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Girly Girl's Beauty Guide to Camping:
5 Must Have Drugstore Products

If you want to maintain your beautiful image, never go
camping. You may be able to survive a hike of beauty with
some waterproof makeup products that can stay put for up to 8 hours. But if you'd like to experience Yosemite or
Yellowstone and would rather sleep under the stars than at
the Best Western, you don't have to give in entirely to
Mother Nature's plan to cover you in dirt, sweat and mosquito bites. Read on for tips to being as gorgeous as possible at the campground of your choice.Ideally, you can start each day with a warm shower.

Look for campgrounds that provide running water and "comfort stations", bathrooms with showers and sinks. Hot water (or warm water, in a pinch), is a great cleanser for a gal who's spent the days wandering through the underbrush. If you must, even a cold shower may be preferable to none at all. Most national parks have campgrounds with restrooms, but they get booked up early, so make sure when planning your trip to make your reservations in plenty of time to get a prime location.

Now, here's what to bring with you when you meet Mother
Nature face to face.

1. Bug repellent

If there's a lake or a river, if temperatures are in the
seventies or higher, if humidity is over 50%, you'll be
wanting mosquito repellent. If you're planning to have
children ever, read the label before buying repellents: some can cause reproductive harm.

After three days in a national park and a couple of five-mile-hikes through mosquito-infested meadows, I found a product called Herbal Armor, a combination of citronella, peppermint, cedar, lemon grass and geranium oils in a base of beeswax and natural vegetable oils that kept me bite-free for the rest of the trip. I didn't test it at peak bug times, but I liked its natural, petrochemical-and-cruelty-free makeup. With the West Nile virus still growing and spreading west, bug repellents are becoming more than comfort products--they're important protection from a nasty illness.

2. Wet Wipes

A way to wash without running water. Nice smell, antibacterial. Portable. Perfect.

3. Water, and Lots of It

Drinking water is always important, and if you're hiking,
you'll need even more of it. Best-case scenario, you'll have
drinking water at your campsite and will just need to pack
in enough for the hike. If you happen to have water for
washing too, that's even better.

You can wash in streams (use biodegradable soap) and lakes, but don't drink water unless you know it's potable. Water fresh from a bubbling spring is certainly attractive, but if a deer or raccoon has also been attracted to water upstream from you, it may very well be contaminated with bacteria and parasites. If you're in parkland or Bureau of Land Management (BLM) areas, or even federally managed "wilderness", the water may also be contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, runoff from logging and mine tailings, and god-knows-what.

4. The Right Clothes

You can buy clothes with UV protective qualities combined
with breathability. Try REI or other outdoor clothing
retailers. You should have a hat, not only to keep the sun
off, but to protect your head from hanging brambles, and, in cold weather or rough country, a knit cap to sleep in is
also a good idea.

Clothes should fit closely enough that they won't catch on
things when you're running from a bear, but loosely enough
so that nothing chafes. People with sensitive skin may not
be able to tolerate long hikes in heavy denim, the seams of
which can rub delicate skin. Cargo pants in cotton blends
may provide smooth fabric with extra storage space in the
form of pockets.

Layering is crucial, because you're going to heat up when
hiking, cool down after camp's setup, and maybe get really
cold in the mountain evening.

5. Animal Repellents

Animal repellents such as pepper spray, bear spray and dog
spray can all be essential safety and self defense items
that are perfect for the outdoors. You never know what type of dangerous situation your could find yourself in out in the wilderness either with a human attacker, wild bear or
vicious mountain lions. A defense spray on hand will give
you time to escape to safety.