Summer Camp Swag

        It has been forever since I have written. Yes, I know. I always start my posts like this. I guess it is just my thing. But for real. I feels like it has been an eternity since I have written. To help you figure out what has been happening lately, I will give you a scene setting. I am currently writing this from the staff lounge on my time off today. I pre- typed this in Microsoft word instead of straight to blogger because I didn't have Internet access in my cabin. If you haven’t guessed by context clues, I am currently at the quintessential American summer camp. Wood cabins, bunk beds, lake front, bears and the great outdoors is going to be the life I lead for the next 7 weeks. I applied for this job in early March, I believe, and was so excited when I got it. I even had a countdown on my phone that counted down the days until it started. I am so happy that I ended up here because this past week has been truly amazing.

                

       This is a sleep away camp, so I will be living here all summer. I was quite nervous at first because I was not really sure what to expect. This past week has been staff training, so only the counselors were on the premise, which was really nice. It has been great really getting to know all the people that I will be working with all summer. The cool thing about this camp is that the majority of the counselors here are international. So I am spending my summer with people from countries like Ireland, England, Scotland, Spain and South Africa. The past week was tough. We have have learned many things about the camp, wrote lesson plans, set up our activity areas and just tried to get to know each other. With that, we added in a staff camp out where we slept in tents all night and a staff talent show which was hilarious. Last week was exhausting but it has been rewarding to see the smiling faces on all of the campers. Just the thought that I have the power to make a child’s summer unforgettable makes all of the late nights and early mornings completely worthwhile.  

      

      Friday was our last day of staff training and I couldn't have asked for a better day. I have been here for a week now and let me tell you, I feel like I just arrived here a day ago. But, to tell you the truth, I couldn't be happier. The people I work with have become my family. In this past week, we all have grown to become so close. To me, I did not expect it. Everyone here is from different backgrounds, different countries, has different stories to tell and different life experiences. In the end, we find that we all mesh and gel so well together. We are able to work as a team and have each other’s back. We pick each other up when we are in a moment of despair or stress. We are able to communicate with just the slightest hand gesture or a nod of a head. We are camp counselors. We are a family. Everyone here is so nice and so pleasant to work with. Everyone is always smiling or able to make me laugh. Basically, to sum up this entire long post, I love my job and I could not be happier.

Love and summer camp,

Susanna

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Life in Color- One Republic

Summer {Beauty} Essentials

Hey all! I've been trying to write as often as I possibly can this summer. On Saturday I will be leaving to work at summer camp until August 16th. It is nuts to think how I won't be home all summer. 
   
  Anywho, on to what I planned to write about. I have to admit that I am a self proclaimed beauty addict. I love all things makeup and hair even though most of the time I tend to be in sweatpants with my hair tied up in a pony tail, but that is besides the point. I don't really know how it started. I always loved doing hair and playing around with makeup. I guess I just saw it as a way to extend beyond a typical canvas of paper and the typical mediums of paint, pencil and marker. I love how by using simple techniques you can change an entire look. So in this post, I plan on sharing some of my summer beauty essentials. (Sorry to my dudes that read this, it may not be all that entertaining to you. But I promise, I will have some more "man- friendly" posts coming up soon!) Anyway, on to my summer essentials!

**Also, I am a college kid. I do not have an abundance of money to spend on things like these. All of the things that I have listed down below can be found for under $15 at local drugstore like Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, Target and Walmart.**

1. Sunscreen: There is really no explanation for this. I think it goes without question. Sunscreen is super important, especially in the summer months, mainly to help prevent skin cancer. I am totally notorious for being all like "oh, I don't burn, I just tan." Lies Susanna. Complete and total lies. I burn like a lobster and when I burn, I peel. It is terrible. So protect your lovely skin and do me a favor and just put some sunscreen on. *Don't forget the tops of your feet, ears and your lips! They burn easily and hurt wicked bad if burnt!*
   -Suze's pick: I really like spray sunscreen. I don't know why. I think I am just too lazy to rub stuff in or what not. Plus it is easier for me to get hard to reach areas without having to ask for help (because I'm stubborn like that.) I tend to lean more towards "Sport-proof" sunscreen, which is basically just a fancy schmancy way of saying waterproof. I go for that mostly because if it is hot out you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be in a pool, lake, river, ocean, slip 'n slide or sprinkler. I'm all about water activities. 

