Man, oh man, I sure do love to travel. The food, seeing the sights, sampling the local cuisine, meeting people from other walks of life, the food…
I’m detecting a trend here! 🙂
The Lychee shave ice from Organic Ice, a little shave ice shack at South Shore on Lake Tahoe
The crab cake sliders from Riva Grill
The fire roasted medley from Base Camp Pizza
The shrimp tempura sushi from Kalani’s
The sea bass and Thai basil mashed potatoes from Kalani’s
The cheesecake from Kalani’s (yes, I loved Kalani’s)
There’s just something about hitting the open road for a few days and getting out of Dodge, and with every trip I take, I learn new lessons about makeup and beauty, among other things (and re-learn a few lessons that must have slipped my mind).
Like on this last trip to Tahoe, I learned…
1. To squeeze out the air from bags and tubes of beauty products before changing your altitude
It being a road trip and all, I didn’t feel constrained by airline luggage limits, so I kinda let myself go buck wild with my packing.
I kept throwing products into my bag, one after another, without reservation, until it was bursting at the seams! — and I didn’t think anything of it until we arrived at the lake.
Then, doop-da-doo, there I was, getting ready for dinner on the first night when I grabbed a bottle of MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation, twisted off the cap and GLURGH!
On the way to a lookout at the top of the mountain in the Heavenly Gondola
A huge glob of Studio Sculpt squirted all over my hands, the bathroom sink and the tiled floor, and basically continued slowly oozing for the next two minutes.
My first reaction? Tabs! Or evil beauty gnomes. But when I gathered my thoughts, I figured that it was probably due to the change in air pressure. With the air pressure higher at sea level back at home than it was at the lake (6,225-foot elevation), the Studio Sculpt wanted to escape!
The view of the lake from the halfway point up the mountain
NOTE TO SELF: Next time I drive someplace higher in elevation (I think airplanes are pressurized to minimize the effect), I need to remember to squeeze as much of the air out of any tubes and baggies before packing.
2. What goes well with smoke-filled casinos? Answer: dry shampoo!
I’m low level when it comes to gambling and generally steer clear of the table games and regular slots, but I could sit in front of Kitty Glitter for hours with a purse filled with pennies. 🙂
Of course, since the casinos in Nevada allow smoking, that means cigarette-scented everything.
Heavenly tweeting…
Even a quick walk through one of the casinos to save from having to walk around the block was enough to pick up the scent, so I figured, why wash my hair when I know it’s just gonna get smokey? Instead of washing with shampoo every morning and night, I skipped a couple times and “washed” with dry shampoo instead.
Fine powders that you either spray or sprinkle on your hair, dry shampoos soak up excess oil, give your roots a lift and absorb unwanted odors.
The lodge at the top
I brought a travel-sized bottle of Oscar Blandi’s Pronto Invisible Volumizing Dry Shampoo Spray on this trip and spritzed it on my roots in the morning before leaving the hotel. After spritzing, I combed it through with a brush and put my hair in a low bun.
It made the smokey scent more bearable and saved me precious Kitty Glitter time in the morning.
3. Wet Ones Wipes are wonderful!
You’ve probably heard this one before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again.
WET ONES WIPES!
Dang, if those little wipes aren’t the handiest things to have on a trip. Among their many uses, they also make great improv brush cleaners.
I like to have at least a few in my purse wherever I go. Perfect for when I finish a marathon game of Kitty Glitter and want to freshen my paws. 🙂
Have you taken any road trips this summer? If you did, you must have learned a beauty lesson or two. Care to share?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
Wow Karen, all of these sound like great travel tips! These are all totally helpful and I probably would not have thought of them until too late!
Your pics look awesome and it sounds like a fun trip you had! Thanks for the tips!!
Now that looks like an awesome vacation! I love the food and scenery and how relaxed you look! Thanks for sharing this (and the beauty tips!)
So glad you did the gondola ride. Isn’t it amazing?
I’m also a huge fan of Wet Ones. Never leave home without them!
Destination summer 2012: Seattle and Olympic National Park road trip
Beauty lesson learned: keep mini tubes of sunscreen tucked all around the car – I ended up remembering to re-apply every 3 hours or so, unlike past road trips!
LOL–I learned that you need to squeeze excess air out of tubes/bottles/etc. the hard way when I went to visit my sister in Flagstaff a couple of years ago. It has a 7000 ft. elevation and all my body lotions, moisturizers, and hair care products were bursting by the end. 😛
Looks like you are having a great time. All the photos are beautiful and the food looks so good!!! I hope that I can take a trip in October when all the madness at work is finished 🙂
LOL! Kitty Glitter is such a silly slot! My fav is Monopoly Super Grand Hotel. <— Vegas Resident
Im glad you had an awesome time!
From our trips, what I learned is to just take the bare essentials. We do so much outdoor stuff that I end up wearing a moisturizer w/ SPF and brows most of the time! 😀
Great tips! The casino near me, Charles Town, has a smoke-free section. I absolutely cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke anymore – it makes me feel really nauseous. I used to tolerate it because before hospitals allowed cigarette smoking outside of them and some of my friends used to be chronic smokers, but 4 years of having the hospitals go tobacco free and me refusing to be around anyone who smoked led to not being able to tolerate it anymore.
I am already planning on what to pack for my cruise and since I haven’t flown since I was 11 (a good 13 years ago) I’m of course a little nervous about what to take in my carry-on since it is so limited now (at least on liquids, gels, etc). I am probably not going to take a ton of makeup only because I’d be really upset if some of my nicer stuff got broken, stolen or lost in some way.
It sounds like you enjoyed Tahoe! Looks like some good eatin’ over there!
Glad you had fun in Tahoe! I would have been horrified if my foundation exploded everywhere. With each trip, my lesson learned is to always pack less makeup but that never happens lol
I never would have known that about squeezing out the excess! Glad to know! Thanks for the tip.
I’m with you on the travel and the food! 🙂 It looks like you guys had a great time. I have a feeling you’re already planning your next road trip!
My in-laws live in South Lake Tahoe, and I have definitely had that liquid problem every time I’ve gone. I just accepted it as part of life and tried not to bring liquids if I could bring a cream instead. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to squeeze the extra air out when I was packing!
I love Tahoe, we went 3 years ago and my daughter was just 6 months old at the time. It’s time to re-visit
I totally agree with lesson #1! We visited the Sequoia Canyon this April and we had it all – from almost exploding packages of potatoe chips to spilling shower gel and body lotion all over us and the floor! 😀
It looks beautiful there and like such a good vacation.
Wet makeup remover wipes and regular wipes are so handy to have.
hola, chica! it looks like a great trip, and you’re glowing in every photo here!
and wet wipes is best things since sliced bread!!
What a picturesque vacation you had!!! I have never been to Lake Tahoe, but would love to go, especially after seeing your pictures! It looked heavenly! And the food pics were mouth-watering!!!
Thanks for your 3 tips! They make sense and are very practical!
Thanks!
You’re welcome! I hope you get to visit someday. It’s a very pretty place.