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!

[Titian06]

OMGosh, that's beautiful, @blackkitty2014 ! 🥰

[CorgiMommy]

Spoiler

@blackkitty2014 beautiful!  If you don't mind where's this?

[itsfi]

There were some twists and turns (and I'm not just talking about the windy roads) to get there, but we did get there, and my time in Costa Rica was absolutely fabulous! ❤️ Very thankful for the opportunity to get away for some R&R. 

This ⬆️ was the view from my room. 😍 By mid-to-late afternoon, the clouds would clear and I had an amazing view of the volcano.

This vacation was about rest and relaxation for me (see more below ⬇️) so other than taking daily walks it was fairly low key on the activities front. I did, however, carve out some time for a chocolate and coffee tour! Because I mean, chocolate 🍫 and coffee ☕ ❣️ I'll post photos of food from my trip to the What's On Your Plate? Thread later this week (and will come back to post a link).

Cacao beans, straight from the pod and dried, to being made into chocolate ...

I was taken aback by how much sugar is in commercial chocolate - I knew there was a lot but my word, there's A LOT! The amount I had to put into the chocolate I made (just to take away the bitterness) was staggering. It was fun but a chocolatier I will not be. 🤣

And then ... coffee.

@PrettyPaint, I learned quite a bit of fun and interesting facts about coffee, but the part of this tour that hit the spot was actually having a cup of coffee. 😋

Oh, and spotting some animals along the way

There were siestas, walks, time with family and time alone, at the pools, spa, hot springs ...

Not sure why these 2 pics are so small. 😂 

Ahhhh, the sauna. I could post on and on about the time at the spa ... So relaxing. No aches, pains, tightness, soreness or stress the entire trip.

🛍Other than some souvenirs and gifts I picked up for others, I didn't do any shopping while on vacation. I did, however, pick up a few beauty products for my trip (including a nice and subtly scented mosquito-repelling body moisturizer), which I posted (belatedly) to the Just Because July Hauls 2024 Thread, all of which are worthy of repurchase for either another vacation or use back home.

It's good to be home, but I do miss some things from my time away. 

@sister13 

[curlychiquita]

It looks so beautiful, @itsfi! I’m glad you had a fabulous vacation! 

[itsfi]

@curlychiquita, it was a good time for a vacation and Costa Rica definitely provided some much appreciated R&R. 

[gonerogue]

Oooh my work bestie just got back from CR today and sent me the most beautiful pics as well. I hope you had an amazing time @itsfi ! ❤️

[itsfi]

@gonerogue, what a fun trip for your coworker! The vacation was great - just what everyone needed. 

[sister13]

Such an amazing trip! I would love to go to Costa Rica someday! Ooh, the coffee and the chocolate and the SLOTHS! Amazing. Thanks for sharing these experiences, and I'm so glad you got some beauty time in too! @itsfi 

[itsfi]

@sister13, definitely put it on your “to visit” list. I feel like I want to go on vacation every month now; it was very relaxing. Oh my goodness, mama sloth and her baby were such surprise to see. 😃 

[CorgiMommy]

What an awesome vacation!  Looks relaxing plus the sloth is adorable.   Costa Rica is a place I highly recommend 

[itsfi]

@CorgiMommy, it was a great choice for a vacation. Yes, I agree; highly recommend. Which part(s) of Costa Rica have you visited?

[ather]

@itsfi  Wow! These pictures are absolutely beautiful! That volcano is so beautiful to see from your room!!! Hmm so you don’t want to be a chocolatier maybe a gourmet coffee maker! Was the coffee better there or was it also more bitter? When I was in Cuba I remember coffee being so much better. And they served it with a sugar cane and it was so yummy!  Oooo did sauna sounds perfect! A great way to wind down and relax! Your toes are a beautiful red! I’m so happy you had a relaxing vacation! 

[itsfi]

@ather, I would love to be a chocolatier but I was not getting the right ratio for the chocolate to taste good. 😆 I was able to get the consistency right but getting the flavors to reflect what I was thinking of in my head? That was more problematic. I’ll stick to enjoying chocolate - maybe I can be the taste tester. 😂 

The coffee was so good. Oh, I should have tried it with sugar cane. I’m used to drinking my coffee with nothing in it, just black coffee, so I didn’t even think about sugar cane. 

Thank you, thank you. It was a good vacation. It’s been a long time since I’ve been that relaxed. I was offline for much of it. 

[blackkitty2014]

This sounds really nice @itsfi . Though it would be more perfect if you remember to take me with you 😂🤣. Yay you stay in the volcano area. We did stay at the volcano and Jaco last time we went. I love the volcano area. I’m glad you enjoy hot spring and Spa (Those are so nice there) 😘 We didn’t able to see the 🦥 sloth up close but the Tuscan came visit 😘 Did you do water rafting by any chance? And you read during vacation too. Sound just perfect 🤩 

[itsfi]

I knew I’d forget something; next time @blackkitty2014! 😂 I’ve yet to visit a spa I didn’t like 😆 So relaxing. Other than photos I took of the different areas in the spa and figuring out where I was meeting up with folks, I was free of my phone most of that day. Ahhhh. 

I saw a couple of Tuscan on my walks but not up close. No water rafting for me on this trip, but it looked fun - did you do it when you were there? 

[blackkitty2014]

@itsfi We did class 3.5 or 4 at that time so it was really fun. My husband got his knee scraped a bit so we did easy stuffs after that liked hiking (lots of hiking/walking). I can’t remember the name of the place we stayed but it did have multiple hot spring pools and they was available for resort guests only. And they also offered us an hr massage so we did that and went sitting in the hot springs almost twice a day. Most of the time we’re there all by ourselves so it was nice. I didn’t care much for Jaco but the foods was good there and on the way out of that town, we cross the crocodile bridge and see hundreds of crocodiles 🐊 We also went to Manuel Antonio national park. I think that about it. The most stressful thing about out Costa Rica was the driving park. Using Spanish speaking only navigation was a challenge 😂🤣 (we made a mistake not activate our wave app in US so it didn’t give us option to switching back to English) and the google map was no bueno at the time. We got lost liked a lot 😂🤣 I’m sure navigation apps are much better now. We’d like to stay at Guanacate or Monteverde if we ever came back

[Ispend2much6]

This sounds like an absolutely lovely vacation @itsfi .  I recently read an article that said vanilla extract can be used as a mosquito repellant; I'd be willing to give that a try!

[itsfi]

@Ispend2much6, lol, that would be the ultimate way to test it out. 🔬

[Sunnysmom]

What a beautiful vacation you must have had @itsfi ! Thanks for sharing your wonderful pics and experiences with us. It’s so fun for those of us who are armchair travelers! I can only imagine how beautiful it was and the coffee especially sounds delicious. Well the chocolate too! 😊

[blackkitty2014]

Yes to armchair travelers too @Sunnysmom 😘

[itsfi]

@Sunnysmom, Costa Rica 🇨🇷 was lovely, a beautiful and relaxing locale to unplug. The coffee and chocolate were an extra bit of fun. ☕🍫