You’re ready for summer. You’ve been daydreaming about the seaside all rainy season long.  But before you head out, make sure you’ve got the ultimate, all essentials covered, beach bag.

• Say no to plastic. You should be using an eco-friendly, reusable water bottle every day, but considering how much plastic winds up in our oceans, why not do you part to not bring any more of it to the beach?  Klean Kanteen has a mouth wide enough to fit ice-cubes and claims to keep your water cold for 2 plus hours.

 

• Sunscreen.  If you want to preserve your face and stay wrinkle free- you better lather up.  Fancy sunscreen isn’t really necessary, any market brand will do if you want 45 plus cover, but a tinted SPF moisturizer like this Laura Mercier Tinted Moisurizer with SPF 20, available at Sephora  is great for make-up free days.

 

• A fashionable cover up and a chic pair of sandals. If someone calls and invites you to a sunset barbeque, you should be ready to pack up, jump in your car and head on over.  Throw some waterproof mascara, like Dior’s , in your bag for show-stopping lashes.   Plus your hair will have that perfect, beach-wavy look.

 

• A good read.  If you hit up Amazon.com you can order a decent sized stack of used books for the price of one.  Mix up your summer reading selection with a few classics.  Think Franzen and Hemingway. Or Steinbeck with Larson.  Detective stories are great for beach reads.  

 

• An amazingly, huge, brightly colored beach towel.  That towel with your company logo isn’t cutting it.  Your toes hang off the edge. Sand creeps in until you may as well forgo the towel all together.  Try this one I found at Bed Bath and Beyond.  Even though it says it’s for two, doesn’t mean it can’t be for one.

-Arianna Schioldager