7 Smart Reasons To Choose Solid Toiletries For Travel

One of our biggest travel hacks? 

Swapping those accident-prone liquid cosmetics for the miracle that are solid toiletries!

You can do this swap with your home cosmetics too – you’ll still get many benefits.

But solid toiletries for travel? Oh, that’s an actual game-changer.

Let us tell you all about it.

Here are the 7 reasons why you should consider switching to solid toiletries.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own adventures too!

Solid cosmetics – what on earth are they?

When we were getting ready for our full-time travels, we did a lot of research into solid cosmetics, hoping not to take any liquids with us.

Okay, we did a lot of research into everything because when your whole life has to be reduced into one backpack, you need quite a few hacks.

Btw, if you are looking to elevate your travels, even if you are not travelling full-time, check out all the travel tips we have discovered along the way. There are some unusual ones you might not have come across before. 😅

Now, back to solid toiletries.

The one thing we discovered when we started looking into them?

You can get so many things in solid form!!

It’s not just handsoaps.

Here are the solid toiletries we have tried so far:

• shampoo
• conditioner
• facial cleanser
• lotion
• shaving bar
• perfume
• deodorant
• repellent
• toothpaste

Who knew???

We definitely didn’t.

7 reasons to switch to solid toiletries for travel

Reason no. 1: No spills

Enough said. 😆 

Everyone has a terrible Ross-like story of shampoos and shower gels leaking all over their luggage, right?

Including the full video here in case you need a laugh today (which, if you are like us, you do every day because every day a new 💩 tends to happen to us).

The thing is, no matter which of those 100-percent-leak-proof travel bottles you buy, they always leak in the end.

We’ve tried many things over the years:

• Sealing lids with cellotape (what a faff and totally undoable if you move around a lot, like when you are full-time travelling)
• Double-bagging cosmetics (the only result is your stuff still leaks, but you also have a plastic bag or two FULL of the leaked liquid. Great. Also, so not environmentally friendly)
• Wrapping liquid bottles in shower caps (same as the previous bullet point. Also, not the easiest to actually wrap and unwrap)
• Using different types of lids (screw-on, flip-top, pop-up ARE THESE NAMES OF SWEETS FROM 2000s OR WHAT?)
• Buying those travel mini bottles with 100% leak-proof guarantee that you can move your own products into (which, of course, still leak. Also, you need to faff moving your liquids into them every time you go somewhere. And label them. Ugh).

Why this matters

Not fearing spills might be the biggest reason why changing from liquids to solids is a smart move. 

Because when you travel, your possessions are limited.

You only have so many clothes.

So many shoes.

So many charging cables (that actually work).

And if a shampoo bottle leaks all over them.

Well. No one wants to spend the first day of their holiday hunting for a new phone charger and a laundromat.

And if you are full-time travelling?

It’s even more crucial that your “home” aka your bag of choice and its possessions don’t get damaged.

You move around A LOT.

You most likely packed light, so your possessions are very limited.

And if you are backpacking, chances are things get squished as your bag travels on a plane or a bus (or the roof of a van 😅). 

Squished backpack = liquids disaster

Switching to solid toiletries for travel is THE solution.

It’s so nice to know there won’t be any nasty surprises waiting for us as we unzip the bags at our destination (at least when it comes to the bags. There are often other nasty surprises waiting for us at our accommodation 😬).

Reason no. 2: You can pack them into hand luggage

Okay, we have 2 points to discuss here:

1. Packing light

If you are not already packing light, you have to read this. We are on a mission to make everyone’s travels easier and better, and packing light is one of the main ways how you can do this.

The way to fast-track to an expert-level traveller? 

Switching to hand-luggage-only travel.

The freedom is amazing.

And one of the things you need when you travel with just hand luggage?

You guessed it!

Solid cosmetics!

You don’t have to worry about checking the ml of your bottles, adding them up (is it less than 1 litre??) and the worst devil of it all – trying to cram them into the mini ziplock bag 5 mins before you go through airport security.

2. Repacking hack

Let’s say you are not on the level of hand-luggage-only travel. Yet. 

That’s cool, don’t worry, we are not judging!

Maybe you are a full-time traveller who needs a big backpack or a suitcase.

The point we wanna make is: sometimes your checked bag might end up overweight. Just like we tend to be after the Christmas holidays. 😬

If you get to the airport, put your bag on the scale and it somehow is 2kg over the limit, even though you are sure you checked it at home??

