Tip for anyone else who has bought the La Mer SPF tint

I recently bought this SPF tint for the summer days when you don't feel like wearing foundation.  It also gives you some extra color so you don't have to add bronzer.  And of course there is the SPF protection so I thought it was a good all around product.   I started using it over my moisturizer (as instructed) and thought it sucked! I bought the dark color (you're supposed to go up a shade when buying) and thought it was a really funny reddish brown color that was hard to blend.  The color really didn't look natural.  So I thought eh, what a waste of £50. But this weekend I mixed it in with my moisturizer instead of putting it on top and found this works a million times better.  Blending then became a breeze and it gave a perfect amount of light coverage.  Of course there are other products out there that are tinted moisturizers but I can't give up my La Mer moisturizer so I don't want to use those.  A few years ago I did use the Laura Mercier one but I thought the coverage was too light.  But I had some problem areas on my face back then so who knows.

 

 

My favorite face product in the whole wide world.  I want to tell everyone to use it. It's so good at combating breakouts.  I've been using it for almost a year now.  It's non-irritating and non-drying. 

I've also been using another Remede product for about for about 5 years.  It's an extremely gentle exfoliator, made from white marble, so you can use it all the time.

If I still lived in NY, I would love to try the Remede facial that's only available in their spas.  It must give amazing results!! It's $245 + tax but it's about the USD equivalent of what I pay now in equally astronomical London prices. Sometimes I even pay more if they sucker me into a facial add-on like a special mask or serum.  

I also recently bought the peel but I can't say that I notice anything out of the ordinary by using it.

Maldives Part I

 

We flew on Emirates business class from London to Dubai and then onto Male.  And then it’s only a 15 minute speed boat ride to Lankanfushi Island which is where our resort, Soneva Gili is located.  We couldn’t see much of Dubai since it was night time, but just noticed that it was extremely lit up for a desert based city.  We figured it’s probably because they can produce electricity pretty cheaply.  Looking from above, it reminded me of Las Vegas which probably isn’t a bad comparison since they’ve both been built up to be adult playgrounds.  Emirates business class wasn’t as impressive as we thought it would be.  It’s definitely not as snazzy as either Virgin or BA.  But we’re still glad to have paid extra for it since you don’t want to sit in steerage during your honeymoon!

 

We approach Male in the morning and fly right over Lankanfushi Island.  I’ve studied the map of our resort so it was easily recognizable.  The island is tiny (200 m by 400 m) and all the villas are built out over the water, connecting to the island by jettys.  We flew over during low tide so there’s not a lot of water surrounding the island at that time.  As we could see when we arrived, you could walk out into lagoon quite a ways during low tide.

 

At the baggage hall we see the slowest conveyer belt ever made.  No worry to miss your luggage on one of those things!  There’s lots of surfboards and dive gear boxes coming out which was really cool.  We were really excited to get our own dive careers underway.  We have to watch every single bag move around the world’s slowest conveyer belt for confirmation that yes, Clayton’s suitcase was lost.  So we spend the first hour or so of our honeymoon dealing with lost luggage….again.  After 26 years of travelling, we both had not lost a bag. And then we both lose a bag each on the wedding & honeymoon.  Must be newlywed luck!  Another kick in the nuts was that the duty free alcohol we bought in London was confiscated! It’s a strict Muslim country so they do not allow you to bring it in but they have no problems with charging you 3x the retail price for it at the hotel! Go figure right?

 

The resort we picked has top notch service and no less than 3 nice chaps picked us up from the airport.  2 to carry luggage and then another to steer the boat. They instantly whisked off our shoes since the resort’s motto is No Shoes No News.  However, I broke the rules and did wear shoes since I didn’t want to mess up my feet.  Plus, the wooden jettys heated up quite a bit so my sensitive feet were feeling the buuurn.  They do place pots of water along the jetty to cool your feet.  But then you just end up running from one pot to another pouring water on your feet.

 

Big foot washing his feet

 

 

 

Our GRO (Guest Relations Officer) met us when we got off the boat.  A GRO is assigned to you upon arrival and is basically your go-to guy for anything you want while you’re there.  It’s a great idea!! We fondly referred to our GRO as The Ninja since he was great at stalking us down and appearing from thin air.  We’d sit down to breakfast and he’d be there. We’d get off the dive boat and he’d be there.  We’d be riding our bikes somewhere and he’d be along the path.  It became a running joke.  But he was probably the most attentive GRO there as far as we could tell.  Or maybe they are all trained assassins. Hehe.

 

They kindly gave Clayton some free clothes and a free sarong for me. They do this for all the poor souls with lost luggage.  Sadly I am retarded and do not know how to tie a sarong. Where was Google when I needed it? For future reference I have it now: http://www.ehow.com/how_14411_tie-sarong.html

 

We were then whisked off to our villa. The resort was already so beautiful that I almost forgot that the best part was yet to come – our over the water villa!  I did my research ahead of time and knew which villa to request.  We got our pick #33 which definitely seemed like the best choice since it’s the most secluded. And you could see both the sunset and sunrise from our sun deck! And yes, I did wake up early one morning to watch the sunrise. It’s not even really that early. The sun was up around 7 and we woke up at 7:30 many days to go diving.  We always left the bedroom blinds open because it was so nice to wake up and see the Indian ocean right there.

 

My favorite part of the villa was the open air bathroom.  It’s so relaxing and comfortable to be showering outside.  And then my second favorite part was the glass bottom living area.  We must have spent hours sitting there checking out the fish that came by.  One night we were lucky enough to have a sting ray hang out. 

 

Front of villa

 

 

Back of villa

 

 

Open air bathroom

 

 

Open air shower

 

 

Looking down at fishies

 

 

Our stingray friend

 

 

They provide these cute bikes to ride around the island on.  It gets so hot during the day that riding a bike is definitely preferable to walking even if the distance is short.  Along with being sarong-incompetent, I never learned to ride a bike. But luckily they had 3 wheelers for cool people like me. 

 

Me on retard bike

 

 

To be continued ....