What Are The Best Makeup Travel Bags For Your Next Trip?

Makeup Travel Bags are essential for keeping your cosmetics organized and protected while exploring destinations like Vietnam. At SIXT.VN, we understand the importance of hassle-free travel, offering services tailored to make your journey seamless, including airport transfers, hotel bookings, and exciting tours. With the right cosmetic organizers, you can travel confidently, knowing your beauty essentials are secure and accessible.

1. Our Testing Process (Video)

To ensure you choose the perfect makeup travel bag, we rigorously tested 26 popular options in our New York City studio. Each bag was packed with various props, including makeup brushes, palettes, foundation, and toiletries, to assess its capacity and organizational capabilities. We then placed the filled bags into both a half-packed backpack and carry-on luggage, noting the space each bag occupied. To simulate real travel conditions, we dropped, shook, and tossed the makeup bags to test their durability and the security of their contents.

Throughout our tests, we rated each makeup bag based on ease of use, quality, capacity, design, portability, and value. The makeup bags included in this article are the picks that scored highest in each category.

2. Tips for Buying a Makeup Bag for Travel

Choosing the right makeup travel bag can significantly enhance your travel experience. Here are some tips to consider:

2.1. Decide How Much Space You Need

If you enjoy wearing a full face of makeup while traveling, opt for a larger makeup bag with built-in organization, such as pockets, brush straps, dividers, and removable pouches. For those who prefer a more minimalist approach with just tinted moisturizer and mascara, a super roomy cosmetic case is unnecessary and can take up extra space in your luggage. This ensures your few makeup products inside will likely move around too much, increasing their chances of breaking.

2.2. Prioritize Organizational Features

While a makeup case with one large, main compartment might sound sufficient, consider the benefits of organizational features. If you plan on packing multiple types of products, such as palettes, brushes, bottles, and tubes, a makeup bag with extra slots, pockets, straps, and compartments will prove invaluable.

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2.3. Determine the Best Material for You

Consider potential travel mishaps before buying a makeup bag. Are you prone to spills? Do you tend to overpack? What if your luggage takes a beating in the cargo hold? Keeping that in mind, choose a cosmetic case material that works for you. Leather and nylon handle makeup spills and dirt well, while cases made of neoprene or mesh will keep your luggage lightweight. It’s hard to completely avoid scuffs and scratches, but materials such as polyester and high-quality leather hold up better than others. For those who hate rummaging through a dark makeup bag, opt for a clear material or a bag that opens like a clamshell so you can easily see all of its contents.

3. Our Top Picks

3.1. Best Overall: Béis The Cosmetic Case

Béis The Cosmetic Case at Nordstrom $78

Why We Love It: It’s durable, capacious, and nice to look at — plus, it has a large built-in mirror.

What to Consider: We feel it could benefit from interior straps to hold products down.

Reliable, stylish, and compact yet spacious, it’s no wonder this easy-to-pack cosmetic case from luggage brand Béis impressed us the most. The main compartment opens and closes smoothly, while a center compartment for brushes and other smaller items can be removed in a snap. There are even multiple additional pockets, pouches, and subtle slots in the bag, so there’s truly a place for everything. We also noticed that, because the interior of the case is so roomy, it’s incredibly easy to see every item inside when fully opened. And speaking of the interior, the bag actually boasts a large attached mirror on the inside, which comes in handy for in-transit makeup application — though some might still prefer to also pack a lighted travel makeup mirror.

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During our five months of assessments, the PU leather and hardware worked together to create efficient padding that kept the contents of the case safe and intact through bumps and drops — not to mention, the bag itself still looked good through the wear and tear. On many occasions, we tossed this case in a duffel before going through airport security and boarding a flight, and it still looks good as new. Though $68 may feel a bit pricey for a makeup bag, we felt this case’s thoughtful design and durable construction is worth it. You can grab the case in eight colors ranging from beige to berry.

The Details: 9.5 x 4 x 7 inches | PU leather, nylon, PVC, poly | Zipper closure | 1.38 pounds

3.2. Best Design: Relavel Travel Makeup Case

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Relavel Travel Makeup Case at Amazon $23 $19

Why We Love It: It’s one of the roomiest bags on our list and it’s lightweight — plus it’s great for organization.

What to Consider: It does take up a bit of space in your luggage.

While this case is on the larger side, we felt that ended up being more helpful than hurtful while traveling. We could fit pretty much everything in this thing: a whopping seven palettes, a whole brush collection, two foundation bottles, five toiletry bottles, over 15 lipsticks, an eyelash curler, hair spray, and a travel-sized moisturizer bottle, to be exact. Despite its size, the train case actually remains quite lightweight as well as organized thanks to its adjustable dividers and stretchable pouches on the inside. During our five-month evaluation, we even ended up using this for both makeup and toiletries, since it provides plenty of space.

The interior additionally features layers of protective foam-like material that expertly keeps makeup bottles from cracking. We also found that both the interior and exterior of this case are easy to clean, should a spill or outdoor drop occur. Because it’s a little big, though, we’d recommend packing this case in a carry-on suitcase or even checked luggage rather than a tote or backpack. You can pick this case up in 20 different colors and prints.

