by Debbi K. Kickham
I’ve hardly ever met a beauty product I didn’t like. As a beauty writer, beauty blogger and beauty influencer, I am always trying the latest and great products that are on the market, and there are so many that I completely adore. Many of them are in the Beauty Hall of Fame: Cetaphil, YSL Touche Eclat, Nars Orgasm blush, and so many more. I’m the author of The Globetrotter’s Get-Gorgeous Guide (www.GorgeousGlobetrotter.com) and I know what I’m talking about. I just love beauty products! #howtolookgoodandfeelgoodwhentraveling
But many beauty products – typically found at Sephora, department stores, and online – can be very pricey. That’s why, as a professional beauty writer, I’m here to tell you: Poland is packed with beauty bargains! As a marketing influencer, I’m here to tell you that Poland as a country right now is missing out an incredible marketing opportunity, to promote itself for beauty tourism! Are you listening, Polish Tourist Office? We all need to spread the word about the great values to be had in Polska! http://www.poland.travel/en #BeautytourisminPoland
I just spent two weeks in Poland, with my lovely 70-year-old sister Chris, and my 98-year-old mother, Jania Karpowicz. My gorgeous Polish Mom is amazing – she still does all her makeup every day, loves beauty creams, gets regular pedicures, and always has her hair done. She is also the “face” of Fall Call Solutions, a new app that connects caregivers to updated health and well-being information for the elders they care for. (www.fallcall.com, www.eldercheck.com).
The three of us had a blast in Poland, buying cosmetics like they were going out of style! Why? They were amazingly inexpensive. We frequented a drugstore called Rossmann, where I found a hyaluronic crème by Eveline (www.eveline.eu), for women 60-plus, which cost me a mere $4! So was a foundation I bought, called Bielenda (www.bielenda.pl) . Then my adorable 25-year-cousin Kasia got into the act, recommending a special lash serum to make your lashes longer – it contains the important Bitamoprost (found in the uber-expensive Latisse) and a big box of it was only $20. Rossmann – which is similar to Target or in France, Monoprix, one of my favorite stores– is Poland’s largest drugstore chain, which also had a huge display of Bourjois cosmetics from France. I love Bourjois cosmetics – word on the street is that Bourjois is made in the same factory as Chanel, and has the same high quality – but for a fraction of the price. I bought a small Bourjois blusher – perfect for travel, with its own little brush – for about $12. (http://www.rossmann.pl)
Mom and my sister Chris also stocked up on Janda. In September 2015 Rossmann started selling the first series of cosmetics under a new Janda brand. Targeting mature women, the brand is a brainchild of famous Polish actress Krystyna Janda. Janda carries Na Dzień Dobry i Na Dobranoc (Good Morning and Good Night) face cream. It is part of a series of cosmetics modeled on appearance-rejuvenating beauty treatments known as thread facelifts. This cosmetic improves skin firmness. It has a visible wrinkle-reducing and smoothing effect as well as supporting long-term moisturizing of the skin. Excellent skin restructuring effects are achieved by original processes designed by the Janda research and development team. The cream’s formulation is based on emulsifier boosters that melt into the epidermis, acting like noninvasive densifying “threads” and noninvasive tightening “threads.”
The latest product from Polish brand Lirene, the Ideale Anti-Wrinkle eye cream with wrinkle corrector, was developed in the cosmetic laboratory of Dr. Irena Eris. Its advanced scientific formula is based on innovative TGFß Activate Technology. Activation of the TGFß growth factor occurring naturally in the skin stimulates the renewal of aging cells, restoring their correct structure and extending their ability to function properly. The cream has an intensive firming, smoothing and nourishing effect on the delicate skin around the eyes, ensuring a healthy and radiant appearance. The formulation has been enriched with beeswax, hyaluronic acid and precious Babassu, rice and passionflower oils that are excellent for nourishing and moisturizing the skin. Proteins extracted from almonds leave the skin optimally tight and smooth. But to be honest, I fell in love with the Lirene Rosa Oil face cream that’s part of their Dermo Program. A fantastic souvenir!
www.lirene.pl
Then we got pedicures – at a nondescript hair salon in Krakow. I have to tell you, it was the best pedicure of my life – better than any spa across the world that I have ever visited. It cost me a mere $14, and the woman who did my pedicure – for 1.5 hours – spent most of the time cutting, snipping, filing, washing, and taking care of my feet, before she spent 10 minutes applying polish. Two months later and I am still enjoying this pedicure. It was, toes down, the best of my life. I also got my hair done at the salon – a wash and blowout was about $20.
But here’s an insider beauty secret – Poland is a great place to go for cosmetic surgery. and facial rejuvenation. I Googled Polish medical doctors and dermatologists for one week, (assisted by my niece Patricia) – – found numerous excellent candidates — and visited an MD who had attended Jagellonian University in Krakow. This medical doctor injected me with Botox around my eyes, for my crow’s feet, only $80. The results were super, and everything about her practice was top-notch, from her bedside manner, to her bonafides, and her office itself. It was at Consensus Med, the “Instyut Piekna” by Dr. Katarzyna Jasiewicz (www.consensus.med.pl). I recommend her personally. I have always loved Poland, and now there are more beautiful reasons ever to travel there!
Go to Poland with an empty TravelPro suitcase, stock up on beauty bargains, and roll your way back into the USA with a case filled with cosmetics! www.travelpro.com (You may not know it, but TravelPro introduced and invented the roll-on suitcase!)
Former Robb Report Editor and luxury beauty and travel writer Debbi Karpowicz Kickham can be reached through her websites at www.MarketingAuthor.com, and www.GorgeousGlobetrotter.com.
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