This post is sponsored by Stowaway; makeup essentials in sizes you can carry.
My great great Aunt Ruth was a woman with a proper dressing table. You might be familiar with the sort of table she had: There were tubes of, I’m hazarding a guess here, decades-old lipstick in gold colored cases, a smattering of assorted perfumes, compacts with fuzzy poofs, a general smell of powder and fragrance oils mixed in with must. By the time I was on the scene and old enough to prowl around, I’d say it’s safe to say the majority of items on the dressing table had gone considerable time without being touched but there was a time when I’m sure the table saw more frequent visits. My aunt wasn’t a woman of leisure—she ran her own pediatric practice from an office attached to her house—but when it came to getting herself ready for an evening on the town, she’d had a devoted space to help her along and organize her reserve of supplies.
Needless to say, times have changed. Though perhaps not extinct, dressing tables of the sort that took up residence in my aunt’s bedroom are rare. But that doesn’t mean that modern folk need to go without a cache of makeup should the desire strike for a little bit of dressing up. Happily, whether you’re leisurely preening in front of a dressing table, or sitting in the back of cab en route to a holiday gathering and in need of a little freshening up, the cosmetics brand Stowaway offers modern solutions for the makeup inclined. (And unlike traditional cosmetics brands still stuck in the past, their makeup comes in sensible sizes that don’t require a dedicated piece of furniture to house them.)
As many of you might recall, I’ve partnered with Stowaway before. Their commitment to creating a safe and superior product in sizes that make sense remains the same. Instead of selling cosmetics so large and heavy that they’re virtually impossible to finish before their expiration date, Stowaway has sized their makeup to correspond with the needs of the people who use them, and they’re always EU-compliant, paraben-, phlalate-, and cruelty-free. So even if you do have a dressing table, with Stowaway there’s no reason it’ll be filled with fusty makeup you haven’t been able to finish. (Bonus: Stowaway also offers a recycling program for their containers! Once you’ve used something up you can pop it in the mail back to Stowaway and for every three products that you return, you’ll earn a $5 shopping credit! Details here.)
Stowaway’s latest additions include a Dawn-to-Dusk Eyeshadow Palette (the size of a credit card!) that includes the very prettiest navy blue and a Powder Blush that’s just 1/3 the size of a traditional blush and comes in three perfect shades: Fawn, Peach, and Rose. Plus, they’ve got you covered in terms of anything else you might need for a little holiday party primping: creme lipsticks in festive hues, a creme illuminator for the perfect party glow, and the unsung heroes of a night out, their creaseless concealer and radiant complexion beauty balm.
14 Comments
Oooohhh… lovely. Thanks
I wish we had this in the UK
Me too!
I might try this once my makeup runs out. I’m currently using RMS and really love it. Have you ever tried? My favorites are the Lip2Cheek and UnCover Up. Definitely worth the cost (I bought mine 3 years ago and still use it!)
Have never tried myself but have heard only great things!
Love this concept. After recently leaving my job at a beauty company I was at for 7 years, I’m looking forward to trying new brands, especially safer ones. I just need to make my way through the backlog of makeup I’ve acquired over the past 7 years to justify buying anything else! I’m very close to needing new mascara — is this one good for volume?
They have two mascaras! I definitely prefer the Extreme Lash formulation!
Love stowaway! May I ask where you found that pretty silver clutch?
My clutch is from Clare Vivier!
I’ve seen this brand featured here before but somehow it raises many question for me. One of them is that smaller sizes lead to more waist. I know they have recycling program but what does that mean? Do they use the containers again? Or do they send them to recycle as we do in our homes? If it is the first one, how they sanitize them? Is it worth it or it has environmental price too? If it is the last one, is it sensitive to use mail (one of the biggest environment issues) to make a little somethinh back and forth? For what I could understand they are not refillable right? That is what would be a great creation, like using the same container for food but with makeup (which some big brands used to do (eyeshadow refill, etc I just have one two favorites so I’m not updated in that area). The recycle part is kind of dubious for me, because in the end even other brands they are almost can be recycled (without a point program and shipping). Also just because they go by EU standards doesn’t make them Natural (which they dislike the word but although it’s not a certifiable word it does apply). There are thousands of brands that comply with those standarts (all EU brands!) and they are not that very trustable. Of course I’m concerned with those standarts but I also prefer a brand who has its own standarts and explain why they use or not use some ingredient. Well, these are some of the thoughts I had to see this brand here again…there are so many great brands out there this days…and yes they are natural, meaning they use the whole elementos not just a quimical constituint of a plant for example..
Hi Rita,
I think your comments point to a pretty common dilemma that we have as consumers which is parsing exactly what goes into products, what it means for us, and how we choose to spend our money! I think it’s terrific to demand ever better products and standards of production while acknowleding that to some extent participating in consumerism in general is not often an inherently sustainble choice. It’s almost always complicated. In trying to answer some of your specfic questions I’d start by saying what I do know: that Stowaway was born from acknowledging the wastefulness of the cosmetics industry more generally. Research showed that larger sizes don’t actually get used up and so people are either tossing their expired and unused makeup or leaving it pile up in their homes. The recylcing project was born as a way of disposing of the containers themselves in a responsible manner—I do not believe they’re sanitized and reused. European recylcing in general is more comprehensive than American, but it’s definitely not the case that we can dump half-filled cosmetics containers into our recylcing bins and know that they’ll be properly looked after. To be very clear: I haven’t used the word natural to describe a cosmetics brand as makeup is very rarely truly natural and as you mention the word itself is problematic. All of this to say that I think Stowaway is doing a lot of things right, which is why I’ve partnered with them, and I agree that making decisions about purchasing is always complicated! Hope that helps.
I had supported stowaway when I heard about them through you but had a poor experience with their customer service and discounts and haven’t been convinced to try them again. Such a bummer since I do love their small size.
Oh so sorry to hear that!
I started using Stowaway products upon your recommendation when you first introduced them on your blog. I LOVE their products. I’m not super into makeup and don’t have a lot of time in the mornings. Their products do just enough to make me feel great about how I look while also being very gentle on my skin.
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