Iceland is a place made for Instagram. That flora! That fauna! All those great skincare brands! And if you were on Instagram in the middle of July, you may have noticed that our own Claire Knebl and Eva Alt skipped town for a weekend away—and also to attend the first ever Mastered Live event, the IRL version of the Mastered online courses. It was just a few casual days with people like photographer Nick Knight (lecturing on the direction of fashion film) and makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, among others. During a workshop with Isamaya on creative portraiture, conversation wandered off into travel essentials and recommendations—two topics relevant to our interests. And when Isamaya speaks, it's usually important enough to put down the portraiture and take notes. Or email her after the fact and ask for a little postcard. Both work; the latter is below:

"I was in Iceland for Mastered, which is a creative workshop for people in the fashion industry. It's been a really fun way to work and support each other, and it's also nice to get away from the clutter of cities because it’s very distracting. Iceland is a good place to do that.

When I travel, I don’t bring a lot of stuff. Right now I just sleep as much as possible. I did actually invest in a Clarisonic and I use it twice, three times a week, or whenever. It’s been around for ages and I thought I’d give it a go. And I just bought a green tube of Weleda Skin Food. And recently I was in this shop in Paris that opened back in 1901—I picked up these Buly toothpastes, which are amazing and have snakes on the tin. Beyond that, most of my kit is in flux. Actually my resolution for after summer is to investigate new stuff because I’ve worked with the same kit for so long.

Something new I just did was I went to the Blue Lagoon and it was the best skin cleansing experience of my life, no joke. I’m not usually a promoter of stuff like that—or anything really—but it was amazing. Your pores are crazy clean when you come out...it just brings everything to the surface. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I used the mask while I was there, but I think the main thing is just the heat and actually being in the minerals and the salt. It’s really salty and really steamy. It’s really cool."

—as told to ITG

Photos via Isamaya Ffrench.

Also a good idea: Once your pores are steamed, cover all of them in clay. That's what Claire did in Mexico.