”I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to participate in “Green lab” in Samobor, Croatia – because it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I met extremely kind and interesting people from different backgrounds, I learned a lot from everyone, we had some conversations I will always remember. This project inspired me to be better version of myself. First, we worked individually, but by each day we got closer and we finished working as one big family. Each night we immersed in different cultures and for a night we felt like we live in that exact country. By preparing traditional meals and talking about our customs, we broke the stereotypes of each country, we saw the differences as well as similarities in our culture. Moreover, we put our ideas into practice. We become entrepreneurs for a day, we made products by ourselves, we learned from many mistakes and tries but the outcome was more than satisfying- undoubtedly it is something I will remember forever and implement in my life. A small piece of my heart will stay in Samobor, is within each of the people I met. After we left the accommodation of the project, I thought this is the end, but then I realized this is just the beginning of a new chapter filled with friendships and opportunities.” Nataly A.

”I am honored that i had the opportunity to be a part of the project “Green lab”, that took place in Samobor, Croatia. I explored new cultures and places as well as met some awesome people. During my time here I made unforgettable memories and certainly learned a lot of new things which i am gonna take advantage of and try to implement them in my daily life, for both sake of me and the environment. We learned how to make variety of cosmetics such as face creams, soap, lipstick and more. Furthermore we also had the opportunity to put ourselves in entrepreneur shoes and present and as well advertise our brand and natural product which we created during our time here. We used different social medias as means to show our brand to the world. I have to be honest here, my most favorite thing of the exchange was the fact that we were in the village which offered a lot of peace of mind and re-connected us with nature. And the chickens. Chickens are the best. Chickens are happiness. I think we made a great team and I believe i managed to bond with all the people here during the the whole project and especially our romantic nights around the fire. I hope we will be staying in touch in the future and hopefully someday meet once again. I find the time that i spend here as extremely beneficial as i learned quite a lot of new things. I certainly appreciate every moment that happened here and once again want to highlight how glad i am that i had the opportunity to participate. Thank you!” Milian M.

”I was part of an amazing project called Green lab. This youth exchange has given me an opportunity to discover a new country and language. I experienced new friendships and learned more about natural cosmetics. I had the chance to strengthen my teamwork and social skills. We started everyday with a team-building exercises. The place where we stayed was almost I am the middle of nowhere, here was no service most of the time so it was very relaxing. I used this to explore the local nature and rest. Our hosts were amazing and very welcoming. They provided us with everything we needed and asked us and cared for us.  There was people from 4 different countries: Croatia, Greece, Portugal and Bulgaria. It was really nice and enjoyable to be surrounded by so many warm Mediterranean people. I have mede lifelong friendships here. We had a lot of team building exercises that helped us connect with each other and find more about ourselves. We had presentation where we learned more about green washing companies, how to recognize and avoid them. We also learned about natural ingredients, conservatives and emulators that we are good for natural cosmetic. We had workshops where we were separated in teams and had to make a natural product. My team had to make a face cream. We tried making a few different formulas. The first time we failed but the second time we made a very mice cream. Then we tried using avocado oil for the third formula but it didn’t work for us and we sticked to our best formula using almond oil. This workshop really helped me learn that not everything works out and you should try again. You will make mistakes and not everything can be fixed but this is not a bad thing because something good was born of our mistakes. This was an amazing experience and one day I’d love to come back here as the nature is so beautiful and the people are so nice.” Sevina D.

P. S. This is the Instagram page of our cream: @belarosacosmetics 

”Living a healthy life for me does not mean only eating healthy food or moving everyday – doing some sports, but also what are you wearing, what are you using on your body, what are your thoughts. That’s why when I found out about the project I wanted to be there and to learn more about natural cosmetics and not only that but meeting new people that have the same values as me. And I am happy that I was one of the 6 people that were chosen to attend the project in Croatia. When I arrived in Greenville I loved the atmosphere there – the big yard, the beautiful mountains around, the house that was with which was designed with unique decorations that I really liked. The organizers were so kind, caring and helping. I didn’t expect the food to be that delicious and I enjoyed it. Everyday we started it with an energizer then some activities that informed us about the truth about green washing, the difference between natural and organic cosmetics. We separated in groups and made lip balms, soaps, face creams and deodorants. I made lavender soap with the others from my team. We were in the role of entrepreneurs – we had to make everything – the product, the advertisement, the website and the social media accounts. It turned out really good as you can see from the photos and I am satisfied with the result. As a conclusion I want to say that I am thankful for the opportunity to be part of this project. I found friends for life there actually!” ❤️ Yordana Y.

”My Erasmus experience was truly unforgettable.From the people I met to the amazing atmosphere that the organizers created for us in Samobor. Because It’s my first time doing this I was a bit nervous about what to expect.The long journey of travelling to a different country and the feeling of the unknown and different was very strange at first because it’s something new for me.But thankfully I had people ,who I can now call friends by my side ,to tell me that everything will be okay.The instant click with my team was something I really didn’t expect,maybe it was meant to be.At first,I was overwhelmed with everything,but I got used to it in a few days.Getting to know each other with activities and learning how to work in a team with complete strangers was very interesting experience. You try to make and do something with people who you have no clue how they act and who they actually are. The activities during my stay there actually thought me a lot of things about myself.To not overthink,share and communicate with everyone despite the language barrier and cultural differences. All the meaningful conversations I had with so many fascinating human beings until early in the morning around nature is something I’m grateful for because it made me see life from different eyes and appreciate the time we had. All the team work,the process of making the products,the things I learned about toxic ingredients and how it effects us and the nature gave me different perspective and thought me how important actually it is to care about the components of one product.I’ll definitely use all my knowledge from this project in my future. I’m glad this event took me out of my comfort zone and that I had the opportunity to experience such adventure,full of ups and downs and many different feelings.” Savina K.

”To be honest, I had very interesting experience during the project. As everything in life, it had its ups and downs, however, I can certainly say that I learned a lot, not only about the project‘s topic, but also about myself. I find the activities that we had, especially those connected to the creating of our own products, very engaging and intriguing. I am grateful that I had the chance to learn a lot of new information about natural cosmetics as well as the cosmetics industry in general and its impact on our planet. I liked the group dynamics we had during the activities. I found the atmosphere to be very chill and predisposing. We were able to learn from each other and exchange ideas. Working with people has always been hard for me, but with all of the team building activities we had, I hope I have managed to improve my cooperation skills. As it was my first Erasmus project I can really claim that the experience was a completely new one for me. I had the chance to get out of my comfort zone, which I believe was super beneficial for me. I learned to listen more to others ideas, to make compromises. Also living in our not so big accommodation made me feel like I was sharing a home with others. Additionally it made me more disciplined and better at time management. Another nice aspect of my experience was the fact that we were surrounded by nature all the time. I really appreciated the location of the venue, it was calm, quiet and charged me with energy every day. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude for the organization team. The whole place emitted that amazing energy and I felt that they have putted their hearts in it!” Yoana A.