Wednesday Beauty: On the Plane

There's no reason you can't treat your flight like a mini spa session: indeed, it helps to pass the time. Most products come in a mini version, although full-size facial products are often small enough to be cabin friendly. I also find flights, with their dry, recycled air, are the perfect place to use products I might usually consider to be too heavy for my skin.

Here's what I take/do:

Wipes. Nice ones that don't make my face feel sensitive. These are Good Things wipes from larger Boots stores and smell deliciously fruity. I use them at the start of the flight to cleanse my face, and at the end of the flight to spruce up my decolletage and underarms.

Toner. This is Eau Roma Water from Lush: it's cooling and calming. At the start of the flight, I spritz after using the wipe and blot off using the cotton wool pads. At the end of the flight, I spritz over and blot off to remove any remaining traces of facial oil.

Serum. This is Kiehl's Acai repair serum which smells zingy and gingery. I apply it to my scrupulously clean skin at the start of the flight.

Then I add a layer of facial oil - I use Neal's Yard Orange Flower Oil. Moisturiser would of course work just as well but I would choose a night cream for in-flight use because I find the air gets really dry. Sometimes I will reapply the oil once or twice during the flight.

Elizabeth Arden 8 Hour Cream. This is a handy travel-sized tube I got, funnily enough, from in-flight duty free. I use this on my lips, cuticles and sometimes my feet, particularly if they look like they're beginning to swell and I want to give myself a quick foot rub to combat it.

I pop on my eyemask and put in my ear plugs if I want to sleep.

After waking up, or at the end of the flight, I use eye drops. I wear contact lenses and alhough they're continuous wear lenses and thus OK for sleeping in, I find my eyes can still feel a bit gritty. I don't spend a fortune on eye drops because they have to be binned within a couple of months and I can never use them all up. These are Boots own, suitable for lens wearers.

Deodorant. I use a stick gel deo, which is handy because I couldn't bring a spray on board. I will sometimes also bring perfume on board, or use some if I have bought any in duty free. I like to smell fresh! Of course I forgot to add toothbrush and mini toothpaste into the picture but these always go into my clear plastic bag too.

Day Moisturiser. I haven't got one in the picture because this is usually a sample I've picked up at the airport or out of a magazine. I apply this after using the toner to remove any facial oil residue. Depending on where/why I'm flying, I might put a bit of mascara or blusher on at this point too.