My Hospital Bag: Packed (Again!)

There are oodles of posts on-line about what to bring with you to the hospital when in labor. The hospital bag is highly debated- do you just rely on what the hospital can provide or go all out pampering for mommy? How much paraphernalia do you bring for being actually in labor? I could go on and on. I found lists that were pages long and included things like bringing in your breast pump.

So, I somewhat approached my bag by seeking a middle ground. I have some stuff for being in labor (a handheld massager from Bath & Body Works, some hard candy to suck on, I'll likely bring my computer for emailing later on but it also has all of my music). My issue really is that I have no idea how long I'll be in the hospital (24 hours after a regular delivery, 3-4 days after a c-section), so I need to plan for that. I'm also very into beauty products and somewhat pampering myself, so I didn't want to skip steps. Somehow I did manage to pare it down. I think I was also able to do this because I was admitted a few weeks ago, my previous version of the hospital bag was somewhat haphazard and had way too much stuff (though in my defense I had mostly packed it while dry heaving from a virus before heading in).

Regardless, here's what a high maintenance beauty blogger brings in her make up kit.


First, check out how great my new travel bag is. This is the Trina Bags Selma Weekender. You can see that it has 1 big pocket on the left, and the right is a collection of 3 smaller bags that velcro into place. I was sure I'd have too much to fit into the bag and would need to remove them, but the Weekender holds a lot more than I thought!

In the #1 pocket I have a lot of shower and hair items, #2 is makeup brushes, lippies and other long/skinny items. #3 is holding skincare and #4 has all of my makeup.


Here you can see everything that I'm bringing with me, and spread out like this it looks like a lot more stuff than should fit in that little bag. Actually, I did decant 2 items (I'll tell you which ones later) into smaller bottles (I like to use the Nalgene travel bottles from The Container Store if I'm forced to decant). As well, there is a small number of items that didn't fit, I'll show you those later.

I could have pared all of this down even more if I wanted to. For example, I have a few full sized items that I could have hunted down in a travel sized version (like my deodorant). I didn't really feel like doing this, I wanted to use my normal Secret, not the basic one that comes in that size.



In general, these are my hair items.

1.) Shampoo and Conditioner from AG Hair Cosmetics, I believe both of these items have been discontinued as they've recently revamped their line and redesigned their packaging. I've always had great luck with their products, and given my hatred of decanting, when I found these bottles in my beauty closet recently they were set aside for the hospital bag. I believe this shampoo is a simple "daily" shampoo and the conditioner is called "light" and meant for every day use.

2.) Aussie's Deeeeep 3-Minute Miracle Moisture Treatment. Once upon a time, I was in love with Aussie's 3 Minute Mud Mask, which was light tannish and smelled a bit funny. I loved the way it made my hair feel. They've since released this deep conditioner (OMG, smells like coconut) and it's pretty great. I really have it at the suggestion of Sarah Potempa, Aussie's Celebrity Stylist. On the 10th I have a post featuring Sarah's tips for having great hair in the hospital, and this was one of her first tips. Bring a deep conditioner to use in your first shower after delivery, then you can easily get out any crazy tangles that occurred while pushing and quickly pamper yourself. Love! I've decanted this into a smaller 1 ounce bottle, enough for a single use.

3.) Aussie's Mousse + Leave-In Conditioner: Again, the same feature on the 10th will discuss how Sarah says to use this product, but it will offer a little bit of hold and some extra conditioning for hair that's just been put through the wringer.

4.) Rusk Hair Oil: Again, extra love and smoothing for traumatized hair. Also, a few drops of this will make anyone's hair look great!

5.) Obviously, a few hair ties to get my hair out of my face both while in labor and afterwards. Sarah had recommended using 2 inch pins to secure a bun. However, I have a ton of hair even without being pregnant, and things have somewhat gotten out of hand in the hair thickness area since then. I've had much better luck using the Goody Spin Pin to keep a bun in place. As well, I love the Goody Headbands that say Secure Fit or No-Slip on the packaging to use when my hair is up.

6.) GHD Travel dryer



There was too much makeup to number everything, so I'll just list what's here by type. I lost my travel eyelash curler, so I'll be buying a new one at Target today to add to the kit.

Face
Stila One Step Makeup
Sensai Triple Touch Compact: Concealer, pressed powder and a primer that makes lines/pores disappear! Perfect.
Lancome Effacernes Concealer: I just bought this a week or so ago at Sephora since I'm planning a huge concealer review series. It seems pretty full coverage and I thought I might need something a bit more pigmented after delivery than the Sensai could give me.
MAC Blush in Feeling. It looks darker in this picture that it really is, but it's a muted dusty rose that looks good on me.

