A smörgåsbord of stylish entertainment.

I absolutely love to travel. If I had the choice, I’d take world travel over material objects any day of the week. That said, I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful country of Tunisia with one of my BFFs, Thouraya (aka Touti),  over the summer. Touti is a native of Tunisia and it’s no wonder she hates coming back to the US every year — the country is magnificent!

You might be wondering WTF this has to do with my amazing new all-in-one beauty product. I’m getting there.

Touti and I spent our mornings laying out by her glorious pool. One day we ran out of tanning lotion/sunblock, so her mom went to the local pharmacy to pick us up some more supplies. She returned with a bottle of Tahitian (NOT Tunisian) monoi oil. As I opened the bottle, I was greeted by the most wonderful floral fragrance. I slathered some oil on my body and went about my tanning business. I failed to realize that not only did this protect me from the sun, but it also worked wonders in the moisturizing department.

The bottle of monoi oil has collected dust since my amazing North African getaway. I ran out of moisturizer a few weeks ago and decided to conduct a little testaroo. I Googled some info about the oil just to make sure my sensitive skin wouldn’t break out and then went ahead and applied it to my face…and lips…and feet…and hair! This stuff is RIDIC! I woke up the next day and my skin was def more hydrated. I never would have imagined oil being good for my face, but it is. It even helped cure my chapped lips. Lastly, this fabulosity-in-a-bottle can also be used as a 30 minute hot oil hair mask (great for colored treated or overprocessed hair).

This probably comes as news to a lot of you, but believe it or not the French Polynesian ballers have used monoi oil for over 2,000 years. It’s also widely used by Europeans. Europeans are always so savvy in the cosmetic department, aren’t they?

I can’t get enough of this stuff and I DIE over the scent alone. Apparently it’s available in different fragrances, but I prefer the original scent of the Tahitian gardenias (tiare) and coconut oil that’s used to make it. It’s also mad cheap — you can find it online for around $10, just make sure to buy the certified kind.

I’ve yet to visit Tahiti, but it’s next on my list of exotic vacays (if only to purchase an obscene amount of this stuff).