Spray sunscreen. My favorite. 

2. BB Creams: I will be the first to admit that my skin is not perfect and I completely envy people with flawless skin. Most of the time I lean toward full coverage foundation, but in the summer, full coverage totally stresses me out. In the summer, my typical foundation routine is just not acceptable. To be honest, most of the time in the summer I wear no makeup at all. I am just far too lazy to put it on. Lately though, I have found myself applying a BB almost every day. BB basically stands for "Beauty Balm".To me, it is basically a tinted moisturizer with a little more coverage. It is super simple to apply in a hurry and really light on your skin. Also, most of them include SPF which is awesome!
    -Suze's pick: I love the Garnier BB Cream Miracle Skin Perfecter for combination oily skin. It gives me just the right amount of coverage that I look for in the summer months and feels super light on my skin. It is also really easy to build the coverage up, so if one day I want a heavier coverage, I can just add on another coat.

My all time favorite BB Cream.

3. Waterproof Mascara: We have all seen it happen. You go to a friend's house for a pool party and you see that one girl come out of the pool looking like a raccoon. I'm totally not about that. Personally, I always use waterproof mascara, mainly because my eyelashes are pin straight and waterproof formula helps hold an eyelash curl. In the summer months, waterproof mascara is good because you can go swimming without having a fear of your mascara running down your cheeks.
    -Suze's pick: I have been loving 2 different waterproof mascaras lately. I love The Rocket by Maybelline and Volum' Express One by One mascara by Maybelline as well. These two hold up in water and hold a curl really well. They are also easily removed with eye makeup remover. 

One of my most recent love affairs. I am a sucker for mascara and this one does not disappoint!

4. Cream Eye Shadows: I will be the first to admit that I love my BH Cosmetics Neutral Palette with all normal style, pressed pigment eye shadows, but in the summer those just aren't practical for me. Normally to keep my eye shadow lasting all day long I have to wear a primer underneath or else my eye shadow will crease. In the summer, I just don't feel like taking that extra step so I just eliminate it completely and opt for cream eye shadows. Most of the time they are very pigmented and hold up really well through water and heat. Plus one swipe across your eye and you are ready to go out the door. They are on the top of my list for lazy day makeup!
    -Suze's pick: Lately I have been obsessed with Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24 Hour Cream Gel Shadow. These are literally the holy grail of cream eye shadow and they are pretty cheap in makeup terms. The only thing that I can really compare them to is MAC's Paint Pots (even though the Maybelline ones are the clear winner to me, mainly because they are way cheaper. MAC Paint Pots retail for around $20 each while the Maybelline cream shadows retail for about $6 each.) I personally own 4 of them and keep having to turn the opposite direction when I see them in stores so that I don't pick up one in every color. 

I literally want every single color. I mean, I have no idea why I would need a bright yellow eye shadow, my only reasoning is that I just want it.

5. Lip Tints: I love lip products, or lippys, as I like to call them. I like everything about them, especially if they smell yummy. I like lipstick and lip gloss, but summer is just super impractical for those products. They just tend to get all kinds of sticky and melty in the summer heat and melting lip products just is not fun, at least for me it isn't. So in summer, I love lip tints. They are so easy and WATERPROOF (I guess waterproof is my word of the post. woop!) The best thing about lip tints (besides being waterproof of course!) is that they stay on all day, they don't rub off easily (summer romance...cheeky. jk) and they are super light on your lips.
     -Suze's pick: The Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain is one of my all time favorites. They have amazing colors, they stay on all day, they are smooth to apply and they smell yummy. Plus you can find them at most drug stores and they are pretty inexpensive. 

