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BEAUTY SPOT EDWINA INGS-CHAMBERS
Traveller’s tales of Hoffman – or a clear case of convenience

Lisa Hoffman certainly doesn't claim that it has been any hardship to be married to a movie star (yes, that's Dustin). But she does claim it has been hard to pack when traveling from location to location, particularly skincare.

“The size of my tolletry bags were embarrassing – I had to cut that down,” she says. “I did an enormous amount of traveling as Dustin and I wanted to keep our family together. It wasn’t always for a long time –for example for Rain Man it was four days in one city, then a week in another, then three weeks in another. It’s constant travel. I became an expert packer but always struggled with skincare.”

Most travelers, especially women, will understand the problem, especially when it involves hand luggage at our modern, maximum security airports. Flying out of the UK seems particularly tricky. You can now take liquids on board but are limited to the contents of one small see-through plastic bag and bottles no larger than 100ml.

Few brands have quite got to grips with this yet. Lancome, for instance, has fancy travel-size products but they come in 150ml sizes, which are only good for hold luggage.

Bobbi Brown has a quirky and easy solution for those who won’t be parted from their favourite products: a clear plastic bag complete with miniature plastic bottles, a funnel, spatula and labels so that you can decant your old faithfuls. I tried this for a trip recently and it was quite fun to do, if a bit fiddly, much like an old chemistry class at school, minus the Bunsen burner. Just remember to shake your make-up remover (if it contains oils) before decanting it.

Hoffman went one better: she created her own range of travel-friendly skincare (pictured below), all personally financed. The idea came to her in a dream. It was a “really specific, neurotic dream that I was making my [skincare] packing much easier. I woke up and drew the packaging – the ultimate product is almost exactly what I drew.” That was seven years ago. Two year ago, she started on the project and it launched in the US in October and is available in stores worldwide including Harvey Nichols and Colette in Paris as well as online (currently international orders can’t be filled on the net but Hoffman hopes this will change soon).

The beauty of Hoffman’s range is its simplicity. There are five products – cleanser, toner, moisturiser, eye cream, lip serum – named and also numbered one to five for ease of use. Better yet, they come in travel size ampoules (made of recyclable plastic) that contain just enough for one application and all come attached to each other in the order in which they should be used. On top of that, there is a day and night range an one of each is packaged in a daily use bag, which can be bought singly (14/20 pounds) or in a box of seven “packettes” (80/120 pounds)

I’m pretty fussy about new creams – I try a lot of them. And I like my favourite products especially when traveling. It’s like carrying a piece of home with you when everything else is unfamiliar. But I loved these when I was on the road recently. Even after one day, may skin looked so clear and blooming that I almost went without my usual brush of facial bronzing powder. And the smell of the oils such as lavender, Moroccan chamomile and sweet almond in the ingredients is almost addictive. Luckily, Hoffman has thought of that too. The products are also available in full size version for when you return home.

Edwina.ings-chambers@ft.com