compartment holds beard trimmer, nail clippers, and other stuff I don't need daily. Other outside holds "health" stuff I hope I don't need, from dramamine to bandages to aloe cream. Way better than my larger Samsonite dop bag and a fraction of the price of a Tumi.

Bokehman

I actually stopped traveling with liquids altogether. The hotel/motel will have shampoo, soap, etc ...

That said, I do travel with the LUSH Toothy Tabs. They’re a bit odd tasting, but work. I also travel with a Gillette shave stick. I had to order through Amazon. They’re popular in europe but difficult to find in NA. I do have to add a small, travel-size shave brush, but the combo works well.

In a pinch, the hotel hair conditioner will work for shaving, as it’s pretty slick.

It’s great not having to fuss with the extra 3-1-1 bag.

chrisrozon

Yeah, you folks are just too high maintenance - you're verging on being the lady in the movie who packed her own pillow for trips!

Bring a shave stick and brush for shaving, any necessary medications, a toothbrush and a sample sized toothpaste from the dentist.
Anything after that can be bought or borrowed at your destination, business travel is about necessities not luxuries.

freecia

Not everyone has the genetics to go without a hairbrush or SPF (so far science says skin cancer can happen with any skin tone). Face and body sunscreens also come in solid sun stick formats for slip, slop, slap. Men have a higher rate of skin cancer than women after 50 and prevention starts early.

I travel occasionally for pleasure but some people travel for business for more nights than they're "home". If your skin and hair appreciate certain products and your onebag has room + can take the added weight, why go without? Eh, if a pillow helped me sleep a solid 8 hours every night, just depends on if I can make space in the onebag. I like to take a travel blanket because it significantly improves my rest and I'd rather go without an extra pair of shoes or laptop. If I can fit it in and go for 4 nights in a 19-22L bag, why not? Power to those who are happy using what's provided in the room, though. Maybe think about adding some sunscreen

Badenoch

+1. Part of the "one-bag obsession" is perpetual one up man-ship about how little someone claims to carry. "Oh yeah, you think YOU travel light? I went 6 months in the Amazon jungle and carried everything I needed in a large manila envelope."

I carry what I will need and do not go through mindless contortions so it can all fit in a shopping bag or spend valuable business/vacation hours scouring the local version of Walmart for deodorant.

CO-PLAT

I leave the soap, body wash, shampoo & conditioner at home. Every hotel I stay in provides these. Not my favorite brands, but I get by.

Like others have said, I have Pre-Check, Global Entry, Clear and everything else there ever was. Nobody really cares when US domestic.

Bandicoot

Sure, I get that. For me minimizing toiletries or other such things and being efficient with the packing isn't so much about one-up-manship here on FT, but more about ensuring I can actually travel with one bag that's not checked in. If I take more liquids than fit in the quart bag I have to check a bag and I'd like to avoid that if possible. If I pack the umbrella and travel blanket and pillow, I have less room for my changes of clothes -> maybe I have to plan then on doing laundry at the hotel, which I also want to avoid. Etc. etc. If I were traveling for leisure and neither time nor money were concerns, I would certainly pack 3-4 steamer trunks full of clothes and accouterments when I traveled, bedroom slippers, my favorite coffee mug, a stuffed animal, etc. :-)