So, lets kick off all things holiday with my prep beforehand. I think I have mentioned before that I hadn't been on a proper out of this country holiday for many many years before we went to Florida. Usually in that sort of position i would have been hyper organised, researching everything under the sun. I bought the guide books but didn't have time to read them, I scouted out shopping locations but didn't really figure out what i wanted to buy, and I had a mountain of paperwork for the journey. I really felt like my prep skills were way off! I even did a mad last minute dash around the shops a week or so beforehand and I may have had to buy a new suitcase the night before I went!
One thing I did remember to prepare for was the beauty side of things. I suppose it is the blogger in me, I wanted to make sure my skin was ready. I did a bit of research and picked up a couple of new things on the market to try out, as well as using some old favourites.
St Tropez in shower gradual tan sounded like an absolute life saver to me. I absolutely hate waiting for body moisturiser to sink in, so was not enjoying every day applications. I have to admit though, as much as I loved the concept of this it streaked every single time. Maybe if you have an amazing extractor fan in your bathroom and it doesn't get all foggy in there you would be ok, but I found the moisture in the air just made this stuff run down my legs. I ended up going back to my old faithful, St Tropez Everyday gradual tan instead. If you are very fair skinned, the sort that burns before it tans, this is the most natural colour for a tanning product I have found. It is more expensive than say the Dove version, but I find this to sink in fairly quickly, apply evenly and the colour that develops is never too far towards any colour spectrum. It just looks natural.
One product I knew I would have to break out was the Burt's Bees Coconut Foot Cream. My feet are not my favourite feature and though i try my best to keep them in tip top condition, a couple of months of wearing my Birkenstocks had left them a bit dry on the heels. This stuff is great though, within a couple of applications I thought my toes were pretty much flip flop worthy! I would definitely recommend this one.
To go along with the treatment my feet were getting, I gave my toes a bit of a polish too. I wanted something soft that complimented my planned outfits so went for this Essie number, Salt Water Happy from the summer collection. I always think you can't go wrong with Essie, they are my favourite brand and their polish stays on my toes for weeks. I picked up their Gel Setter top coat to go with this, and I really like it, it goes on slightly thicker than a normal polish and when capping the ends of your nails really does seem to last longer without chipping.
I am a fan of gel nail polish, I don't get my nails done regularly because i worry it will ruin them but I did get a gel manicure a few days before my holiday. Unfortunately one pesky nail just would not stay on, I hate when the polish splits and peels, so i had to perform a hasty removal late on the night before our flight! At that point it was Essie to the rescue, a light slick of polish had me looking neat and holiday ready again.
This Veet Spawax stripless wax kit was the thing I was most excited to try before my holiday. I had heard so much about it and as I am no stranger to at home hair removal I loved the idea of this, you melt the wax, smooth it on and pull it off, the wax itself acts as the strip!
I had been prepping my legs well for a few weeks before hand with my favourite body scrub, the Soap and Glory Breakfast Scrub as I was regularly tanning by that point, and I wasn't worried about this hurting as I regularly epilate my legs. My first few goes I used this on my legs and underarms and though it was great for use on my legs, I wouldn't try my underarms again. The main problem I had was applying the wax thickly enough and consistently so that it formed a complete strip. This was easy to do after a couple of tries on a long flat surface like your legs, but applying it to the underarms meant it was uneven and I kept managing to rip it in half when removing, which became quite painful. If you are thinking of investing in this, by all means do, but be prepared to practice!
Overall I was a little disappointed by some of these, and I do sort of wish I had stuck to my old faithfuls, but then if you can't try new things when you're going on holiday, when can you?!
Do you have a set holiday prep routine that you have down to an art or are you like me, bumbling along trying to cram too much in?