What do you do?

Well, with solid cosmetics, if you have them packed in your checked luggage, you can easily repack them into your hand luggage. Without worrying about the 100ml rule!

Just grab your solid toiletries bag and voila – your suitcase is now the right weight.

Reason no. 3: They are better for the planet 

The thing with solid toiletries? They are often made by companies who care about the planet. This means they are often plastic-free, with minimal packaging, and they are produced in an eco-friendly manner as well. 

We’ll talk about this later, but solid cosmetics usually last longer than liquids, too. 

That means that you buy them less often and so generate waste less often!

Something to note

There is something to consider if you are going to be using solid toiletries for travel.

While it’s great that the packaging is eco-friendly, it’s not always travel-friendly.

A solid shampoo wrapped in recycled paper is amazing for the planet, but not amazing when you have to wrap it up wet, as you are rushing out of your accommodation, and stick it into your suitcase or a backpack. 😬

This is why some brands sell recycled (or other, eco-friendly) containers that you can carry your solid toiletries in when you travel.

Alternatively, to create even less waste, try to see if you have something at home that you can repurpose.

We carry our solid toiletries in a variety of tins, tubs (the ones you use in the kitchen), old soap dish (saved from when Mirka was in primary school!) etc.

The one hack

Speaking of wet solid toiletries, this is one of their main disadvantages.

You need to leave them out to dry after use.

And we don’t know how about you, but we are not big fans of having tubs of solid cosmetics all over our (usually tiny) hotel bathrooms.

The solution?

We carry small plastic dishes with us, where we can leave the solid toiletries to dry.

It’s also great for the ones we use every day – it keeps them handy and stops us from turning their storage tub into a mini soup bowl before they’ve had a chance to dry (looking at you, facial cleanser bar).

But plastic?

Now, if you are thinking: you are talking about how eco-friendly solid toiletries are, but you are using plastic dishes??

Yes. Because the plastic dishes are actually repurposed waste.

They used to be the protective cover on face creams and body scrubs.

But, instead of throwing them out, we used them as little holders for our solid toiletries as we travel.

It’s such a great hack!

That’s how we usually do things – look around our house first, to see what we can use, before buying new.

Reason no. 4: They are better for your health 

Starting this point with a disclaimer: not all solid toiletries are better for your health.

But many of them are produced by people who care about the planet AND your health. It often goes hand in hand. This is why the brands/sellers make them from natural ingredients rather than stuffing them full of chemicals.

So solid toiletries might be a great option for you even if you don’t travel a lot, but just want gentler, less harmful cosmetics to use at home.

As always, we’ll advise you to do your own research. See what the different solid toiletries are made from and try a few to find what works for you.

Reason no. 5: They save you space

Did you know that solid toiletries are more concentrated? That means you usually only need one bar of, say, shampoo in exchange for two bottles of a liquid one. 

This is especially useful if you are going long-term travelling – you don’t have to carry as much (packing light FTW) and you also don’t have to be looking for cosmetics replacements in foreign countries! 

Super useful if you found THE perfect solid toiletries for travel in your home country from some local seller and know you won’t be able to replace them abroad.

Interestingly, solid cosmetics are also usually lighter than liquid ones.

So you not only save space in your luggage, but also weight! And if you are carrying your whole life on your shoulders, every gram counts (as backpackers who thought they packed light, but actually overpacked, we learned this the hard way).

Reason no. 6: They save you money 

If you pick good value for money products, they work out cheaper than multiple bottles of liquid products.

What do we mean by this?

1. You’ve got to find solid toiletries that have a good price. Sadly, the more solids become a “trend”, the higher the prices get as brands and individual sellers want to profit off of it. As always, shop around if you can.
2. As we mentioned in the previous point, solid cosmetics are more concentrated, which means they will last you longer. The less often you have to replace them, the more money you save!
3. Some brands even tell you how many bottles of a liquid product equal one solid bar. This is a great piece of info – you know how much less waste you have generated AND you can calculate how much money you are saving by buying the bar vs your usual liquid product. 

We are all about saving money – the more you save on things, the more you can spend on travel. 

If you agree with this mindset, first of all, do check out our article on how we saved money for full-time travel.

Second, do your research when it comes to solid cosmetics. 