The Details: 10.3 x 9 x 3.7 inches | Nylon | Zipper closure | 1.46 pounds

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3.3. Best Compact: Dagne Dover Mila Toiletry Organizer

Dagne Dover Mila Toiletry Organizer at Dagnedover.com

Why We Love It: It’s the tiniest bag on our list, but it still fits a lot — plus, it’s easy to flatten when packing or storing.

What to Consider: It does, of course, fit less makeup than the larger bags on our list.

If you prefer to travel with something more compact, Dagne Dover’s Mila Toiletry Organizer is the best tiny makeup bag we tried. Though it’s by far the smallest pick on our list, we were surprised at just how much it could actually hold. Not only do plenty of palettes, lipsticks, and other essential cosmetics fit inside, but so do full-size makeup brushes. It comes with a removable mini divider set that helps hold items in place, though we liked how much more we could fit in the organizer if we skipped using the dividers. Because it fit so well in the palm of our hands, we had a good time whipping it across the room during our assessments — and after being pelted against the wall and floor multiple times, we were amazed to find the organizer still looked fantastic and its contents barely budged. Even when wedged into an absolutely-stuffed-to-the-brim suitcase during our five-month evaluation, the inside is so well-padded that all of our items remained protected and secure. We decided it’s the ultimate makeup bag for shorter trips since it takes up such little space and is super soft and squishable for easy packing.

The Details: 5.5 x 5.5 x 5.5 inches | Polyester, zinc alloy | Zipper closure | 6 ounces

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3.4. Best Value: Narwey Travel Makeup Bag

Narwey Travel Makeup Bag at Amazon $10

Why We Love It: It’s spacious, easy-to-clean, and more affordable than any other makeup bag on our list.

What to Consider: It could use a little extra padding for protection against drops.

There was something about this bag that just made us feel like we could easily access everything inside — there were no hidden pockets, no tight openings, and no unnecessary flaps that covered up the contents (other than one to protect makeup brushes, but it’s see-through). The zipper opening is easy to maneuver and appears to be well-made, while the canvas frame feels sturdy and protective. The bag got a bit dirty during our assessments, but it cleaned up beautifully with minimal effort. We especially loved just how much it could fit: multiple brushes in each of its eight brush pockets, three palettes, three eyeliners, four lipsticks, a mascara, and a lash curler. Perhaps that’s why we were so shocked to discover the bag doesn’t take up much space in our luggage, and it is a fraction of what many other bags on our list cost.

The Details: 9 x 6.7 x 3.5 inches | Canvas | Zipper closure | 7.8 ounces

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3.5. Best Train Case: Leatherology Train Case

Leatherology Train Case at Amazon $180

Why We Love It: The leather exterior is soft to the touch and the interior is deceptively roomy.

What to Consider: During our five-month evaluation, we found the tall design to be awkward for packing.

Easy to clean and pack, we’re obsessed with this cute and compact train case from ultra-reliable Leatherology. It zips open in a way that allows you to see everything inside, plus there are interior pockets of all sizes to help keep everything organized. Though we felt it was slightly flimsy when we first picked it up, we quickly realized it’s sturdier than it looks, and only becomes more so when filled with makeup. Its subtle padding is also no joke, as it completely protected the contents while being thrown around, shaken, and dropped. The exterior leather is soft and supple, the interior lining is high quality, and the main compartment is deep and spacious despite its overall compact size. If you’re looking for a smaller makeup bag that’ll still fit more than just the essentials, we recommend this train case in one of 14 available colors.

The Details: 7.5 x 5 x 5.2 inches | Leather, nickel | Zipper closure | 2.41 pounds

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3.6. Best Multi-compartment: Boacay Hanging Travel Toiletry Bag

Boacay Hanging Travel Toiletry Bag at Amazon $20

Why We Love It: It has multiple compartments that hold so many products.

What to Consider: Bottles can easily slip out of the plastic pockets if the case is hung up without first zipping the pockets.

Travel hanging organizers are a whole different ball game — and once you use one, you may never go back. This one opens up into four large sections, each with a transparent, zippered sleeve to store (and easily see) your makeup and toiletries. Two of the sections have straps to hold products in place, and a hook on the top section allows you to hang the bag anywhere. During our assessments, we discovered the bag is sturdy and easy to clean in addition to being large enough for different types of products, from makeup brushes to hairspray. Even when we packed it to the brim, it still folded up with minimal effort and kept our makeup in place during drop tests. While it’s relatively thin, it is somewhat long and space-consuming, so we’d probably only pack this in a checked bag rather than a carry-on, or use the makeup bag itself as a personal item. Over a period of five months, we did notice that bottles can easily slip out of the plastic pockets if the case is hung up without first zipping the pockets.

The Details: 11.4 x 3.8 x 7.5 inches | Zipper closure | 12.3 ounces

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3.7. Best Set: Cuyana Leather Travel Case Set

[Cuyana