The Travel Beauty Thread

[sister13]

(January 2023) Thought I’d resurrect this thread, now that there’s a bit more possibility of travel these days! I would love to live vicariously and learn from fellow BICers, so please post any tips, pics, and/or your fave travel minis or routine!  I’m still not doing a lot of travel these days, but may post some pics and notes from past trips.  💗💗💗

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Since the old travel thread sadly got lost in the switchover (😢😢😢) it was suggested a while back, and I’ve been meaning to get a new one started. If there is one already for this, let me know. I travel a bit for work and for fun, and I love checking out beauty stores and seeking out exclusive or hard-to-find items in different places around the world. Some of my favorite makeup destinations have been the Face Powder and Perfume Museum in Torino, Italy (a surprise find) and the Les Merveilleuses Laduree in Tokyo. I have relied on great tips from other BT/BICers on many of my trips, especially Toronto and Tokyo, so I would love to keep this updated as a resource for BIC.

Please share your discoveries, store reviews, pictures, purchases, and travel tips, and I’ll try to keep and update summaries here in the main post for future reference. If you don’t have a chance for much travel, feel free to share your favorite beauty destinations in your home city. I plan to update with photos below from various trips as I have the chance to organize my archives and update. What do you guys think? Feel free to make suggestions on how to organize this thread, too, it might be a bit of a work in progress. Thanks and happy travels BT/BIC!

[curlychiquita]

This is amazing, @fieldsofclover!  I'd love to get to Barcelona one day!

[missjeanie]

Wowza!  This would take up a full day or two in my travel itinerary!  Looks like you're having a blast @fieldsofclover !

[itsfi]

Wow @fieldsofclover! Looks like you’re having a wonderful time traveling! That twisty slide is awesome!! 

[Shosh85]

@fieldsofclover Holy cow! This is awesome! Is it weird that I'm the most jealous about that twisty slide? 😂😆

[Samtian]

@fieldsofclover  That is awesome!! I want to play on the side. And take a million pictures of that CT sign!

[fieldsofclover]

There's a full Benefit brow bar to the right of the CT sign, too. Definitely an immersive retail experience 🌟

[faeriegirl]

Wow that Sephora looks awesome! I would definitely have to try the twisty slide😂 Thanks for sharing @fieldsofclover!

[blackkitty2014]

Not shopping nor beauty related but on our way to find a good snorkel entryway around Captain Cook area (Big Island Hawaii), a nice old lady gave us this avocado. Isn’t that sweet? 

[sister13]

An unexpected treat! Aloha spirit! @blackkitty2014  I’ve only been to Oahu, and will be headed back in May/June. Enjoy and have some açaí bowls for me as the snow approaches Colorado! 🏝 🌴 ❄️ ⛄️ 

[blackkitty2014]

@sister13, I hope you’ll be back to Oahu for vacation? Waikiki can be busy but it has some good shopping spots. 😉 We just got back this morning around 3am. 😴 I am 3 shades darker than I was when we left lol 😂 I told my husband I’m staying after seeing “we’re hiring” sign at the airport 

Wild orchid in Volvano National ParkSchool of yellow tangs in Two StepSunset by Waikoloa Area

[sister13]

Gorgeous photos! Yes, that will be vacation, thank goodness! We’re planning a week or so in Hawaii, then hopefully a few weeks in Samoa/American Samoa. Can’t wait!! @blackkitty2014

[curlychiquita]

Your pictures are amazing, @blackkitty2014!  I'm glad you had a great vacation!

[txcatx]

Okay, what do y'all know about Madrid? Any must-see places? I'm heading to Morocco next year, and noticed that I would have quite a long layover in Madrid on the way back, so I decided to stay in Madrid for an extra day. 

[sister13]

Hi @txcatx, sorry that I’m the worst at hosting a thread and haven’t updated in forever! Haha, partly because I’ve been traveling SO MUCH this year! Including, actually Morocco and Madrid. Now I’m usually traveling for work so I don’t always have a lot of time for all the fun stuff, but let me see what I have for notes, pics on Madrid. I was in Tangier, with a day trip to Chefchaouen and Tetouan, which I would highly recommend! I would have loved to get to Fez and Marrakech, but it was not to be that trip. 

I’ll come back back to update on a few minor tips Madrid & Morocco when I can revisit my notes and pics. However, I wondered what you’re using for your language? The best I’ve found is Mango, I have it for work but you can access via some libraries now and maybe it’s also available for individuals now for purchase, though it didn’t use to be. It’s been the best I’ve found for picking up some relevant basics (greetings, etc) quickly for travel and have been able to make a decent impression (I think) with several tough languages! 

[txcatx]

@sister13 Oh, I'll have to check out Mango; thanks! I've been using Duolingo and Memrise to learn languages, but Memrise seems to be a bit more helpful, especially when it comes to learning Spain Spanish. Duolingo was teaching me sentence structure by having me learn how to say things like, "I am a monkey, and I speak English" in Spanish. 

Also, I'd love to hear of any tips you have regarding both Morocco and Madrid!

[MissPuff]

@txcatx Morocco! How exciting!!!! Have so much fun 🙂

I was just in Madrid last year around this time for a quick weekend and it was fabulous, quite a cool city, I would go back in a heartbeat! Of course, my favorite things to do are eat, drink, and wander, so it was pretty much perfect for that. There are outdoor cafes everywhere (though everyone is drinking wine, beer, or vermouth, rather than coffee) so if you just want to relax and people watch, you'll have lots of company!