Compare prices. See if you can find out how many liquid bottles one solid bar replaces. Or even time it yourself – how long does a solid bar last you vs your usual liquid product?

Reason no. 7: Longer shelf life

One more great thing about solid toiletries?

They last longer than liquid ones, and we don’t mean just how much use you can get out of them!

What we mean is that their expiry dates are much longer.

Why?

Well, as we mentioned, solid toiletries are usually made from better ingredients. This, combined with the lack of water in their formulation, means bacteria doesn’t grow as fast in them as it does in liquids (yikes).

Plus, if you fly a lot, you might notice your liquid toiletries going funny from all the pressure and temperature changes. Guess what though – with solid cosmetics, you won’t have this problem!

Our personal experience

We LOVE our solid toiletries. They have saved us a lot of money, space, and weight and prevented many accidents as we travel.

But it wasn’t an easy start. 

We researched quite a bit first and, since then, have tried many different solid cosmetics to see what works best for us.

We’ll write about the different solid toiletries for travel in more detail – coming soon!

Don’t get discouraged, though – the pros far outweigh the cons.

Where to find solid toiletries for travel – the good news

We went full-time travelling in 2022, so we were doing the research in 2021.

And do you know what? Despite living in the UK, it wasn’t that easy to source solid toiletries for travel back then.

We had to mainly order from Etsy.

These days, solid cosmetics, such as shampoo bars, are available in almost all drugstores! We are seeing more and more solid toiletries popping up as we travel around the world, which is fantastic.

It means that:

1. More people can make the life-changing switch to solid cosmetics
2. There is a greater variety, so you are not stuck with just two types of a shampoo bar, and if that doesn’t suit you, tough 
3. As you travel, you can replace your solid cosmetics in the different countries you visit

Where to buy solid cosmetics

If you need help locating solid toiletries, here are the places where we usually see them:

• Drugstores/beauty stores – these tend to sell the bigger, more commercial brands and also usually just the main products such as shampoos, conditioners and facial cleansers.
• Some brands are known for jumping on the solid toiletries trend early – for example, Lush. While we find their products too expensive for our budget (we are all about saving money so we can use it for travel), the big advantage is you can find Lush stores all around the world (in 52 countries) so if you are struggling to find solid cosmetics, this might be a safe bet for you.
• Etsy and other online handmade-product platforms – here you can usually find small producers of very organic solid cosmetics. The one disadvantage? Small shops don’t always last. We’ve seen that so many times on Etsy; for example, our solid shampoo producer from the UK went unexpectedly under. 
• Zero-waste stores – we are also seeing more and more of these eco/zero-waste/plastic-free stores popping up, which is great. They are a goldmine for getting not just your solid toiletries for travel, but other travel-friendly products too.
• Local markets – markets with handmade products are another great place to look for solid toiletries. Plus, it’s a fun activity to add to your travel itinerary too!

Bonus tips

Here are some extra tips on switching to solid toiletries for travel:

1. Don’t go crazy. Even if you see all these cool solid cosmetics in a shop, don’t try switching all your usual products for them at the same time. You don’t know how your body will respond to the new products (for example, with shampoo bars, there is often a transition period, which is not fun), and you don’t want to be battling unhappy hair, face, skin etc. all at the same time. Try one product at a time.
2. Speaking of, don’t leave testing of the new solid toiletries for travel time. Especially if you are full-time travelling. This was a big mistake we made, and let’s just say that being in the aforementioned transition period for a shampoo bar WHILE volunteering abroad in the middle of the Italian countryside was far from ideal.
3. Not everything might work for you as a solid version, and that’s okay. We tried solid lotion, for example, and it’s just a no from us (at least for now, until we find a really good one). You don’t have to switch all your travel liquids for solids; even a couple of swaps can make a big difference.
4. Solid cosmetics make for great travel gifts. We talked about this hack in our post about saving money. For example, before we went full-time travelling, we gave each other solid perfumes as presents for birthdays. If you want to have a peek, this was the perfume Daniel got as a present, and this is the one he bought for Mirka.

We hope these 7 smart reasons to choose solid toiletries for travel convinced you to give them a go. If you do, please share your experience with us – we are forever looking for ways to make our travels better and would love info on the different solid toiletries you’ve tried and what you thought of them.

As always, if you do have any questions, you can reach out to us in the comments here or on our Instagram.