The Travel Bottles That Helped Me Overpack Slightly Less Than Usual

I recently took a trip, on a plane, which I hadn’t done since 2022. I’ve packed for trips many, many times in the past two years, but always to travel by car, which meant I could do whatever I wanted, packing wise. I have TSA Precheck (via a Nexus card, the best deal but slightly harder to get) so I’m always loosey-goosey about liquids, but for this trip I was genuinely worried I’d get flagged for my wanton disregard of TSA rules, Precheck or not. I needed to so some serious decanting. Not just for space, but also so I didn’t end up being forced to throw away my entire skincare routine because I made a TSA agent feel like being dramatic.

I decided to get some dropper bottles for my snail mucin and hair oil, and I ended up finding some that would get here quick but could also hold more than a thimbleful of product (these are tempting but SO tiny?). I wasn’t sure how well they would work (I ended up using a third dropper for body oil) but they worked perfectly AND I made it through TSA unscathed. Twice!

The four dropper bottles come very well secured in styrofoam inside a box, which is then inside another box. You also get some accessories to make you feel like a little alchemist — I didn’t use the pipette, but the tiny funnel is, in my experience, completely necessary. You also get some labels, but I made my own, because I don’t trust cheap labels OR my own handwriting.

These bottles are glass, but I just put them in a ziploc bag inside my toiletry bag and they didn’t break or leak. I did end up using weird amounts of the products because I’m so used to the original packaging, but all was well and I anticipate using these dropper bottles for many trips to come.