Zambales Girl's Trip with Sassa

About a week ago I was invited to my *first* brand trip with Sassa, a swim wear and active wear clothing line. It was honestly so much fun, I got to meet some great girls, and the place we stayed at, Sundowners Zambales, was SO AESTHETICALLY BEAUTIFUL. We spent two days at a beautiful villa, soaking up the sun and also learning more about health and wellness. Just a little back story, my friend Sammie and I met the brand manager, Mona, at Wanderland Music Festival. Sammie and I were just walking around the festival grounds when Mona came up to us and gave us a compliment. She then invited us to Sassa's Health and Wellness Ambassador trip in Zambales. Honestly, I think it was the law of attraction at works. It's always been one of my goals to work with a swim wear brand and a couples of months prior to this I saw Sundowner's Zambales on my insta feed and told myself I had to stay there some day. Then fast forward to a couple months later and things just fell into place perfectly.

The trip started with 4 hour road trip from Manila to Zambales. Shout out to Sammie for navigating for Mona and letting little 'ole me rest. I'm not even going to lie I was also slightly hungover. Don't judge. I had a "social media influencer" dinner the night before and they kept the cocktails flowing... okay, you can't blame me right? The trip was relatively fast, mostly because Mona was going about 40km over the speed limit the whole time, but we got there in one piece.

If you ever take a trip up to Zambales you should definitely consider staying at Sundowners. Especially if you're looking for a peaceful and aesthetically pleasing getaway. The place is relatively new , they were actually building more private villas while we were there. Each villa's interior is a beautiful fuse of beach, indie and minimalist vibes. We all stayed in the 5 room villa, which fit about 16 of us. Our villa had a pool just outside overlooking the beautiful beach. They also provide water sports and activities on the beach. The food at the lounge area was delicious. I recommend their chicken caesar salad and CRAB nachos (YES, CRAB NACHOS), oh and I can't forget their delicious Sangrias.

We stayed for two days and one night, where we spent most of the the first day shooting individual and group pictorials and video advertisements for Sassa's swim wear line. My photographers, Zaldine (@zaldinejae_g) & Joem (@joemsnmt_), were super easy to work with and we got take some amazing shots for the campaign and for my personal instagram. I was thankful because I had previously worked with them on my friend's music video ( What are the odds right?) , so it made me feel more at ease during the shoot. Honestly doing swim wear pictorials make me super self conscious, especially when the rest of the girls were all beautiful health and fitness models and gurus. Low key, I felt like a bloated whale, we can thank mother nature for that. I wore a black low waisted bikini with a matching triangle bikini top that had some really cool mesh detailing. I loved how even though the bikini's were relatively conservative each piece still had some sort of detailing that gave it some sexiness. I think in this day of age every woman wants to feel sexy and confident in a bikini, & it's hard to feel that if you're uncomfortable. So having photographers I had worked with before definitely made me feel more comfortable and in turn more confident. The video crew was also super fun to work with and we shot some cool behind the scenes features. On our down time I was able to bond with all the rest of the the girls. We played volleyball, got to know each other, drank sangrias and had a dance party for the rest of the first night. It was definitely a night to remember. Honestly I'm glad us girls all got along because sometimes going to these kind of events can be.. well, awkward. You don't always get to meet the nicest or sincerest people in this industry, and you're simply not going to get along with everyone because that's just life. So, it's great when you meet some good people you can bond with it makes the experience a whole lot more memorable.

The second day entailed a group pictorial, this time for their active wear line. I got to wear a cute pink and teal two toned graphic legging and tank top piece. I'll be honest, I'm not one to wear a tank top to the gym. I usually just workout in a sports bra, but the design was cute and summery and it's always good to have options. Followed by the pictorial was a our group workout and girl, IT WAS A SWEAT SESH. We did two workouts outside in the middle of the heat with the 9am sunshine just beaming down on us. To make the situation even better we all had cameras on us. There was no room to make any mistakes or ugly exhausted faces. Smile through the pain, right? The first session was led by Carla (@carlapiscoso), where she killed us with a legs, booty and arms workout using sports bands. The workout MURDERED my arms since I'm definitely that girl who always skips arm day. But don't let those small elastic bands fool you, they really do add a level of difficulty. The second session was led by Lexi (@flexinoval) where we did a fun HIIT and dance workout where we got to groove to some of our favorite pop songs. I definitely was sore the next day from these workouts so you know they did the job.

After the sweat sesh, we changed into our second bikini look and took another group pictorial. This bikini was definitely my favorite look. I wore a blue high waisted bikini bottom that had some flirty cut out detailing on the sides with a floral halter bikini top. I've always had a thing for high waisted ANYTHING because I have such a long torso so, it gives me the illusion of long legs (a girl can dream). I also loved the photos that Joem took of me and Sammie for this shoot and the group photos turned out beautiful. We all looked like some bad a** b*tches.

Then lastly we had a cooking lesson taught by Arla (@plantbasedpilipina), where she taught us all about having a plant based diet and gave us tips on how to live a healthier lifestyle. She gave us her recipe to her delicious matcha smoothie bowls, asian quinoa salad, and chickpea "tuna" salad wraps. They were all delicious and definitely hit the spot after that workout. Arla definitely inspired me to try new ingredients and to add more veggies in my every day diet. After the cooking lesson we all dug in, then packed up our things because check out was coming up quick.

Honestly, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend getaway. It was nice meeting new people and learning new things that benefitted our health and wellness from one another. Im super happy that I was able to be part of Sassa's summer campaign, and want to thank Mona for including me in the opportunity. If you wanna check out more of the campaign you can search up the hashtags: #SASSAFORALL, #SassaGirlsOfSummer, or check out their instagram page @Sassa_PH. ALSO, Sassa gave me the opportunity to give ONE of my followers the chance to win a Giveaway that's worth 3,000PHP of merchandise from Sassa. You can find out how to win that on my instagram page, @alliepundavela (or just click on the picture). I had the best girl's trip with Sassa and now you can too!

With Love,

Allie.