By the time you’re reading this, I would have actually been and gone to the Isle of Wight festival. Sounds a bit silly when I’ve already been and gone, but I love having a nosey at what people have packed for their trips away. Also, it gives me an excuse to show off my new sparkly festival attire I’ve been packing for a long weekend away to the Isle of Wight.
I mentioned in my summer plans post that I’m not actually camping at the festival. My friends and I enjoy comfortable, non muddy and not inflatable beds too much, so we’re staying in a lodge near by. That’ll explain why my packing list doesn’t include a tent, sleeping bags or a huge haul of pot noodles.
Everything I’m Packing For A Long Weekend Away
The Luggage
I brought my suitcase from eBay at the start of the year when Cal and I stayed in London for a blog event. I already own another suitcase, but knowing how busy London can get, I wanted something a little more compact and one that I could push in any direction. However, since I’m a huge overpacker, I’m also going to be bringing a weekend bag away with me. I’m definitely always going to be in the mindset of ‘it’s best to bring it and not use it, than forget it and need it’
Luckily, I just drove myself and Cal down, so we had the whole of my car to fill up with our bits and bobs.
Clothing
It doesn’t take a Meteorologist to be able to tell that this June has been MISERABLE. I feel like we’ve been really lucky with the hot weather this year, up until June came and pissed on everyones bonfire (literally).
After constantly sending screenshots of weather apps back and forth in the group chat, we decided it’s probably best to pack both typical summer clothes, and also some warmer clothes.
Since it is a festival, I’m bringing the typical festival clothing – pretty much anything bright and sparkly. A rainbow sparkly playsuit from Primark that I picked up last year, a mermaid sequinned skirt that Mikey’s friend kindly gave to me, and also a few little crop tops that I’m going to try my best not to fall out of.
Even on the dry days, I still wore my wellies everyday. If you’ve ever seen photos of a British festival, you know exactly how muddy they can get, so I didn’t want to even attempt to wear anything else.
Beauty Bits and Bobs
For my makeup bag, it only contains three products – a brow pencil, a mascara and a lip balm. I was considering taking an eyeshadow palette to do some bright and colourful looks with, but realistically, I knew the rain and dancing would end up destroying it within minutes of getting to the festival.
Obviously you can’t go to a festival without a little glitter. A while back, two lovely brands – Evol and Glitterlution – sent me a huge bunch of their glitters to try out and I’ve been obsessed every since. I now own literally every single glitter I could ever want, which is perfect. The only downside is that I now have to spend an hour before we leave, doing everyones glitter for them.
I’ve really cut down my skincare routine and cut out everything I didn’t think was actually doing that much. Within days, I’ve definitely noticed my skins improving with the more minimalistic routine on board. It’s made my routines a whole lot quicker, and it also means I don’t have to pack a whole bunch of skincare every time I go away. I am going to be doing an updated skincare routine soon, so I won’t say exactly what I’m bringing, but it pretty much consists of two cleansers, an essence, serum, moisturiser and an SPF.
Even though I had plenty of room in my car to bring extra things, I still thought it was pretty pointless bringing full sized bottles when I could easily pop what I needed into travel bottles. I usually get mine from Poundland or somewhere similar, and I always pop a bit of clingfilm in-between the bottle and the lid to stop anything from potentially leaking.
I also wanted to bring a bottle of perfume with me, but I didn’t want to risk smashing the whole bottle and again, I wanted to try my hardest to cut down the amount of stuff I was bringing with me. About a month ago, I was kindly sent a Twist & Spritz Refillable Spray. It holds up to 8ml of fragrance, so you can take your perfume around with you, without taking up too much space in your luggage/handbag. It’s around the size of a large lipstick, and it’s so easy to use and refill. Now I’m home, it’s made a home inside of my handbag. Goodbye overfilled, heavy handbag!
Lastly, I packed a few different beauty tools in a separate toiletries bag. Things like tweezers, mini scissors, a nail file, eyelash curler etc. All things I knew I was going to need, but usually forget to bring along with me. If you’re packing for a long weekend, definitely bring them along with you. You can thank me later.
The Essentials
Obviously there’s the boring stuff I had to bring along with me too. Things I definitely needed to bring, but not that fun to talk about, so I’ll make this short and sweet.
Apart from the obvious chargers, I also went ahead and got myself a portable charger from Amazon. I knew I’d be spending a lot of time taking photos and videos on my phone, and since there was only 4 of us going, I didn’t want to risk getting split up and having no battery on my phone. I only ended up needing the charger once, but I know I’m going to need it for Wilderness Festival.
Another thing that took quiet a big portion of my suitcase was medication. I don’t tend to talk about my illnesses that much on my blog anymore, but I can definitely assure you that they’re all still there, lingering on in the background. With festivals, I never know how I’m going to cope with them, so I pretty much have to take a small chemist wherever I go. Painkillers, acid tablets, cold and flu tablets, my pill, inhalers, hot water bottles, TENs machine, the lot. Annoying, but like I said before, it’s better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them.
~ This post contains gifted items in exchange of a review and affiliated links ~
