The beauty musts I packed for my Memorial Day Weekend adventure will be my go-to’s all season long– they’re efficient, easy to find, and even easier to pack!
Last weekend I hit the road with my husband, 3 little ones, and my mom for a west-of-NYC adventure packed with horseback riding, lakes, and all sorts of outdoorsy forms of relaxation. Obviously it was a blast, but packing the right combo of beauty products presents a challenge when there’s such a mix of activities. So, I broke down my beauty bag by each activity.
1. Outdoor sunshine. We spent a lot of time walking through fields, laying out by the lake, and picking flowers, so I obviously needed to load up on a good SPF. I packed Olay’s Total Effects 7-in-1 Anti-Aging Daily Moisturizer with SPF 30 to keep my face from aging (is it strange that one of my deepest desires to is be that mom in like 30 years who people stop in a restaurant and are all “OMG your sister looks just like you!” and then I respond with “My sister? That’s my daughter!” and then there’s a wide array of gasps and high fives). I loved the easy to use pump dispenser, the creamy formula, and the serious sun coverage.
READ MORE: Extreme Manscaping
2. Sportsy things. Is hiking a “sport?” If it wasn’t before, it is now… because I totally needed the Secret Clinical Strength Deodorant that I packed. I mean, I used it so much I literally left it by a faux dinosaur in a theme park by mistake (how fortuitous for that dino though, right?). This is a perennial fave for me, and I’ll obviously be using it year round, nevermind just summer.
3. Pool, pool, pool! Did I make myself clear? I love swimming. There’s a chance I share about 99.9999% of my DNA with dolphins, because I could be in the water all day– but, as everyone knows, chlorine isn’t casual on hair. Chlorine is a nasty, backstabbing friend that pretends to love you and then ruins your hair in one fell swoop. Pantene (I just realized I’ve been using Pantene for over 20 years, is that nuts or what?) makes a Damage Detox Weekly Rehab Creme that basically saved my soul (my soul is in my hair, obviously) this weekend. Although it can be used in the regularly prescribed way, I found that using it as a nighttime treatment and then leaving a tiny bit in (maybe a dime size amount combed through my entire giant head of hair) left my hair silky smooth and shinier than a pile of glitter in the sun.
Also, the little Gillette Venus Snap with Embrace razor was just about the most convenient thing in the world to throw in my purse next to my normal stash of lipgloss and tampons. I mean, the whole 5-blade razor is about the size of my thumb, and perfectly touches up forgotten spots in the bikini zone, ankles, etc. I ended up getting an extra one to leave in my gym locker throughout the summer, too.
4. Out to dinner. OK, let’s be honest, there’s no dinner “scene” when you’re out in the wilderness, but I do still take pride in having some semblance of a face with minor amounts of makeup. My makeup routine during the summer is super casual: bronzer, mascara, lip color. That’s it. Done. I love CoverGirl’s Bombshell Volume by Lashblast Mascara (the packaging is obviously fun because bright pink is everything) because it doesn’t clump, goes on super smoothly, and the two step application offers seriously glossy lashes.
5. The most versatile one of all… I think I must’ve carried my Olay Fresh Effects (S’wipe Out!) Refreshing Makeup Removal Towelettes with me to every corner of the town I was staying in with my family. They’re just so easy to use. I used them to remove makeup, touchup melty eyeliner, remove sticky ice cream residue from my hands as I walked through a zoo with the kids, and even just to cool down my face and neck when it got to be 83 degrees and I was wearing jeans.
All these products are available in drugstores which is one of my fave things about them– even if I run out of any or all of them, it’s just easy to pick more up at the drop of a hat and continue on with life, travel, and all the fun things that go on in the warmer months.
This post was sponsored, but I really did use these products on my family vacation, and I’ve been using Pantene and Secret since the 90s!
