Some people may know Karrueche Tran from her roles in popular television shows like Claws and Bel-Air. In contrast, others may know her as the first Asian Pacific American actress to win a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Daytime Fiction Program for her performance in the digital series, The Bay. What may be less known about the 37-year-old model and actress is that she’s currently on a mission to make her mark in the wellness space. Tran, who recently launched her Ruechi Beauty brand, is hosting her first retreat.
Taking place at the Impression Isla Mujeres by Secrets, located on the Mexican Caribbean island of Isla Mujeres, the RUECHI Beauty Retreat is a small and intimate gathering curated for 15 women, scheduled to take place from August 14 to 18. Tran first discovered the enchanting venue while vacationing and was inspired to create her own wellness experience for women. The all-inclusive retreat is first-come, first-served and will hopefully be the first of many for the actress.
I spoke with the 37-year-old over Zoom to learn more about her upcoming retreat and gain insight into her vision for her wellness brand’s future.
Aside from the venue being stunning, what makes you choose this destination?
Just the connection I felt being there. It’s a very holistic hotel, and as I’m growing in the wellness space, I wanted people to feel what I felt being at this hotel. And you know, we talked about working together and collaborating. It would be great if we all came together and put on a beautiful event, a lovely retreat, a safe space for women to relax, rejuvenate, reconnect with themselves, and replenish their energy, while also getting to know other women. In my home, I love hosting. So a retreat feels like hosting as well.
What’s on the itinerary? What can people expect to do?
We created an itinerary that offers a little bit of everything. We offer yoga, breathwork, and sound baths. We have a walk that we’re doing like a group walk. We have relaxing days that feel like a beach day, where you can paddleboard. I’ll be hosting a RUECHI Beauty skincare workshop.
The food there is excellent, so you’ll have plenty of meals throughout the day. We have a cooking class. So, I wanted it to be fun and proactive. I wanted women to be able to relax as well. However, I also want everyone to gain something from their time there.
Something that caught my attention is that you are only having 15 people, so it’s an intimate retreat. I have attended a few retreats, and I prefer smaller groups. Why did you opt for a smaller group?
Just for those reasons, to create a more intimate setting. When it’s a bigger group, you get a little lost. You’re also unable to connect. Additionally, since this is our first retreat, I want to make a genuine connection with these women, and I don’t want it to be just another event where they’re thrown together. A more intimate setting is more fitting and straightforward for connecting and maneuvering around with everybody.
Do you have a process for selecting the 15 people, or is it first-come, first-served?
It’s first-come, first-served. I plan to continue doing this more and more in the future, and there may come a time when we grow and become larger, and we have more guests.
If you had to choose one takeaway that you wanted this group of women to get from the retreat, what would that one thing be?
I would say learning something new. When I was going through a rough patch in my life years ago, I spent a lot of time by myself and tried many new things to keep myself busy and take my mind off things. So I tried yoga, which was hard at first, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I don’t know how I’m gonna do this.’ But now I love yoga. I started reading self-help and improvement-type books, which I love.
Those are things I still carry with me today, things that I still do, and things that make me feel good daily. It’s things that help me improve and be better. Yoga helps me stretch and focus, and it has also helped me improve my breathing. It’s astonishing to me that, out of my 37 years of living, I never realized I wasn’t breathing correctly, but I wasn’t, and most of us aren’t, either. I want each guest to take something new and continue to do it in their everyday life, it doesn’t have to be on a big scale.
With you carving out your identity in the wellness space, what would you say is your niche? What do you want people to think when they think about Karrueche and wellness?
I believe it’s essential for people to understand the importance of wellness to us individually. And I sometimes don’t like talking about it because it’s so trendy, like wellness and self-care. However, it does help and benefit us to take these moments to fill our cup and do the things we love. And many of us are busy, with hectic schedules, but it’s always important to check in with you and your foundation.
So, to answer your question, I feel that what I want people to take away is the importance of pouring into your cup. Always pour into your cup. Whatever it is. It could be so simple. I love coffee. That’s something that I do that fills my cup.
I want other people to do things that make them happy and keep them healthy, because we live in such a chaotic world. But whatever makes you feel good and whatever fills your cup, do it and keep doing it, and do it again, and do it again, and try to be as happy as you can be.
Speaking of wellness being oversaturated and commercialized, what is your most annoying wellness trend?
So I think for me, it’s the ‘wake up with me’ videos or ‘this is what I eat in a day’, or ‘this is my day in two minutes’ or whatever it is. And it’s like a phone is propped up and they’re like, Oh, wake it up. And it’s just like, I get it. You want to paint the picture, but it doesn’t feel authentic.
I’m just like, ‘Girl, this is not fully real.’
However, I also think some people do that on purpose to elicit a reaction. That’s why, with a lot of what I do, I try to be as genuine and authentic as possible.
What are your most essential wellness practices?
Let’s say my coffee for sure. Gotta have my coffee. Something related to skin care, whether it’s using an at-home mask. Another would be simply soaking up the sun, literally lying in the sun. Oh, it fuels me. It feels incredibly smooth on my skin. I get a nice, slight tan. I feel good. I look good. And we get so much energy and power from the sun, which recharges me.
What is the best wellness retreat you’ve been to and why? What were the things that made it a great retreat to you?
I went on just one other retreat. It was in Costa Rica. It was more of a medical wellness retreat. They had a doctor there. Then you can enjoy a variety of spa services to detoxify your body. They had very clean meals and yoga every day. And I enjoyed it. We went on a nice hike. I enjoyed it because I was able to be myself and work at my own pace. And it was at such a beautiful place in the jungle.
But the difference with the Ruechi retreat is I want that communal network. I want to bond. I want to share stories. I’m all about sharing knowledge, energy, education, and gaining different experiences.
So, my last question for you is, 10 or 15 years from now, you are doing your thing in the wellness space. What would you like to see for future Karrueche in terms of your wellness brand?
So, in 10 or 15 years, I’ll be in my early 50s. I envision myself living on an island or a farm, growing my food. I have chickens and I have land. And I still want to be the same messenger when it comes to wellness. I want to dig even deeper into that space. If I’m going to have my farm and own my land, I still want to educate people. I want to get to a point in life when I’m on my island, where I’m making my bread, and I’m making jam from the strawberries from my garden. I want to educate people about my garden and share some tips, being very much in tune with nature and holistic, because there’s just so much bullshit in our food.
I travel, even going to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and visiting other countries; their food is fresh, and you can taste the difference. I went to Italy two years ago for a week. I ate pasta for a week. I ate pasta every single day for seven days. And I lost weight.
I could go on and on about this, but that is future Karrueche—just very clean and healthy eating.