Do you hoard samples of skin care products? If I try a bath product when I’m traveling I bring home the mini shower gel or body lotion. And promptly forget to use it.
But with travel on hiatus, I’ve been combing through my hair and skin products, recreating a spa experience at home.
Every time I shop at Kiehl’s, I get a couple of samples, which I store in a burgeoning travel bag. The bag that I leave at home. I keep my usual travel bag stocked with all my products so I can jump on a plane at a moment’s notice.
I found a wrinkle reducing eye cream and line-reducing concentrate. Since more people are seeing me in close up on Zoom, and I’m staring into the depths of my wrinkles and sagging eyes, I gave these a spin.
SLS Beverly Hills
At the SLS Beverly Hills, I got some lovely Ciel Spa bath products. The exfoliating body wash combines coconut, cocoa butter and vanilla bean and left me feeling refreshed. I was in Los Angeles for under 24 hours to see the reveal of the new Cadillac Escalade, but even a few hours in Southern California always brightens my day. Remembering the warm LA sun gave me hope for the future.
And I never got a chance to see the rooftop pool, so I have to return!
Equinox
The luxury hotel Equinox has Grown Alchemist products in its bathrooms. I have been using samples of the shower gels. The am products have caviar lime and rose, which are invigorating. The relaxing pm gel has chamomile and tangerine.
A Different Kind of Face Mark
Wearing masks while I walk, run, ride a bike is leaving a toll on my skin. And now that the weather is warming up, I’ve even gotten a few pimples from the sweat that forms under the mask. So it was time for another kind of mask, a sheet mask. [Since spas are not essential businesses. Obviously determined by someone who has not seen my feet]
I am not even sure where I got a sample sheet mask from Earth Kiss. This vegan brand makes an organic and biodegradable bamboo sheet maks that recreates the spa experience at home. I tried the clay facial, which included aloe vera water and Dead Sea salt. It left my face Zoom ready.
Working out
One of the pleasures of travel, for me at least, is trying out different workouts – yoga on the beach, outdoor spin, Pilates reformer. But sometimes I’m at a hotel with an inadequate gym. Or at my in-laws, where you can barely run in the neighborhood – no sidewalks and an off-limits underused golf course. So my husband and I often get grumpy there not being able to exercise.
But with EVERY gym closed, we stated exploring online class options. Peloton had a free 90 day trial, and their yoga and stretching classes have been wonderful. Then we discovered HasFit (Heart and Soul Fitness). This free YouTube class series has full body workouts, classes with weights, abs focused classes – just about everything you need to exercise. Even when my gym reopens, I can see tuning in to these workouts when I’m unable to visit a gym on a work trip or vacation.
WheelsandEats 