Madrid has amazing museums that have various free days/hours so if you're into that, definitely a must see. When I was there, we stayed at the Westin Palace, so within walking distance to the Museo Nacional del Prado y the Museo Reina Sofia and spent hours each (I recall there being a slight discount if you bought tickets to both at the same time, but if you're only there for a day, pick one, and hopefully it will line up with a free admission time! Madrilenos love their museums (and art, there's art EVERYWHERE in the city) so there were definitely lines and crowds. The Prado is open till 8pm at night (and I want to say free admission is from 6-8pm most weekdays...) so it was great to sneak in a few galleries before dinner.

There is also the enormous and gorgeous Parque del Buen Retiro. Breathtaking and grande, perfect for a quick stroll or just sitting and relaxing.

Spoiler

Then of course, the food! SO MUCH good food and honestly, my vacations are me walking from meal to next meal, with some art/site-seeing in between. Mercado de San Miguel is fun to visit, lots of stalls and food with some seating in the middle. Otherwise, cervecerias abound. They're really into Vermouth, comes over ice with a lemon or orange twist, sometimes olives. Refreshing and delicious, perfect with the random tapas they'll serve alongside. Dinner is late, earliest reservations we were able to make was 8 pm, which I LOVED. We stopped at quite a few random tapas bars and cervecerias, but made also made reservations at 4 spectacular places:

StreetXO - actually, they don't take reservations, we just went and lined up before it opened because it's THAT good, has a sister resto that DOES take reservations, DiverXO

Spoiler

Asian fusion with drinks as big as my head!

Sacha - Old school, traditional spanish, totally divine and we were lucky the manager that night spoke some english (and we basically told him to just serve us whatever he wanted/his favorites) otherwise it might have been a little rough. I remember having to call from the US and make reservations over the phone with my fairly terrible spanish, so there's that 🙂 But this might have been my favorite meal if not for...

Coque - 3 Michelin stars (if you're into that sort of thing) and just an amazing experience start to finish. We went for lunch and it's a miracle I was able to walk out after three hours of absolutely stunning food and wine. 

Spoiler

Bonus: Hot head Chef that makes it a point to come by and serve you a course 🙂

Taberna Arzabal Madrid - Modern spanish tapas - not the one next to the Reina Sofia, great example of a slightly nicer/trendier (but not fancy/formal) tapas bar. My favorite part was the literal BUCKET of butter 🙂 

Spoiler

Our little pre-dinner vermouth collection - complimentary tapas of the night was salchipapas!

 

TL:DR - Drink lots of wine and vermouth, eat lots of tapas, wander around aimlessly enjoying art 🙂

[txcatx]

@MissPuff Thank you! Art and food are pretty much my favorite things besides makeup, so Madrid sounds perfect. I'm going to be wandering around by myself, so I made sure to find a centrally located hotel by (maybe inside?) Puerta del Sol. So, I may not be booking dinner reservations, but definitely plan on eating a lot of tapas and churros around the city!

I was worried about going to the Prado because I have limited time, but I also really wanted to see Picasso's controversial Guernica at Museo Reina Sofia. But it's good to know that Prado opens fairly late for a museum and is free in the evenings.

My Spanish is awful (and, living in a border state, I'm limited to Mexico Spanish and not Spain Spanish), but I plan on getting international service on my phone while I'm in Spain and taking advantage of Google translate. I'm trying to brush up on my Spanish as well as learn French (for Morocco, because no way I'm picking up on Arabic, especially Moroccan Arabic) on various apps, but I'm getting confused with learning those two languages simultaneously! French would be great to know because I'm dreaming of spending a week in Provence and then a few days in Paris in 2020.

[MissPuff]

@txcatx The Guernica in person is AMAZING, you must absolutely go. The Sofia Reina (closed on tuesdays though!) is open even later than the Prado (honestly, why aren't US museums open late? It's such a wonderful post or pre dinner activity!). I love traveling by myself and even though I was in the city with my sis and bro-in-law, I think Madrid would be great for solo travellers with all the bars and cafes. And the locals are so friendly!

My spanish is TERRIBLE, and also mexican/american spanish but we still managed to get by just fine as it's a pretty international city, lots of people spoke english! You're going to have so much fun! There's actually a kinda of weirdly techy Sephora right in the middle of Puerta del Sol!

Can't wait to hear about Morocco! I'm impressed you're trying to learn some french, I am the worst at languages, it was a miracle that I knew any spanish at all 🙂 

[sister13]

@MissPuff And @txcatx that Sephora at Puerta del Sol was great! I got a free, quickie hair service and they had this DROPS perfume bar, where you could customize some scent bottles with photos from your phone, different color caps, etc. I’ll post pics from that but I loved that place! I’ll be back to Spain in Barcelona in 2019 and hoping to check out more of the DROPS Perfumes, which I haven’t seen anywhere where.

[txcatx]

@sister13 Okay. Definitely gonna have to go to Sephora in Madrid!

[EmiAUH]

The best place to go shopping in Paris is le marais! You skip the touristy crowds and the salespeople are a lot more helpful. They speak less English though, so bone up on your French. There are tons of small perfumeries that you won’t find in the tourist hotspots, and all the French faves: l’Occitane, Caudalie, dipytique, decleor, etc etc etc. There’s tons of clothing boutiques and food as well, and the area is gorgeous.