Over the past few years I found myself on an airplane as often as 3-5 times a month. It was awesome to travel so much, but in hind-sight, also pretty darn overwhelming. You’d think with all that travel I would’ve learned something about making my time on the plane comfortable and productive, and slowly but surely I did come to hone my skills at packing the perfect carry-on.

This is what I’ve been toting around with me as of late:

1. RL Linden Thousand Petals Facial Mist.I use this to spray my face, my hair, and the person next to me if they’re stinky (kind of just kidding on the last part).
2. Waxelene – Petroleum Jelly Alternative: An easy to transport tube of healing, creamy ingredients that I use on lips, cuticles, and anywhere my skin (or hair) needs a little help.
3. In Fiore – This beautiful little compact contains a deliciously scented solid oil and wax blend that i like to use for my lips, around my eyes, and on my cuticles. A few years ago, the wonderfully talented hairstylist, Danillo, introduced me to this line, created by a good friend of his, but only recently did my friend, Spirit (of Spirit Beauty Lounge), reintroduce me to it. The whole line is incredible, although I’m still figuring out how, and on which body part to use each of the products.
4. Ilia Beauty’s Balmy Nights to scrub away that corner-of-the-mouth-yuck.
5. Hope Gillerman’s Tension Remedy Essential Oil Blend: I love Hope’s whole line of products, and I’ve become very reliant on this to get me through plane rides and trips abroad.
6. Tata Harper’s Aromatic Irritability Treatment – A beautifully blended myriad of scents I like to roll onto my wrists, temples, and sides of my neck. It’s been a long-time favorite and it’s another one of those multitasking products I often use as a perfume, as well.
7. My To-Go Ware travel utensils set. I always bring my own food on planes and I made a promise to myself that cutlery would be one way in which I’d cut down my contribution of landfill waste.
8. Individual eye drop containers – I slip one in my pocket and put one in whatever console/back of chair pouch is available. (My contacts tend to shrivel up on my eyes during a long flight.)
9. An orange, a handful of organic raw nuts (almond or walnut), a sliced up pepper, and depending on how long the flight is, something heavy and belly-filling to help lull me to sleep. Luckily the American Airlines terminal at LAX opened a Real Food Daily – a great organic vegan restaurant – so I generally stop there if I didn’t make a meal at home.
10. Again, depending on the length of flight, if it’s an exceptionally long one, I’ll board with a clean face, and after 7-10 hours, I’ll go into the ladies room, spray my face with the Be Happy antibacterial toner from Jenette’s All-Natural Skincare and, with very clean hands, apply either Jenette’s Be Clean face oil, Pai Rose Hip facial oil or Marie Veronique Organics Facial Serum (all of which I transfer from their larger bottles into teeny weeny ones).
11. My travel ipod. I have one specifically for traveling that’s loaded with everything to pep me up when we’re about to land and I’ve got a long day ahead of me, to tons of beautiful Hindu chanting music that I listen to over and over and over and over. Thank goodness for ear bud headphones!
12. An eye mask, this one from Bucky, in particular. I like this one because it doesn’t press on your eyes, or the bridge of your nose, which makes me almost forget I’m wearing a mask.
13. The MacBook Air: This little piece of machinery has changed my life. For years I lugged around my 16 inch MacBook Pro, causing serious damage to my back and my shoulder. I have no idea why I waited so long to switch it up.
14. Despite the weight of my shoulder bag having dropped considerably when I switched laptops, I still frequently feel sore in the shoulders, and sometimes the lower back, so I’ve taken to packing the stick on or Velcro around disposable heating pads. I really dislike that I’m being wasteful with this, but the one time I tried bringing my deliciously lavender and husk filled re-useable heating pad, and asking the stewardess to heat it for me in the microwave, I was given a stern, perplexed look, and a very definite ‘No’.

I visited Jenette Serrins at Being In LA, her lovely one-bed spa studio, to photograph her as she hand-made her latest must-have skin-healing, clearing, hydrating, and deliciously (naturally) scented face scrub. She calls this creation ‘From Costa Rica, To LA, With Love’, and she’s offering it as a limited edition product because the ingredients are on short supply; she collected the volcanic ash herself, on her last trip to the central american country.

After watching her hand-make the all-natural product (see the pics below), and experiencing how awesome it is during a treatment, I grilled her about what makes it so special. The quick back-story on why I’m a Jenette devotee: I saw a complete turn-around of my own skin when I started seeing her and using her products over a year ago. I’d tried countless products since my teens, to treat my acne-prone, dehydrated, all-around dull skin- to skin, and now I can honestly say that I get compliments on my glowing skin all the time. I still can’t believe it.

So this is what Jenette had to say about her latest formulation:

The gentle grit of the volcanic ash from Mt. Arenal (along with the cinnamon) works to flush impurities out of skin, and assist in bringing fresh new skin cells to the surface for a bright, clean and renewed face. It’s like you’re giving yourself a gentle microdermabrasion treatment, which helps to ensure that the rest of your skincare regimen can penetrate more effectively, and deliver rich ingredients more intensely and deeply.  You can apply it alone, or mix it into your face wash.

‘I created it for people with both sensitive and dry skin. Most folks with sensitive skin can’t scrub without risking irritation and inflammation, but with this scrubbing mask, you’ll find the base ingredients of zinc, magnesium, and aloe, to be super soothing and hydrating, allowing you to exfoliate and detoxify, without the ‘dry-face effect’.’ She says it’s so gentle, it can be used one to three times a week. Plus, she added pumpkin seed oil, which is rich in alpha omega fatty acids, but non-pore clogging.  She suggests taking a nickel sized amount onto a damp face, massage it in gently, leave it on for a minute, and then rinse and pat dry.

 

Jenette isn’t selling this limited-edition mask online, but if you’re not local to Los Angeles, you can call or email her salon directly to request one be sent to you.  While you’re on her page, you’ll find her 3 top selling products – all of which are handmade with love and formulated with years of expertise.

This is the view of the smiling-faced Jenette, as she painted her other fantastic mask (which smells like chocolate!) on my face recently:

 

and finally, a close up of the three products you’ll find for sale right now on her site, each for which I can personally vouch.

One key point to remember is that if you’ve accustomed your skin (as I had, not realizing there was another way) to the use of harsh synthetic chemicals and prescription antibiotics to clear your acne, it will take time and patience before you see results. I had a difficult time with this – I wanted immediately clear and hydrated skin, and I struggled with what I thought was a need for antibiotics during the times that my skin was breaking out. As the months passed, I watched the transformation (exactly what Jenette said would happen!), and with regular treatments and the use of her products at home, I really can leave the house without foundation or even spot-concealer, most days.

I wish the same for each of you.

I encourage you to support small businesses like Jenette All Natural Skin Care, and all the others I’ve written about on this website, and find the clear-skin formula that’s right for you.

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