New Uses For Common Travel Items

[trip style = any]

Any time a typically packed item can double in the program while traveling, it's a win. Fewer packed essentials means a lighter bag and less fussing at the destination. And let's be honest, who wants to root through an overpacked bag in their room while a destination is waiting to be explored!

Here are a few new uses for common travel items. Let us know if you have any to add!

Baking Soda Make a paste with water and use as a facial exfoliator or as an extra whitener and gritty helper for teeth cleaning.

Vaseline If you scuff your leather shoes while traveling, dab a little vaseline on the area and smooth. Watch the scuff or nick disappear. See more uses for Vaseline here.

A Shoe Use to open a bottle of wine when you're sans corkscrew. Here's how {note, video is in French, but actions speak louder than words}.

Baby Powder Sprinkle in flats or loafers before and after use to freshen shoes and deodorize feet. If you're travelling with a lot of whites, baby power can be used as a stain guard in conjunction with your hotel room's iron. Add a dash of baby powder to the garment's underarm area and iron over it to create a protective barrier against staining. See more uses for baby powder here.

Film Canister I know 99% of us are digital now, but if you can get your hands on a film canister, use it as a mini nail polish remover kit by cutting up a sponge, soaking it in polish remover and placing in the canister. When you want to remove polish, just rub nails with the sponge and close back up for reuse.

Socks Wrap around shoes, especially those with heels to protect both shoes and clothes from being stabbed or pulled.

Shower Cap Use as a shoe bag so your garments don't come in contact with the dirt, germs and sand your soles pick up.

Zip Lock Bags Gets your liquids through security as well as protects your phone or camera pool or beachside.

Bubble Wrap This one is a little far fetched, but I thought it was an excellent compact packing idea when I read about it in Real Simple. Take a piece of bubble wrap the length and width of the unstructured necklaces and bracelets you're traveling with and lay the jewelry on top. Roll it tight to create a padded, on-the-go jewelry organizer. When you open it up, nothing will be tangled. If you don't have bubble wrap, use a sturdy scarf for the same effect. Bonus, place it in a Zip Lock bag for extra protection.

Oven Mitt If you're a last-minute gal who does your hair at the 55th moment, bring an oven mitt to place your still-warm straightener or curling iron into before packing up. Singed clothing crisis averted.

Related Content Double Duty Travel Beauty  Don't Travel Without Using Hotel Room Amenities like MacGyver Going Away? Packing and To Do List

[Images sourced from web]

The Savvy Traveler :: Tiffany

Tiffany's lifestyle and work are the true definition of trip style = luxury. This Southern California-raised blond-haired, brown-eyed jetsetter is on a mission to inspect and perfect stylish hotels throughout North America and the Caribbean for the international luxury hotel guide Condé Nast Johansens. Sometimes her business attire involves donning a favorite Melissa Odabash swimsuit, other times a Thakoon or Mike&Ton dress---it depends whether she's working beachside in St. Barths or around town in Boston, Miami or Vancouver.

She's also connected. Really connected; with 10,000+ Twitter followers {@LuxeTiffany}, as well as a founding member of Luxury Travel Twitter Chat {@luxchat} drawing thousands of luxury travel enthusiasts each month. For all these reasons and more, I thought Tiffany would be the perfect high-end travel ambassador for this month's The Savvy Traveler. If you don't spot her on the beach in The Turks and Caicos adorned with the season's hottest beach cover-up and 'it' nail polish color, you’ll find her in Boston where she’s involved with many animal rescue organizations and the stylish Boston social scene.

1/ What are your top 3 trip styles and why? 
[trip style = luxury + Beach + Spa] I grew up in Palos Verdes Estates, CA and was always a beach kid and a Junior Lifeguard in the summers. I have been scuba certified since 12 years old, and every summer we went diving as a family in the Cayman Islands. I love any vacation that includes relaxing on a white sand beach, snorkeling and diving, an innovative spa treatment and great local cuisine---whether it be at a beach bar or gourmet restaurant. Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos was the ultimate honeymoon.

2/ What items are always on your packing list? 

• Tumi Voyageur Quintessential Tote
• Dianora Salviati cashmere scarf {stylish and warm when on chilly planes!}
• Visine rewetting eye drops to combat airplane dry air
• Clarins sunscreen SPF 30
• Granola bars
• Extra zip lock bags
• Bug spray

PS - I’m not into fancy passport covers. The more worn looking, the better.

3/ Essential travel gadget or app? 
My Tumi Electric Adaptor that works in 150 countries. I travel with an iPhone, Blackberry, laptop and/or iPad and something always needs to be charged. I love staying connected with my Twitter travel friends while traveling abroad.

