It goes without saying, when it comes to beauty basics and camping the emphasis is on the natural. As in au natural. As in, nada. As in, just the fresh air and morning dew for toner. The salt spray as hair product. The scent of pine needles crunching underfoot for perfume. Does a body good. When faced with a new morning and smell of fresh air upon just waking, it’s hard not to just feel kind of grateful for the skin wrapped around your muscles and your bones.
Still, we’re not planning to rough it completely. There’s a coin-op shower down the road from our campsite, and we’ll be spending a few nights at an inn (thank the heavens), so we won’t return to Brooklyn smelling too funky. I’m bringing along a few things to keep us feeling fresh and ready to face the day, even though there will still surely be a thicker-than-usual ring of dirt around Faye’s neck.
I’ve got a square of bar soap tucked into some beeswrap for safe-keeping. And I filled a pair of travel containers with shampoo and conditioner—portions squeezed out of the larger bottles of both that we’ve been using lately. (We found an old bottle of the down and dirty camp classic, Campsuds, in our camping gear, so we packed that up to help wash dishes.)
For camp scrub-downs, I’m packing a set of hemp washcloths (they’re meant to be cocktail napkins, but we got more mileage out of them as washcloths and (bonus!) they’re great at exfoliating)!
My mom left us with a set of borrowed camp towels that fold up to nothing and dry quickly (even if the fabric admittedly makes my skin crawl just a little bit.)
We’ll bring our trusty deodorant, toothpaste, and what’s left of the sunscreen we have to share. I’ll be tucking a tiny bottle of toner in my bag to feel refreshed even without other creature comforts, along with a tiny mascara, just in case. Okay fine, and a razor. I’m not going completely cave woman.
For Faye’s, ahem, beauty routine, we were recently given this sudsy bottom cleaner to try—just coconut oil, castile soap, and water—and I’m packing that to help with camp wipe-downs when water is limited. We’ll also plan on bringing an extra pack of disposable baby wipes and a set of disposable diapers to use during our twelve days away. (Cloth diapering in the woods will have to be a challenge I accept on another day.)
More camp packing notes, HERE.
2 Comments
We do a lot of family camping and have with our boys since they were each just a few months. Cloth diapering while camping (or even traveling for that matter) can seem a bit daunting and excessive. I compromised by using G Diapers. I know that now there are similar ones (maybe Flips or something) that have a water proof cover and then biodegradable/flush-able inserts. They worked great and pack up lightly without having to lug around dirty cloth or run off to a laundry mat.
Oh, camping. I grew up with a father who loooooved to camp. When you mentioned that your skin crawled because of the towels, mine did as well. I'm almost certain I know what towels you are talking about. Thanks for sharing what you brought on your trip. I'm itching to try out that deodorant and sunscreen!
xo
Rachel
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