To travel with Nail Polish

I have been wanting to do a post like  this for a while, but I needed some good pictures and more experience on the subject before plunging into a long post.
We all have days when we stand there with our suitcases, packing for a trip; long or short, where we want to take with us ALL THE POLISH!
Well. We can't take it all with us, but we can take a large bunch.

As some of you regular readers know, I have been travelling a lot these past 2 years.
I moved to UK, and now I have temporarily moved to Spain.

So, jow have I managed to keep up on the posting?
Well, I take with me a good handful of polishes with me, whenever I travel. A camera, and nail art tools.
For the most part, when I travel, this is what I take with me.

• A set of dotting tools
• Snipper
• Nail file
• Cuticle pusher (if I am leaving for more than a week)
• Cuticle Remover (if I am leaving for more than a week)
• A couple of nail art stickers, in case a friend wants a quick manicure
• Stamping tools
• Stamping plates (a couple if I am not staying too long, and all my plates if I am staying for more than a month)
• Top and basecoat
• Cleanup tools (I never travel with polish remover if I go abroad, but I do bring my handy acetone-bottle from Bornprettystore)
• Max 50 polishes (depending on the length of travel) 1 week - 5 polishes, 2 weeks - 10 polishes etc. When I left for Spain (since I knew I was going to be buying polishes here), I only brought with me 35 polishes.

That's the full list. It might seem like a lot, but I usually travel with only a racksack, and it all fits nicely in there together with all my makeup, clothes and my netbook etc. Never had a problem with it.

But how do I pack things for a long travel?

There are a few things you have to take into consideration when flying. There will be stuff ontop of your bag, so be careful with stuffing too much in the suitcase, go for a hard-shell one. And never pack polishes to the sides, but in the middle. I have learned this from flying more than 40 times these past years.


There are two ways I pack the polishes, and I will show you how it all looks.

The shipping method.

The large bulk method

Inside the box before filling is added

The shipping method I will only use if I am taking with me a couple of polishes. This is great for long journeys on the train, where the racksack might come in contact with other items, and obsticals on the trip. I then place them in a large size bubblewrapper envelope.
I have never had a casualty with this method except for once, when I was flying and one of the bottles leaked a little. The wrapping actually stopped it from leaking more. I don't know what you call this type of wrapping paper, but it's epic.

The large bulk method is for long trips, on planes etc. with a lot of obstacles, and weight. I bought the box a couple of years ago, for storage reasons, and I soon found that they where great for more than that. I had my polishes in this before I got my Helmer, and one day I dropped the box on marble flooring and everything was intact. EVERYTHING. So I started taking them with me on journeys.
I always fill the top with wrapping paper to avoid the polishes from bumping in the lid.
I got the box at Clas Olshon (is that how it's spelled) for 25 NOK. And they are SO worth it.
They was the reason I was able to bring with me 200 polishes to UK when I first moved. Not a single casualty. 

These are the polishes I took with me to Spain. A couple of neons, some glitters I want to use, chromes, and gold, as well as all my holo polishes (there is only 3) and some basic greens and coral.

In the red and black checker printed bag I keep my nail tools and makeup. I was only taking with me the items I knew I would get good use of, and made sure the foundation had SPF in it.

Let me know if you have any questions or want me to show more of how I pack when travelling with nail polish, or anything.