Holiday Packing // What’s In My Beach Bag?

By the time you’re reading this, with a bit of luck, I’ll be sitting serenely under a parasol, shade bathing, hopefully with some kind of Aperol Spritz to sip on. Sounds blissful! And after a crazy busy (in a good way) 2017 – this holiday has been so, so welcomed. 
Today I’m talking about my babein’ beach essentials.
Before I go away, I always have an idea in my head about how I imagine myself looking on holiday. The first part is all about looking and feeling confident. I like to promote feeling body confident on holiday as I am by no means an Insta-worthy beach babe. I have curves and I have lumps and bumps. I also have very pale skin that reacts to the sun through prickly heat. To help with my skin, I found the Boots Soltan Sensitive sun lotion in SPF 30 – specially formulated for sensitive skin. I also carry the Banana Boat Aloe Vera Gel which helps soothes any prickly heat and also any areas that may have caught the sun. When I was a teenager, I would purposely try and burn to ‘get a tan’ – which as I’ve gotten older i’ve come to realise the hard way that, this is NOT the way forward and very dangerous.
I also have a cute little straw hat which is from ASOS, not only does this help alleviate the danger of sunstroke, but as my hair is quite red and I don’t want it to fade with the sun so I wear a hat. My sunnies are Moschino via TK Maxx and I love the cheery, red frames. They’re quite oversized with a feline silhouette which is a look I like.
Sitting on the beach is the only time I feel uninterrupted and completely able to devour a book. I know this is pretty sad and whilst I do get through at least a book, a month in any usual routine, on holiday I can whizz through two or three. This year I am reading Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts which is a monster of a book and hopefully, The Muse by Jessie Burton which I saw Laura Jane Williams recommend. Both novels seem like a little escapism and I can’t wait to get my nose in them.
The second most important thing to me is feeling comfortable, I like to style up swimwear that promotes my good bits, and hides anything that I don’t want on show. I also love floaty, printed kaftans to cover my shoulders so I don’t burn. I am taking three pieces of swimwear with me, all from Primark. Two of them are full pieces with cut-out detailing and one is a high waisted two piece – all ideal for accentuating your proudest areas and covering up any bits you’re not so confident about.

If you’ve met me in person, you’ll know that I am absolute jewellery fiend. I tend to wear as many pieces as I can possible fit around my neck or on my arms. – This doesn’t stop when I’m on holiday, in fact, my inner Saggitarius wanderer comes out and I end up piling on even more! All in the name of boho! I usually wear some plastic beads and some hoop earrings – the ones pictured above are from Marks + Spencer’s and my beads are from a charity shop. (The best places to find beads IMO).

I absolutely love the print of this bikini set, so much so, I bought the matching kaftan also! I am a real sucker for anything tropical print and pink and green paired together is one of my favourite colour combos this year. The top and bottoms are separately and I believe all together, they cost around the £12 mark. I am quite pear-shaped in figure with larger hips than top half so I like how the racer style neckline balances out the high-wasted bottoms. The added mesh detailing is also pretty special.

Surprise, surprise – another tropical print piece! I think this was around the £6 mark and I was absolutely sold on the cut out detailing on the back. Our of all of the swimsuits, this definitely comes up the most skimpy and I recommend sizing up if you don’t like too much bum-cheek on show.

My third piece is the most ‘substantial’ of the lot. Very secure, very figure flattering your tummy is completely supported in a similar way that spanx works and the cut of the leg is quite high, which makes your pins look even longer. I will be wearing this for when we head out on trips, many times in the past I’ve had some shall we say, compromised situations all thanks to a skimpy bikini. lol.

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