How I Get Beach Ready

I’ve had sunshine on the brain lately. I feel so good when I get at least 15 minutes of sun a day. I recently went on a little mini-vacation for my birthday, and these are the products I used to get beach-ready.

Pre-Beach:

• Scrub It! LATHER Yuzu Sugar Cane Body Buff – A great tan (faux or otherwise) starts out with smooth, exfoliated skin. Whether you’re tanning or not, exfoliating is a must to keep your skin healthy and glowing. LATHER’s Yuzu Sugar Cane Body Buff is a rich, deeply moisturizing scrub – best for areas that need extra buffing and moisture – like legs, booty, arms and torso. The mandarin orange and yuzu give this scrub a wonderful, citrus-y scent – perfect for summer!
• Exfoliate It! I love Alpha Hydrox Foot & Problem Area Cream. It’s got 12% glycolic acid to really dissolve those tough foot and elbow (and maybe knee) calluses. Use it morning and night for soft, clean tootsies. It’s also a great moisturizer and it’s fragrance-free.
• Fake It! Fake Bake Fair Self Tanning Lotion – I spend most of my time indoors, and I don’t want to blind people on the beach with my white-ness, so I use Fake Bake’s tanning lotion to get a healthy glow before I go! Their Fair self-tanner is perfect for skin that has not seen the light of day in a while (or for you natural readheads and fair-skinned peeps). You can build it up to get a darker color if you wish. My face tends to be lighter than the rest of me, because I am more religious about using sunscreen on my face, so Fair is a perfect facial self-tanner.
• Pack It! Bring makeup brushes that do double-duty. I love Samantha Chapman’s Real Techniques cruelty free, taklon, hand-cut brushes. The kabuki brush actually opens up to form a larger and more narrow brush so you can apply color after your powder – genius! Her blush brush can also be used for powder or bronzer. And, her angled brush can be used for eyeliner or eyebrows. The best thing about these brushes is that they are high quality and still super-affordable (you can get a whole set for $15.99)! You can buy them at ULTA.

At the Beach:

• Protect It! I use Kinesys sunscreen because it’s cruelty-free, spray-able and they have one that SMELLS LIKE BUBBLE GUM! How cool is that? Kiss My Face also has good sunscreens that are available at drugstores. PETA has a good article on cruelty free sunscreens.

After Sun:

• Soothe It! After sunning, your skin will need lots of moisture. Let me just tell you that LATHER has a Coconut Creme Body Whip that is FRIGGIN’ AMAZING. It’s luxurious and soft without being at all greasy. The scent is nice and fresh – not super coconut-y (the name comes from the coconut oil) – more like something you’d want to eat – it has essential oils: vanilla, tonka bean, geranium and a tiny bit of patchouli. It also contains aloe – a must to soothe irritated or sunburned skin.
• Repair It! LATHER also has a really nice Avocado Mint Hair Hair Repair mask. You can actually put this in wet hair before you go to the beach to protect it. Or leave it in for 3-5 minutes after shampooing. It has shea, macadamia and jojoba oils to soften and repair your hair.
• Fix It! Did your bathing suit leave white marks? Try the Tanee Tan Line Corrector. It’s basically a medium-dark self-tanner with a convenient applicator so you can get the small spots that didn’t get tan (or that you missed when you were applying self-tanner all over). Nice to keep from getting self-tanner all over your hands. You can touch up spots right before you go out – it has a guide color and absorbs instantly.