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Haircare, Makeup, Skincare

What’s In My Hospital Bag?

Believe it or not I’ve been hospitalized THREE times over the past two months. The only planned one was for my son’s birth, which was three weeks ago. I recently (i.e. last week) just returned home from my latest (and hopefully last) hospital stay and it was for a silly gastroenteritis. Hope I’d be able to stay away from the hospital for good!
Anyways, I thought I’d show you how I pack for my hospital stays since I’m probably a hospitalisation connoisseur by now haha. And it’s not too different from how I pack for when I travel.
I basically separate my beauty essentials into three small cosmetic bags: makeup, shower, and skincare (incl. bedside essentials).

Read on to see how I minimally packed all my beauty goodies!

You might find this particularly useful if you’re expecting! <3 😉

Makeup

Be realistic when packing your makeup, especially for hospital stays. You’re not going to be in the mood to have a full face of makeup when you’re unwell and tired, so be careful not to overpack. But you still need to put a little put together, so make sure you bring all your essentials.

I put all my makeup in a small zip-up Too Faced Teddy Bear Hair Set makeup bag and these are all the makeup I need to achieve a low maintenance, easy peasy makeup look. No brush needed!

These products look huge but they’re actually very tiny – most of these are mini sized products. The Dr. Jart BB cream is literally the size of my thumb!

I usually just use the brow pencil and concealer on a daily basis, but when I need to look a bit more put-together (e.g. when someone’s coming over to visit) I can easily apply all these things with my fingers.

Products are (in order of how I use them):

  • Benefit Porefessional
  • Dr. Jart BB Water Fuse
  • Cle de Peau Concealer
  • Josie Maran Cheek Gelee
  • Benefit High Beam
  • Chanel Powder Compact
  • Kevyn Aucoin Eyebrow Pencil 
  • LORAC Pocket Pro
  • Kat Von D Tattoo Liner
  • Tarte Camera, Lights, Lashes Mascara
  • NEST Midnight Fleur Perfume

Skincare & Bedside Essentials


When packing for labor, the midwives would usually advise you to bring two different hospital bags: a labor bag and your actual hospital bag where you put the rest of your stuff. 
Your labor bag should be a smaller bag and should include everything you need during and shortly after labor, and since I had a cesarean, I wasn’t allowed (and couldn’t anyway) step out of bed until the morning after – so everything I needed had to be within my reach. I even had to wash my face in bed!

So I packed my skincare and everything else I would need by my bedside in a two-sided Soap & Glory Makeup Bag. One side has all my skincare, and the other has everything else I might need.

To make it easier for me to wash my face in bed on my first night, I made sure I had my tiny Bioderma and a Murad cleansing wipe as I won’t be able to wash my face in the sink. The Murad  Clarifying Wipes is a lifesaver! It’s sort of like a makeup removing wipe, but is filled with active ingredients to combat acne. So even though I won’t be able to wash my face as usual, I can rest assured that my skin is well-protected from any unwanted flare-ups.

Other skincare essentials I had are:

  • La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo to ensure my acne remains at bay
  • Chanel Hydra Beauty Serum for extra hydration as hospitals (and hotels) can be very drying
  • First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream to moisturize not just the face but the hands and the rest of the body
  • Biore UV Perfect Face Milk SPF 50 because even though you’ll be indoors, the sun will still shine through the windows right? 😉
  • Benefit It’s Potent Eye Cream – any eye cream would do, I opted for this one because it’s a mini sized eye cream.
  • I also have some sachets of face masks, just in case.
The other side contains other stuff I might need – and these are all in travel sizes. Here’s what I have:

  • Rexona Deodorant Spray – no brainer, right?
  • Basq Body Boost Stretch Mark Butter because those ugly stretch marks need to go STAT!
  • Oral-B Glide Floss because I swear by flossing!
  • Bath & Body Works Pink Chiffon Body Lotion – because even though I can use the FAB Ultra Repair Cream for my body, I sometimes want a lotion that smells nice! Hehe.
  • Pure Paw Paw Ointment for almost everything. Seriously. Chapped lips, sore nipples (from breastfeeding), dry & cracked skin, etc. I even use this on my baby’s dry, cracked skin – mostly on his feet and arms.
  • A sachet of nipple balm, which I never ended up using coz I kept using the Paw Paw! 🙂
  • La Roche Posay Thermal Spring Water for an extra boost of hydration.
  • Acuvue TruEye daily lenses – I’m short sighted and hate wearing glasses so I swear by these!
  • A hair tie, of course.

Shower

And lastly, my shower must-haves!

These are also travel-sized goodies that would fit in the palm of my hands.

I put all my shower essentials in a bag I got from the EVA NYC Get Up And Go Hair Care Travel Kit below, and it’s perfect for shower essentials because it’s plastic and won’t soak from wet products.

Stuff I have in here are:

  • EVA NYC Clean It Up Shampoo & Soften Up Conditioner – these seriously smell so nice!
  • LUSH Snow Fairy Shower Gel, my favorite shower gel of all time!
  • First Aid Beauty Face Cleanser – not my daily cleanser but opted to bring this because it’s travel sized and I can’t be bothered to put my daily cleanser in a separate travel bottle. LOL. And this cleanser is a very basic cleanser so it won’t irritate my skin or cause break outs.
  • Venus Snap – my latest beauty obsession!!! So tiny and easy to bring when travelling.
  • St. Ives Apricot Scrub just in case I need a face scrub, you’ll never know! 
  • Summer’s Eve Feminine Wash – this is a must-have, especially after you’ve given birth (cesarean births only, of course). Gotta keep that area clean! 🙂
So I hope you enjoyed having a peek into my hospital bag! If you’re wondering where my hairstyling stuff are, I actually didn’t bring any! My hair is very low maintenance, fortunately, so I don’t really need to bring anything for my hair. However, when travelling for long periods of time I would absolutely bring my dry shampoo and hair oil! 🙂
Would love to see what you all have in your travel/hospital bags, so do share with me!
Have a great week, loves! XO <3

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