Toiletries Packing List: What Goes in the Bag

You've done this before: quart bag zipped, shampoo bottle looks about right, and then the officer pulls it aside because the label says 8 oz even though the bottle is half empty. The 100ml rule cares about what the container says, not what's actually left inside. Get the bag right once and you stop losing five minutes to it on every trip.

The 100ml Rule, Precisely

Every liquid, gel, aerosol, cream and paste in your carry-on has to fit the same pattern: each container 100ml or 3.4 oz or smaller, all containers inside one clear, resealable quart-size bag (a liter bag in the EU and UK), one bag per person. That last part trips people up constantly. It's per container, not per person, so a nearly-empty 8 oz bottle still gets pulled even if it holds a tablespoon of shampoo. The bag itself matters too: it needs to actually close flat. A bag stuffed so full it won't zip gets treated at some checkpoints as a bag that doesn't meet the rule at all, and you'll be repacking at the tray table while the line backs up behind you.

The CT Scanner Exception (Don't Bank On It)

New CT scanners give screeners a 3D view of your bag, and airports running them have started waiving the 100ml limit at some lanes. As of mid-2026 that's real but patchy. Rome Fiumicino, Milan's Linate and Malpensa, and Dublin now allow containers up to 2 liters. Select lanes at Frankfurt and Munich do too. Heathrow, Birmingham and Edinburgh have made similar moves. In the US, most airports still enforce the standard 3-1-1 rule even where CT scanners are already installed; the exemptions there apply mainly to a short list of medical items and baby formula, not toiletries in general.

The catch is consistency. Even at an airport with CT scanners, only certain lanes or terminals may be upgraded, and staffing decisions can shift which lane you're routed through on a given day. Your connecting airport matters just as much as your departure one: a liter of duty-free liquid bought past security in one country can still get confiscated at a transfer checkpoint that hasn't rolled out the same scanners, a scenario covered in more detail in our guide to duty-free liquids on connecting flights. Unless you've confirmed both your departure and connection airports are running the exemption, pack to the old 100ml rule. It travels everywhere; the exception doesn't yet.

Skip the Bottle: Solid Alternatives

The easiest way to win the space argument in your quart bag is to not need it. Solid shampoo and conditioner bars, solid deodorant, toothpaste tablets and solid perfume balms aren't classified as liquids or gels, so they don't count toward your 100ml bag at all. That frees the bag's limited space for things that genuinely have to be liquid, like contact solution or the sunscreen you actually trust. Solids also survive a checked bag without leaking into everything else, and they weigh less, which matters if you're trying to stay under a personal-item limit the way we cover in the ultimate packing list.

What Gets Forgotten (or Packed Wrong)

A few items cause more security delays than the liquids ever do:

• Nail scissors with a pointed tip count as a sharp object and get confiscated at many checkpoints, even though nobody thinks of a nail kit as a weapon. Curved nail clippers are almost always fine; pointed scissors are the risk.

• Razors split by type. Disposable razors and cartridge razors travel fine in carry-on. Safety razor blades and straight razors generally need to go in checked luggage, if they're allowed at all on that route.

• Prescription liquid medication can exceed 100ml when it's declared separately at the checkpoint and reasonable for your trip length, but bring the prescription or a pharmacy label with your name on it. This matters more, not less, once you cross a border, since some countries restrict specific medications outright regardless of what a US or EU prescription allows. Our guide to medical and first-aid kits for travel covers documentation in more depth.

A hanging toiletry bag with clear pockets earns its keep here: it makes the security bag easy to pull out fast, and once you're at the hotel it hooks over a door instead of competing for the six inches of counter space bathrooms abroad rarely have.

Refill Logistics for Longer Trips

A weekend trip doesn't need a strategy. A month on the road does. You've got two real options. Small refillable silicone bottles cost less over time, cut down on plastic, and let you bring exactly the products you already use instead of gambling on a travel-size version existing. The tradeoff is logistics: you need a funnel, a place to refill from a full-size bottle at home, and patience the first few times you do it without spilling. Buying travel sizes as you go is simpler and lighter to start, but you'll pay more per ounce and you're relying on local stores stocking something close to what you use. For trips longer than two or three weeks, most travelers land on a mix: refillable bottles for one or two daily essentials, travel sizes or local pharmacy buys for the rest.

If you're the type who forgets this until the night before, run through a week-before-trip checklist so the toiletry bag isn't the thing you're assembling at 6 a.m.

Pack solids wherever you can, treat the CT scanner exception as a bonus rather than a plan, and decide your refill strategy before the bag is already full. That's the whole system, and it holds up whether you're gone for four days or four months.

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