A Small Beauty Haul from Abroad
One of my favorite things to buy when I travel is beauty products. It doesn't have to be from a specialty beauty store like an Ulta or Sephora at all. My favorite place to get beauty products is at the grocery store or the pharmacy. From my recent trip to Morocco and France, here is what I bought and took home with me:
Top: Moroccan Black Soap. Bottom: Nila Powder.
Moroccan Black Soap (Beldi soap) - It's a gel-like soap made of olives. I love the smell of Beldi; it smells invigorating like eucalyptus. Beldi is rich in Vitamin E, making it a great emollient. It cleanses the skin, leaving it soft. Beldi is different from the typical bar of soap in that it doesn't lather a lot, but it cleanses and removes so much dead skin.
To use it, you place it on wet skin. You don't need a lot of it. You let it sit for 5-10 minutes. You can use that time to wash your hair. Once that time is up, you use an exfoliating washcloth called a kessa glove to scrub all over your body. It removes so much dead skin. You can get both the kessa glove and the black soap at the grocery store in Morocco. After you shower, moisturize your body because it's still a soap.
You could also use Moroccan black soap for your face, but again, be sure to moisturize right after. You can use Moroccan Black Soap once per week. You don't need to use it every day because it can be drying.
Nila Powder is a bright blue powder that comes from the mountains of Southern Morocco. The powder comes from the leaves of an indigo plant that grows in Morocco and Southeast Asia. Nila can help with evening skin tone, providing sunburn relief, blackhead removal, and deep-pore cleansing.
I got a tub of Nila powder from the grocery store. You don't need a lot of it, which means I'll have this tub for a long time (thankfully). I find it really effective for my hyperpigmentation in the summertime when I'm out in the sun. I also found Nila powder effective for sunburn. I got a really bad sunburn in Morocco, and I wish I had used it more when I was on vacation so I could have managed my sunburn sooner. Here are a couple of ways I've used Nila powder so far:
A facial mask where I mix it with argan oil or yogurt
A body treatment where I mix it with argan oil (another type of oil like coconut or olive oil is fine). Then I rinse it off in the shower
Mix it with Beldi soap
Argan oil - Of course, I got argan oil from Morocco. There are so many benefits from Argan oil. One of the things I wanted to do in Morocco was go to see where they harvest argan fruit for the oil but I wasn’t able to do that while I was there. Maybe next time.
However, in my opinion, I did not find argan oil moisturizing enough to help with my sunburned hands. I use the argan oil to moisturize my body after taking a bath or shower. I also use it to cleanse my face in the evening to remove sunscreen, makeup, and other impurities from the day. Some days I do the double-cleanse method where, in the second step, I wash my face with honey.
Crème Mains Réparatrice à l'Allantoïne (Allantoin Repairing Hand Cream) - I felt like all through the second half of my trip, I was trying to keep my hands moisturized because they were badly burned from the sun. I like how it was small enough to carry in my purse throughout the day, keeping my hands moisturized. I picked this up at a random grocery store at the train station.
Nivea lotion - I got this little blue tin of Nivea at a pharmacy. It really helped with my sunburn too. I also like using this as a hydrating mask or to remove makeup.
Have you purchased any beauty products or other toiletries abroad? Comment below!
