On Travelling: Lite Camping

I'm actually kind of surprised that I haven't broken down and done the ultimate "travel" post. Well, I'm not that surprised, truth be told I'm wordy and sometimes lazy about taking photographs (especially since I can't edit them and my camera is quite unrully). During my hiatus, I went on a short camping trip and thought to myself that I really ought to write about the experience (especially since it was a lite camping trip) but I wanted to go over some basics that I took with me.

Well, for starters, let me give you a quick run down of the "camping" trip -- it was actually for a Beer and BBQ Festival (I'm setting a tone here), and we camped out for two nights. The campsite came equipped with showers, bathrooms (well, portable toilets), and firewood. Basically this meant that we didn't have to do much heavy lifting -- but because we do share the space with a lot of other people, that did mean that there were certain things that we had to walk with, I'm not going to get into the long list of it, but the items that are worth taking a gander at are below.

Warning: I didn't wear any makeup on this trip because that just would have been silly on my behalf. I did walk with my usual stuff (like deodorant, a toothbrush, and toothpaste).

First things first is the nesting wine glass ($7.50). You can judge me all you want but if you're the only one on the campsite with one, then no one is going to try to take your drink. (This holds especially true when the other wine drinker has a GoVino glass ($3) so there's no confusing the two.)

Jokes aside though, soap, bug spray, and sunscreen are essentials. For the trip I grabbed a tube of the Banana Boat Natural Reflect with SPF 50 (~$10) that was oil and paraben free. I'm not a huge sunscreen fan in general but it's something you've got to do when you're exposed to the sun for a long period of time. I found that I had to reapply it twice (which I was supposed to do) and while I didn't quite like the feel of it, I did like the comfort of knowing it was doing it's job.

I didn't use the bug spray much since insects tend to flee from me but the other campers that I was with found the Cutter Skinsations Insect Repellent to be wonderfully helpful. I always walk with a bottle when I go camping for my friends and so far, no complaints about this one.

Soap is soap and generally I'd toss in a bar of Ivory and call it a day. I did figure though that I should walk with a bar that offered some type of exfoliation though. I grabbed this bar of Yardley of London Scrub & Smooth Bath Bar Sea Minerals which smells like bergamot and lime and is 100% vegetable soap. The bar of soap retails for ~$3 and if you've got several campers and a shower, this will come in handy.

Time to break down what's in that handy makeup bag though. That bag is my camping "makeup" bag and I use that term lightly because there's no actual makeup in there but it is a bag of necessary items. A lot of these items were actually samples, which makes it easy to pull them together and toss into another bag.

• Hand Sanitizer (while we did have a lot of water and wet wipes available, we also ended up doing a lot of cooking. This is great if you're handling meats or just any kind of food.) I grabbed a generic brand that cost about a dollar. 
• Floss and/or flossers. I keep a small spool of floss in the bag but in my other makeup bag (that's in my purse) I keep flossers. Flossers are great for on the go and keep a small spool as a backup (or to share) is just nifty and very useful. 
• Extra elastic hair bands -- I admit, that with short hair, I don't use these much and even last year when I had this bag with long hair, I ended up just putting my hair in a bun and keeping it steady with a pencil. Nonetheless, it's good to have them around.
• Small bottle of lotion. Now I did walk with my purse's makeup bag and in there I keep two other small bottles of lotion as well. I tossed in this one in as extra in case anyone needed it. You should definitely have on around especially if you suffer from dry skin (which is why I keep at least two bottles around).
• Shampoo and/or conditioner. You may not really need this but if you end up with a lot of haircare samples, it doesn't hurt to toss or two of them into a makeup bag especially since they don't take up much space.
• Toothpaste (not pictured is the travel toothbrush). Here's where my makeup bags combine to form a super hygienic pack. My everyday bag has a travel toothbrush (so as long as I have my purse, I can brush my teeth anywhere) but I tend to not carry toothpaste in that one since I'm usually at a friend's place where I'd have to use it. 
• Lancome Bienfait Multi-Vital with SPF 30. Well, this was tossed in by my mother (yep, seriously) who is a huge fan of Lancome and demands that I travel with the face cream because it has SPF in it (and in that way, I don't have to slather sunscreen on my face). Admittedly, this is one thing I really love travelling with especially since the other face creams I have either don't have SPF or it's very low. 
• Neutrogena Ultra Sheer SPF 70. Another sample and I'm not sure that this is something I'd actively seek it (because I walk with two items that pretty much cover this area). 

I know I have a Lancome primer in the picture but that shouldn't have been in the bag. I've removed it so no need to put it on the list.

I'm prepping for another trip soon so there shall be more in the series to come!