4/ Hotel or destination that's on your radar and why?
Mustique is one of the best kept secrets around and incredibly private (why it’s so popular with the Royal Family). It’s an island located in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and is surprisingly easy to get to with daily flights from St. Lucia and Barbados. There are some of the most breathtaking villas available to rent, each more beautiful than the next and one hotel called Cotton House. I’m going back next year for the annual Basil’s Blues Fest. I also just returned from Jade Mountain, in St. Lucia, one of the most romantic hotels in the Caribbean. Rooms are called “Sanctuaries” with private infinity pools overlooking the breathtaking Pitons. It has total “Wow Factor.”

5/ Tell us about a cool travel experience.
I was a “Potcake” courier in the Turks and Caicos. 'Potcake' is the name given to dogs in the Bahamas and The Turks and Caicos because locals fed them the caked remains at the bottom of the cooking pot. Potcake Place is a wonderful animal rescue organization that helps rescue, foster and find homes for the Islands' dogs. I couriered a puppy from Providenciales to Boston to its new owners who lived on Cape Cod. What an incredibly rewarding experience, and anyone can volunteer to do this! When I visit a Caribbean island, I always try to make a donation to the local animal rescue organization such as AARF in Anguilla. Every little bit counts.

6/ Best ways to take advantage of luxury travel without spending $1000+/night? 
Travel during the off-season. You’ll find the best rates and deals available in the Caribbean during the summer and no peak season crowds. Also, try using a luxury travel professional. They can sometimes get you perks such as resort credits and spa treatments that you wouldn’t have received if you booked directly. Happy “luxe” traveling!

{If you know anyone who should be featured in our once-monthly Savvy Traveler series, drop us a line!}

More Savvy Travelers
Lora, The BC & OR Family Travel Expert
Bryce, The Pilot

[photo via tiffany]

A Nouveau Trip Styler!

Earlier this summer we announced a few changes at Trip Styler, some of which we introduced in June, some of which were coming. That time has come and our back-to-school shopping included a new website!

At some point this week, you may have noticed Trip Styler looked a little different. Though we're still deeply in love with our old design {to the point of wanting to frame it for sentimental purposes}, we wanted to create something that enhanced your user experience, communicated our growth and provided more space to share important news at the top of the site! In addition to the nouveau aesthetics, we've also added new features.

New Features

• TS Recommends - Behind every trip style is a travel tip and resource. Trip Styler Recommends was created to connect aspiring jetsetters with the best online tools, so trips can be booked quickly and efficiently. TS Recommends houses our fave resources organized by trip style and budget. Check back in a few weeks to see the list of recommendations grow even more. And while we're on the topic, we wanted to make sure you knew about the 50+ hotels we've reviewed here.
• Press - Profiling our guest editor spread in NET-A-PORTER's mag and interview with Toursim Vancouver, check our all Trip Styler's press in one spot.
• Pinterest - Have you heard of Pinterest? If not, it's an online pin board where you can create virtual photo boards of images you source from the web, other pin boards or snap with your smartphone/camera. We're a little obsessed, so check out our boards in progress and follow us. We pin everything from trip styles to cabin decor, so it's a mixed bag of goodies.
• Trip Styles - We've distilled our 16 different Trip Styles by category for awhile, but we wanted to make sure you knew! Have an upcoming trip? Search by trip style or destination via our main navigation bar.

Coming Up

• Fridays are back! - This summer we held back from publishing any content on Fridays since we knew you didn't want to read about travel, but actually take off early from work to travel! Starting next week Fridays are back and trip styled with an updo. The last Friday of every month will still be the ever-popular Fashion Friday, while every other Friday we'll feature a Trip Styler-worthy accommodations {hotels, resorts, camp/glamp sites or vacation rentals} so you can learn about all the fabulous places we read and write about every day! We're going to call it Roam+Board, get it?

Not Stopping Here We're always thinking of new ways to enhance Trip Styler, so expect more goodies over the next few months. Also, let us know if there's any other travel lifestyle topics you'd like us to cover and we'll do our best to incorporate them.

Finally, nothing can happen without a great team, so I'd like to thank Kate for designing the new site and Ben for programming it! I'd also be remiss not to mention Alvin, who has also done a huge amount of coding work for Trip Styler over the past year and a half!

