Nicole Richie Shares Her Carry-on Packing Formula and the Item She Always Brings to Avoid Airplane Germs

Nicole Richie can charm anyone—even someone she has just spilled meatballs on during a flight. “We somehow became best friends after, and he invited us to a basketball game,” she told Travel + Leisure recently of making the most of a messy airplane mishap. 

Richie has been charming audiences ever since she made her mark in reality TV, starring opposite Paris Hilton on The Simple Life in the early 2000s, so it’s no surprise she won over her fellow passenger, too.

Meatballs aside, the actress and entrepreneur, who shares two children with her husband, Joel Madden, always brings her own snacks on the plane—and that’s just one of her in-flight habits. You may be surprised to hear she travels with an airplane seat cover, but considering how many germs are on airplane seats, it makes sense. 

She also travels with “crystals, a mechanical pencil, books, bobby pins, lotions, oils… I have bags within bags that I have to have on me.” Still, Richie says she has worked hard to become a carry-on queen over the past year, and she now has it down to a formula. Richie says to start with the Away Bigger Carry-On, then add your perfect travel capsule wardrobe: a white basic tee like this one from La Ligne, a pair of Celine jeans, and Chloe black flare pants. Other essential products include a Therabody face depuffing wand, Avene face cream, and handwashing soap sheets to keep those airplane germs at bay. 

This is the perfect strategy when she visits New Orleans, her favorite city in the U.S., but she needs to pack a bit more for trips to Australia, which Richie says has become like a second home for her family. “My husband and I worked there over the years, my kids have been enrolled in school there, and it holds a very special place in my heart.”

Though she will sometimes watch a movie or TV show on a plane—Veep and Girls are her favorites— for Richie, flying can be a creative opportunity. “I love staying off the Wi-Fi. I watch movies, sketch jewelry, read, and fall asleep,” she said. Her only real plane pet peeve? “Anyone who’s disruptive or killing my vibe.”

Having that creative outlet comes in handy for her role as creative director of her jewelry brand House of Harlow, which she founded in 2007 (originally called House of Harlow 1960). The popular brand grew over the years, expanding into clothing and shoes, and though Richie was always the creative director, she stepped back from day-to-day operations.

Now she’s back, steering the brand into a new phase as a modern luxury jewelry house, and she has already launched two new collections: the Hathor Collection, inspired by Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of beauty, and Nova, the brand’s first fine-jewelry collection featuring natural diamonds. “This next phase is about sharpening the vision and drawing from the places, sounds, and experiences that have shaped me,” she told T+L.