I’m Obsessed With This $20 Travel Hack, and It’s Also the Perfect Stocking Stuffer
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Earlier this week, we told you about the perfect holiday gift for her — a $20 travel jewelry case that’s also Oprah-approved. Today, we’ve got an affordable unisex travel gift that SPY editors swear by. In fact, our Reviews Editor Anthony Mastracci has been using this exact product for six years, and with travel gift trending this holiday season, it’s the perfect affordable gift for Christmas 2022.
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Introducing the Travalo Fragrance Atomizer. If you’re not familiar with the term atomizer, the Travalo is a TSA-approved mini spray bottle that lets you travel with perfume and cologne — without packing the entire bottle and risking a luggage catastrophe.
SPY editors have had great results with this $20 product, and it’s also incredibly easy to use. In the SPY video below, you can see our Reviews Editor Anthony demonstrating how to use the Travalo:
Basically, if you love cologne or perfume, then this is a practical and unique gift idea. This ingenious atomizer lets you pack small, travel-friendly quantities of your favorite fragrances while traveling.
GREAT GIFT UNDER $20
Travalo Classic HD Perfume Atomizer
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This Travalo atomizer is made with a leak-proof design that’s TSA-approved and easy-to-fill and designed to make traveling with fragrance much easier. It uses the sprayer from your perfume or cologne bottle to fill up, and since it’s glass-free you can rest assured knowing it’s durable enough to squeeze into your suitcase. It also has a small window so you can see when it’s time for a refill.
After years of scouring the internet for perfect gifts, SPY editors have grown to become bonafide experts in the presents arena. So when we discovered the Travalo, arguably a perfect gift idea for anyone who likes to smell nice, we were taken aback. How did we miss this universally useful and, most importantly, affordable gift? Now we can’t stop talking about this travel hack and are convinced there’s someone on every shopping list who would love to receive it.
We featured this gift prominently as one of the top gifts in our guide to the best Christmas gifts of 2022, and think this would make a great gift for men, women, dads who want nothing and even coworkers who share your love of fragrance.
Read More: The Best Men’s Cologne of 2022
Our Reviews Editor, Anthony Mastracci, swears by this thing after spending years unsure how to pack cologne efficiently.
“If there’s one thing on which I pride myself, it’s packing stuff into other stuff — trucks, spice cabinets, and definitely suitcases. I got super packing abilities from my father, and he from his, but there are certain items when packing a travel bag that make the process difficult, namely cologne,” said Mastracci.
“About six years ago, I was gifted something called the Travalo Classic HD Perfume Atomizer and packing a travel bag has never been easier.”
What Is an Atomizer? Why Do You Need One?
An atomizer is a device designed to make traveling with scent much easier. You pump your favorite perfume or cologne into it and then it acts as a smaller pumpable bottle of the liquid for your trip. It also has a sealed design built to limit the amount of oxygen and light your scent is exposed to, two factors that can change its chemical makeup and lead it to deteriorate faster.
Most perfume and cologne bottles (at least the ones you’ve invested in) are large and aren’t TSA-compliant, which can make traveling with them complicated. And even if you’re checking a bag and the whole bottle can fit, they tend to be made of heavy materials that take up a lot of precious suitcase real estate.
This atomizer from Travalo is only 3.5 inches tall, so you can throw it in any pocket and be good to go. Mastracci describes, he’s “able to get the perfect amount for just a couple of weeks and toss it in my Dopp kit effortlessly.”
Using an Atomizer: Easier Than You Think
“It legitimately couldn’t be any easier,” said Mastracci. He outlined the few steps you need to take to get it to work below.
Remove the spray head from your main bottle of cologne to reveal the little plastic straw-lookin’ doohickey (that’s what it’s called, probably).
Position the atomizer valve over the doohickey and start pumping it full of cologne.
Fill the atomizer to your desired level, based on what you see from the little window thing and, voila! You now have the perfect amount of cologne for your trip.
“Using the atomizer is just as easy as using your regular cologne with its convenient spray nozzle. This thing has been one of the biggest conveniences in my packing regiment and, because of that, I’ve purchased these for just about everybody I know. Nobody knows how to react at first, but once they need to pack, I get text messages about how much they love their atomizer and I look like a genius.”
Isn’t that the goal of the holiday season, anyway? Gifting something someone definitely wants or something they didn’t even know they want?
Travalo’s Classic Atomizer comes in nine different colors so you’ve got options for your gift-ee, and they have more luxurious atomizers worth checking out. However, for this price, it’s hard to beat the Classic.
Buy: Travalo HD Perfume Cologne Atomizer $20.00
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