Safe + happy travels this long weekend, Trish

Healthy On The Road :: INSANITY

[trip style = active + any]

{Editor's Note: When she’s not training clients or being trained by her dog Zuzu, Leah writes Healthy on the Road, published the first Thursday of every month.}

Over the years I have tried out a variety of home workout DVDs, mainly for some quick, convenient yoga or pilates sessions, occasionally for some strengthening, but NEVER for cardio! I love being outside way too much to waste time jumping around indoors. If a workout video has caught my attention, it hasn’t lasted long, usually being cast aside the moment I can recite the instructor’s comments word for word!

So, you can imagine my own surprise at being in week 2 of a 60-day DVD workout program called INSANITY. Having just returned from our cabin---where I was able to fit in 2 awesome whole-body workouts---I figured it was a tool worth sharing with anyone who wants to get in seriously great shape, at home or on the road.

What led this video-hating, outdoor enthusiast to check out the INSANITY workout, you ask? I have this friend I see mostly in the summer at the lake where our families have neighbouring cabins. We love working out together, enjoying similar activities and workout styles. She's in pretty great shape most of the time, but this summer, I just about fell over when I saw her ripped, goddess-like bikini body strut down to the beach. Not only did she look INCREDIBLE, but she was able to weather the first wakeboard of the summer without feeling like her pecs and biceps had been chewed up and spat out. She credits the INSANITY workout program (completed twice this year with her husband) for her incredible results.

Needless to say, I was checking the program out fast, and I liked what I saw. The people at Beach Body (the makers of popular home-based fitness programs such as P90X) have produced a challenging whole-body workout program with loads of variety and no equipment required. Always looking for ways to efficiently incorporate strengthening and flexibility into my aerobic workouts, I decided to give it a try.

Only in week 2, I can already feel my improved strength in areas which will help with injury prevention for activities I love, like running. Word of warning, this is NOT for the faint of heart. These workouts, which deliver a combo of plyometrics, calisthenics, sports drills, core work, yoga stretching and cardio training, are H-A-R-D, and almost impossible to keep up with...you need to be okay with that and know how to listen to your body and take brakes as needed. All these precautions are clearly outlined in the program, so I will not bore you with a long list of them here, but physician clearance is certainly a must if you have any concerns about your readiness for some serious physical exertion.

If you like what you see after checking this out, I encourage you to purchase the program, rather than hunt down free downloads. You will be far more likely to stick to something you have paid for, and the cost of the program {$162 + taxes and shipping to Canada} is WAY less then private personal training. As a trainer, I like the way the company's packaged the product, complete with a workout calendar, baseline fitness test, and an awesome nutritional guide/menu plan. Of course there are many add-ons they encourage you to purchase. I didn't buy anything but the program. I think the jump mat is a great idea as most of us don’t have shock absorbing flooring in our homes or hotel rooms, but I created my own version with a large gym mat which works fine for home use. When I’ve done the program on the road, I go without the mat and just take care to ensure softer landings while doing any jumping exercises.

All you need is a bit of space, a DVD player or laptop, some good cross training shoes, workout clothes (not much...get ready to SWEAT!!!), and you are good to go. A program with this portability that kick-starts your body into great shape is a great option for the frequent traveler who wants to stay fit while on the road and can't always attend fitness class schedules due to travel. Plus if you're ever feeling unmotivated to get in day 10's workout while traveling, the program's online support tools {with access to instructors and peers} should help you to put down the airline peanuts you saved and get in front of the TV to sweat!

More Healthy On the Road… Hydrate! Summer Paddling Healthy Road Trip Choices Make Any Trip Style Healthy The 20-min Exercise Itinerary Active, Relax, Repeat Healthy DIY Plane Snacks Hotel Room Exercises {You can do in your underwear}

[photo: insanity workout]

Travel Beauty Month :: Self-Tanning Secrets With St. Tropez

{Editor’s Note: It's the last day of August and we're going out with a bang. Because summer doesn't last forever, sorry to remind you, St. Tropez' celebrity tanning expert tells us how to maintain a Mediterranean tan year-round. A big thanks goes out to Lauren, our beauty editor, who has curated and collected tips and products for Travel Beauty Month. Catch our regular Travel Beauty feature on the third Wednesday of every month. PS - Until noon PST today, enter to win one of FIVE DuWop Flight Sticks for a light coverage and hydrating glow.}

Who doesn't want a français St. Tropez tan? Obviously, we'd all love to be lazily strolling along the sun-bleached boardwalk beside the Mediterranean's mammoth yachts with only an oversized shirt loosely buttoned over top our bathing suits. If that trip style isn't in the cards tout suite, why not fake a bronzed bod with some of the best self-tanning products on the market? I asked St. Tropez' celebrity self-tanner, Sophie Evans, how to achieve the perfect tawny tan without spending any time in the sun!

How should we prep our skin for the perfect self-tan?