Eyes
Urban Decay Primer Potion: My favorite shadow primer, this super cute travel version came with my Naked Palette.
Stila Travel Girl Palette in road to radiance across the USA
Sante America Eye Shadow Palette in #3
Clinique Instant Lift for Brows
L'Oreal Extra Intense Eye Liner in brown
Cover Girl Lash Blast Fusion Mascara: In Blackest Black, this is still my all time favorite mascara and I recommend it to everyone.

Lips
Moody Bee Lip Balm
Kiehl's Lip Balm #1: I linked to about my 10th post ever, but I've actually written about this lip balm about 20 times and likely have about 20 tubes/pots of it in my possession. I'm a tad obsessed.
Cover Girl NatureLuxe Gloss Balm in Marble
Stila Yumberry crush lip & cheek stain
Estée Lauder Pure Color Gloss Stick: In Rose Dusk, I'm not even sure how long I've had this shade, but it's an amazing neutral pink-beige color. It was limited edition and is now sold out, but one slick and my lips look amazing.

Also here: Very Hollywood by Michael Kors, I also had to really force myself to not include Calvin Klein's Beauty, which I've been loving, but the full sized bottle was too big.



1.) Sensai Gentle Make-Up Remover for Eye and Lip: Yes, that tiny vial. This was a little extra sample included in a box from a PR rep and OMG. I've used it once and then put the rest away to take to the hospital. I'll likely need to buy a whole bottle. I purposefully used this with waterproof mascara (Cover Girl's Lash Blast Waterproof) and waterproof eye liner (Smashbox). Both literally melted as soon as the cotton round touched them. It was amazing. This has potential to blow Lancome's Bi-Facil out of the water. I'll post more about it when I've used it more than once.

2.) Frais Towelettes: During my 24 hour super pregnant with the flu admission, I didn't really feel like using the rough hospital towels to wash my face. (I use them on-call, and they're great for physical exfoliation, I just felt crummy) I used some Olay wipes instead, which was great. The Frais version is even more portable and the wipes are larger.

3.) Shisheido's Advanced Super Revitalizer Cream: A cream that I'm currently trying out for a review, this cream came from J Brands and Beauty Stat. It has a ton of hyaluronic acid and some anti-oxidants, so it's perfect for a stay in the hospital. So, it made it into the bag despite being a huge jar.

4.) Kiehl's Ultra Facial Moisturizer: This is my daily morning moisturizer that I come back to in between testing other products.

5.) Bliss Fabulous Foaming Face Wash : I keep encountering little bottles of this in various hotels and I do really like it. I should probably buy a bigger bottle, use it continuously for a few weeks and actually post about it.



1.) Gilette Venus and Skintimate are my stand-bys. That's actually a travel size of the shave gel, which is still huge. I should look for a new product.

2.) Crabtree & Evelyn Hand Therapy in Citron

3.) Crest and 2 toothbrushes, 1 for me and 1 for my hubby

4.) Secret Fresh Effects: One of the stronger deodorants from Secret, this is my favorite every day choice. I thought about bringing my Secret Waterproof in case I was really sweaty while pushing and then realized I wouldn't likely care that much at that point in time so it wasn't worth the space in my bag. If I feel strongly I enough I'll put some on as I leave the house.

5.) Korres Body Butter and Shower Gel: From my Never Enough gift set at the holidays, I picked out 2 different scents to bring with me. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough for a 4 day hospital stay if I only picked out 1.

6.) Alba Very Emollient Body Lotion: I haven't tried this out yet, but a PR rep sent it to me when I said I was looking for a super hydrating lotion or cream for while in the hospital since I swear I can feel the super dry air removing moisture from my skin while I'm there. This is true whenever I'm in a hospital, whether it is a normal work day or a 30 hour shift. I can only imagine how dry and itchy I'll be with spending even more time in that environment.



Finally, this is everything that didn't fit in the Trina bag. There really was no way that my hair dryer and brush were going to fit, regardless of anything else in the bag. I could have fit my comb in but I like to keep it with my brush. And the mousse, well... too tall and you can't decant that. Overall I thought the bag fit a lot of stuff and I didn't mind throwing these items in with my clothes.




This post is a combination of items I bought and things I got as a sample. I think it would be too hard to go through every item, though the ones that I've linked to their posts should have disclaimers on each page.