New York Fashion Week Beauty Survival Kit, by the Cut

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New York Fashion Week is over, and we have survived. (Barely.) To give you an idea, there might be ten shows and events in one day. So when we leave our homes in the morning, we know we’re likely not coming back anytime soon. My bag needs to be a beauty emergency kit. So we interviewed Cut fashion and beauty writers and editors on what they kept stocked. Almost all of us prioritized having a lip liner, lotion, and some form of lip gloss or balm in our bags. Here is everything we kept in our bags.

I change my bag every day during Fashion Week (the drama, I know). One of my favorites to carry this past week was a vintage Dior from What Goes Around Comes Around; she’s tiny, but best believed she’s stuffed with beauty products.

You’ll always find nail glue and edge control in my bag because I may lose a nail (I actually did at the Diotima show), and I like to keep my edges laid throughout the day. A lip liner and gloss is always necessary: Ami Colé lip liner in shade Café Touba and Maybelline Lifter Gloss in shade Amber. (My keys also have Fenty lip oil and Summer Fridays balm attached to them.) I also carried a hand cream; Chloé’s are my current favorite because the scent is subtle but the nourishment is deep and long-lasting. Lastly and arguably the most important for me: I always have a travel-size fragrance (Vilhelm’s Dear Polly) to refresh my scent throughout the day. There’s no better compliment than, “You smell so good.”

I put Aquaphor on my lips pretty much all year round, but it becomes a once-every-hour type of thing in the winter, especially when I’m walking around outside during Fashion Week. Chapped lips are not it. I also carry Jo Malone hand cream, a few M.A.C lip pencils in shades Cool Spice and Velvet Teddy, Haus Labs clear lip oil, a Makeup Forever powder puff, Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder, and Nécessaire deodorant.

I always have digestive enzymes in my bag, which this week was the Coach Brooklyn, that I eat before any meal out so my stomach doesn’t hurt, because my stomach always hurts. It’s mixed into a little capsule with Advil and moves from bag to bag. Plus, I have eye drops in case my contacts get dry and four lip products in my bag at all times. It’s a rotation between a liner, a Rhode tinted gloss, and then Goop clear lip balm.

One thing about me is that I’m always going to be someone who’s running late. As a result, I need some makeup that will do the heavy lifting and hide the fact I got ready on the subway over to the show. A good lip combo always makes me feel put together even when I’m very much so not; my favorite at the moment is the Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat liner in the shade Hot Gossip paired with either Clinique’s Black Honey Almost Lipstick or Topicals’ deep-red Slick Salve when I need extra moisture.

I also always keep a hair clip on me, considering my curls love to shape-shift throughout the day in ever-surprising ways; some hand sanitizer, because I watched a kid open-mouth-puke on the train this week and haven’t been the same since; a mint, because we’re packed into these fashion shows like sardines; and my Leuchtturm1917 journal to keep me sane between events.

During Fashion Week, I swapped my Cuyana work bag for this Gucci Jackie from Vestiarie Collective but my essentials remained the same. Besides Bang & Olufsen headphones, I always carry my Aquaphor for all my skin hydration needs and a lip combo. My current favorites are the Makeup Forever Artist Color Pencil Extreme in Wherever Walnut and the e.l.f Glow Reviver Lip Oil in Honey Talks.

I keep several lip combos in my bag so there’s always at least one lip liner and one lip oil in my bag for quick touch-ups. Right now, I’m into warm browns, so I have Makeup Forever’s Versatile Chestnut and Fenty’s lip oil on hand for a sort of cherry-cola lip. I also have a few similar shades just in case one isn’t sharp enough. I always keep hand sanitizer around; the Aesop one is by far one of the best-smelling ones, and I also love the hand cream. I keep wired headphones just in case I forget my Beats earbuds and a portable charger because I’ll be ready to leave any event if my phone is below 20 percent.

In my bag, I keep: a Nars creamy concealer, a Chanel lip balm, Image Skincare’s Ormedic balm, a Makeup Forever lip liner in Versatile Chestnut, and a Makeup by Mario brush. I also always carry Hot Hands warmers to shove into my pockets or even in my shoes when trekking through the snow (which I did a lot of this past week). I also keep hand lotion, either Aesop in Geranium Leaf or Byredo hand cream in the Mojave Ghost scent. 

In my Fashion Week bag, I always have three different pairs of sunglasses; a charger, because my phone is usually at 10 percent after my third show; and a Vaquera white leather sailor hat — it’s there just in case I want to pull a major headpiece moment. I also keep handy an Aspinal of London planner, a laptop, and my Cut notebook, always, no matter what. (We are working girls, let’s not forget.) I have like ten crumpled show notes currently in my purse. I like to collect them.

I also have hair scraps from backstage at Meruert Tolegen (I took hair bows to go for memorabilia, and they are still in the bottom of my bag), as well as Advil; my feet hurt. Headphones for my walk (who are we kidding … run) between shows and a compilation of lip liner, lipstick, lip gloss, and black eyeliner. I carry long black leather gloves because it’s simply too cold outside not to have them on standby, my fantasy book and newest magazine for breaks between, Y/Project “F U” hand earrings; they get heavy, so they’re on standby in my bag. Finally, D.S & Durga’s I Don’t Know What travel-size perfume and Byredo’s Rouge Chaotic are my favorite scents. Trust, it’s necessary.