• Exfoliate a minimum of 8 hours before, if the skin is too freshly exfoliated, you may find the tan will not settle as well on the skin.
• Do all hair removal the day before.
• Don't apply any body moisturizer on the day of the spray tan, this can result in an uneven or lighter tan.
• Remove all deodorant, make up, etc prior to the tan {products on the skin can result in an uneven color}.

What are your tips for applying self-tanner and how do you best avoid streaks? Streaks and splotches are normally due to lack of product. Always work with enough tanning product so you can glide the product over the skin freely. You should never feel that you are pulling or stretching. This is how streaks happen! Believe it or not, it is always better to over- than under-apply as your skin will only take in a certain amount of product and therefore, only go to one color. If you feel that the tan has been applied unevenly---with far more color in some areas than others---simply take a dry soft towel or ST. TROPEZ Mitt and lightly buff over the body to remove any excess.

How do you pick the right shade of self-tanner? Can someone fair use a dark self-tanner if they want to get a dark tan, or would that look bad? If you are using a high quality tanning product, the shade should go to the color that suits your skin’s pigmentation. If you are very fair, the tan should not develop too dark because your skin does not have the pigment to do so, therefore to get darker, you may need to apply a further application the next day. Beginner self-tanners may find it easier to use a lighter tan initially, so that they get used to using the product, then build up to a darker shade which will save time and energy.

What type of self-tanning formula is the best to use: a mousse, a lotion, a spray, etc? When would you choose those different types of formulas? Aerosols are super quick to apply, very fast drying and great if you hate touching your skin. They are also effective at adding depth to the tan as you can glide the spray around the body's contours. Mousse tans are fantastic and quick drying as well. The ST. TROPEZ Mousse will dry in 60 seconds flat, you will also find you have slightly more control over the application if you use it with a tan applicator mitt. Lotion self-tans are by far the most hydrating of all tans and will generally last longer on the skin. The ST. TROPEZ Self Tan Lotion can last up to 10 days with such a rich and hydrating base, whereas a spray or lotion lasts at best up to about 5 days. All the formulas are good for beginners, it really depends on your skin and lifestyle. If you are a nervous self-tanner, try a gradual tan like ST. TROPEZ Gradual Everyday Tan in light/medium---you can't go wrong---so build a light glow that you are happy with, then move on to the stronger tans which will demand far less applications and time.

How can you avoid the hands, feet, elbows and knees getting too dark or uneven after self-tanner application? Always apply the tan wearing either tight fitting latex gloves or an applicator mitt, which will also protect your palms from staining. If you don’t have a glove or mitt, I would invest in ST. TROPEZ Tan Remover so you can guarantee the tan will be erased from the palms immediately---nothing worse than bright hands! Always apply moisturizer as a barrier on these areas prior to tanning, and remember the hands and feet can develop far darker than anywhere else on the body, so dilute the tan with moisturizer: about ¾ moisturizer with ¼ tan, then apply. After tanning use a cleansing wipe or tan remover to clean the palms and nails {the nails stain yellow if tan is not removed immediately}. If you use cleansing wipes, you won't have to use the sink and will avoid water splashing up the arms or taking tan off from the front of the hand. {Tip :: After tanning, blend moisturizer along the crease in the wrist and back of the heel for a seamless tan}

After applying self-tanner, what steps can you take to make it last? Maintain your self-tan by moisturizing your skin after every bath or shower, ST. TROPEZ Body Butter is excellent for this. Be gentle with your skin, pat on the moisturizer and do not rub. To achieve your desired color you may have to self-tan everyday initially, but once the color is achieved use the tanning product once or twice a week. It is very important to lightly exfoliate with a product like ST. TROPEZ Body Polisher to maintain a fading tan with even color and no build-up. The face will always fade the quickest {due to cleansing/toning}, so reapply every few days. Try combining a self-tan with a gradual tanning product. Self-tan initially and after a few days maintain with a lighter gradual tan, rotating this method will save you time and energy of constant reapplication.

What new products does St. Tropez have on the horizon? Any new technology in self-tanning that we should know about? We just recently launched 3 new Skin Illuminators in gold, rose, and violet. These are perfect to wear alone or use over any of our tanning products to create a dewy look. They can make legs appear longer or highlight muscles. Also, use with a moisturizer for a luminous everyday glow.

More Travel Beauty DuWop Flight Stick{s} Giveaway Pre-Trip Primping Oxygenetix Moisturizer Giveaway NYC’s Best Beauty Dr. Murad Interview The Best Fragrance For Each Trip Style Q&A With tarte Cosmetics Founder

{Photo credit: St. Tropez}