Lightweight Essential Cosmetics And Perfumes To Pack In Purses For Travelling

Perfume Sets In Duty Free

If you look in duty free at airports you often see sets of small perfumes. The biggest bottles are usually the best value, but if you forget to pack perfume, or want something small enough to be under the size limit, this could be your solution. 

I found the sets very convenient when I went to stay overnight with my former au pair girls' family in France, south of Paris. I had thought we needed something to give the father and mother. I had not realised that their huge extended family would all be there so it would be embarrassing to give to one person and not another. So I offered the mother the first choice of the perfumes. Then the other items were offered to other relatives.

Perfume Sticks

My smallest perfume is a perfume stick (White musk from Avon). It looks like a lipstick or lipstick refill. It is is tiny enough to go in a handbag, purse, or pocket. it has lasted me years.

Toothpaste miniatures

I look for toothpaste miniatures in supermarkets, and cut price stores. My dentist in the UK has lots of these freebies in the dentist's room. They don't offer them to you. You need the chutzpah to ask and they always give me one. That's what the samples are there for, to give to customers.  

You might get told, 'We have them for sale at the desk on your way out'. But it's worth asking. If I have checked on the way in whether they sell small sizes, and they don't, I could try saying, "But I would like a small size". Maybe a call to action with the word your would be more effective, "You could give me a small one". Maybe they would reply, "We are running short,' or, "They are for people who don't use that brand, or don't use toothpaste at all." 

In that case, on your next visit, when dealing with another dentist or anaesthetist, you might admit, "I brush my teeth with toothpaste at home, but I forget to take it on holiday, and don't know what to ask for in a foreign chemist (US drug store)." 

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About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.