I love these. They are like jumbo twist up crayons and they go on super smooth and they stay on all day long. 

6. Moisturizer: I am a moisturizer addict, but I have really sensitive skin, so it is really hard for me to find a lotion that doesn't make my face freak out. I love to exfoliate my face a lot. Like a lot a lot. After you exfoliate it is always good to moisturize your skin. (Basically, after you exfoliate your skin is really thirsty, so moisturizing it is like giving it a nice drink of water.) Moisturizing helps make oily skin less oily and dry skin less dry (it seems like it doesn't make any sense, but trust me, it will eventually.)
     -Suze's pick: I have recently been loving Cetaphil Moisturizing Lotion. I use this on my face after I wash it in the morning and I use it before I go to bed at night. I like it because it isn't heavy and it doesn't leave a greasy residue on my face after I put it on. Another thing I also like about it is how it doesn't have a scent. I like scents, I really do, but I really don't care for overpowering smells on my face. Putting something super potent all over my face is just like me abusing the smeller that is situated smack dab in the middle of my face. Anywho, I love this moisturizer and it is pretty cheap so thumbs up for broke college kid livin'! 

You get so much for so little. I think a bottle of this is about $9 for  16 FL Oz. I have had my bottle for about 6 months  and I use it every day, twice a day and I am not even halfway done with it. So worth the price!

7. (this is my lucky/favorite number so this might be a little random) Hair Treatments: During the summer my hear tends to get really dry and not shiny. Needless to say, I don't dig dry, dull hair. Recently I have been looking at deep conditioning treatments that I can buy at Target or Walmart and they are all so expensive (I'm talking like $30 for a bottle expensive. Yeah, no. I don't think so.) So I was Pinterest-ing the other day looking at hair treatments and I found one and I was like "what the hay. Let's try it." So I did. And I love it. Here's what you do:
  -In a small bowl combine 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons of water (or if you have dry hair, substitute olive oil for the water).
  -Wet hair. (I did this in my bathroom sink.)
  -Spread the egg mix all over hair. (I warn you it kinda smells and kinda feels disgusting, but trust me, it is worth it.)
  -Put hair up in a shower cap or wrap in saran wrap and let sit for a minimum of 15 minutes. (I let mine sit for an hour because it really needed it.)
  -Hop in the shower and rinse the egg out of your hair. WARNING: rise out with cool water. Reason: you do not want scrambled eggs all up in your hair.
  -Don't condition your hair in the shower. Just use a tiny bit of shampoo to get rid of all the egg and to mask the smell a bit.
  -Style hair as you normally would. 
I did this today and immediately noticed a difference in my hair. It is super shiny and I honestly can't stop touching it.

After I do this hair treatment all I want to do is whip my hair back and forth because it is just so shiny and smooth. 

Well this was an obnoxiously long blog post, but I hope it kinda helped with somethings that I have been loving for summer. I will try to write again as soon as I possibly can, but no guarantees as to when that will be.

Love and summer beauty products on a budget,
Susanna

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Summertime Lovin'

     Hi all! Yeah, I know, it has been FOREVER since I have written a blog post. I could tell you a lie like I have been climbing Mount Everest or backpacking through Europe, but like I said, that would be a lie. In reality, I have been catching up with friends from home before I head off next week to work at camp for the entire summer. I have to tell you, I could not be more excited to go to camp. This past week I have been up there twice, once on Thursday to help with a field trip group and I was up there today for a camp open house. Both days were so much fun. Today, a lot of the staff was there which was cool to meet the people that I would be spending the entire summer with. Today I also got to meet a bunch of the kids that will be attending camp this summer and their parents. I leave for good next Saturday for staff training for a week and then the campers start coming. This week coming up I plan on packing my bags, cleaning my room, saying goodbye to my friends and unpacking all of my college things that are still packed up in the basement. I know, I'm a little behind on the whole unpacking thing. Other than that,  nothing too interesting has been happening around here, but I am sure in a couple weeks I will have some better things to write about!

Love and summer fun,
Susanna


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