What's in my Bag? April 2014

The Mini Cooper. A Fender Stratocaster. Chanel No5. War and Peace.

These things are all classics of their genres, and the ‘What’s in my Bag?’ post is a classic blog entry. 

It’s one I can’t get enough of. These videos were one of the first things I watched when I joined YouTube, and they’re still a favourite now. Models, actresses, beauty bloggers, random people…for some reason, I have an unquenchable thirst to know what they cart around with them all day. 

This post never seems to get old, and I’ve watched and read hundreds of them in my time, so I thought it was time to do my own.

The Bag

Even though I'm a total bag addict, I don't tend to buy that many these days. I'm quite fussy about what I carry, and if I do buy a bag, its usually an evening bag. Since saving up for my prize possession, a Mulberry Alexa, I haven't actually bought another day bag in several years. But I've just this month purchased a new day bag - and its this gorgeous, petrol blue number.

The bag came from PopKors, which is an online bag boutique I really like. Everything comes from Korea, but they're all made from nice leather and finished beautifully. This bag cost £34.00, plus shipping charges, and it's so well made. I'd been looking at the design for a while.

What won me over was the versatility of this piece and also the simplicity.  It's just a very plain leather rectangle with just a little embossed writing at the top that reads 'Evada Premium Paris'.

But its really designed in a versatile way. The bag is made up of three zipped pouches that snap together. This means you can use one or two sections, or all three. It has a long strap, so you can wear it as a cross-body messenger bag for a more casual vibe, or shorten the strap and have it over your shoulder.

You can also clip the straps off easily and use one of the pouches as clutch for the evening. Or swap out the leather strap for a metal chain strap to give it more of a dressy feel.

Because of the simplicity of the design, I decided to go for this pretty blue colour to give it a bit of an edge.

Its the perfect size- not bulky at all, but deceptively spacious.

I used to be one of those people that carried a massive tote with everything but the kitchen sink in, but then I realised that no-one really needs to carry 17 different lipglosses with them at all times.

So now I'm fairly zen and streamlined with what I pack, which makes for much less shoulder ache! I like feeling hands-free and not weighed down with my bag.

Look at this little lot that fits in- I'm all about pouches to organise my stuff so you'll see a lot of them!

Phone

The first and by far the most important item in my bag, is my phone. I'm one of those very sad people that can't bear to be parted from their phone and breaks out in a cold sweat if I leave it somewhere accidentally.

 

I recently upgraded so now I have a white and gold iPhone 5s. To keep it pristine, its wearing a full-body hard case with a black and white print on the bag and pink bumpers, which is from Kate Spade.

My iPhone is my window onto the world. I use Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Pinterest to speak to my friends, and things like the Kindle app and SoundCloud to keep me entertained while I'm on the go. My phone is also full of fitness and baking apps - two contradictions I know! I use the Nike Training Club and Nike Running apps, Livestrong and Headspace. I also love the Zara, Topshop, eBay and Depop apps for shopping, the Starbucks app for getting my coffee fix and CloudMagic for email. I use apps like Sooner, Full and OneDrive to organise and schedule.

Umbrella

I live in Britain, where the weather is always predictably unpredictable. It's not uncommon to get four different seasons in one day, especially at the moment, so a small folding umbrella is a must for me and most other Brit girls.

Little handbag brollies are notoriously flimsy though and generally mine don't survive too long, either due to high winds or due to me leaving them somewhere, so I won't buy expensive ones. This black and white striped number is just from Primark.

Its not the most exciting of things to carry, but it is an absolute essential if you don't want your hair ruined by April showers.

Purse

A shopping addict such as myself always needs to carry the means to satisfy their craving! My purse is from Mulberry, its a little old now as I've had it a while, but I think its still looking okay. It's a deep chocolate brown leather with the brass postman's lock.

It's quite a large size with plenty of room for the millions of loyalty cards we all seem to aquire these days. I always carry my debit and credit cards and my driver's licence -check out the awful moody Goth girl picture of me when I was 19!

I make sure that I have my Boots Advantage and Nectar cards on me, and then all the places that I'm collecting loyalty points from -  I have a Cafe Nero points card, one for N:KD where I get my brows done, a Space NK reward card and one from the Body Shop - plus tonnes more -if I'd have gotten them all out of the wallet, the bed would have been covered!

I don't carry much cash, anyone who knows me knows that I always like to pay by card as I don't like having lots of change rattling about. The only time I carry much cash is on a night out.

Key Purse

This cute little pouch is from Marc by Marc Jacobs and its to hold your keys. I love the neon lettering and the chunky gold zip - so cute! I bought one of these for my best friend as well, because she loved MMJ stuff.

I just have my front door key in it at the moment, I don't carry one to the back door of the house. There's also a little key fob from the library on it. I'm a total nut for history books and my local library is amazing -  it recently had a makeover and now its more like a Waterstones than a library, it's so fancy! So I like to hang out there on a Sunday and browse.

This pouch keeps my keys from getting lost in the bottom of my bag and if I'm just popping to the shops or if I need a smaller purse for a night out, I just pop my ID and debit card in this and use it as my purse, so its super-useful.

Foldable Shopper

Because my bag is not a huge size, you can't just chuck loads in it, so one of the items I always make sure to carry is a folding shopper bag. This means that if I do some unexpected shopping (quite likely!) or I find that I need to carry something that I wasn't planning to, I have a backup bag!

This is from Baggu, they make bright, reusable nylon carrier bags that fold down to nothing and are so handy. I have a couple of their bags in different colours and sizes. This is the smallest size they do, and for some reason I went for luminous bright orange!

I try to avoid using plastic carrier bags where possible because its so bad for the environment, so this is a much better choice.

Make Up Bag

My make-up bag is actually pretty minimal for a beauty addict. I used to carry a huge bag that was straining at the seams, but I worked out a while back that I wasn't using any of the stuff that I carried with me. Most days, I use a primer and set my make-up with Mac Fix Plus, so it tends to last fairly well and doesn't need a whole lot of touching up during the day.

I'm using a pouch from Catseye as my make-up bag. I fell in love with it because it has a picture of Marie-Antoinette on the front, who I'm more than a bit obsessed with! Let them eat cake, I say...

Inside are the most essential products to me. I carry some pressed powder always in case of the dreaded shiny nose! It's Chanel Poudre Universelle and its also useful because of the mirror in the compact. Then I have concealer for if I'm looking a little tired! I carry Lacura Beauty Concealer Pen, which is light-reflective so it also works as a highligher.

Vaseline Pink Bubbly is an absolute essential for soft lips. I also dab it onto the tops of my cheekbones if my skin is looking a bit dull and lacklustre. I have a little packet of wet wipes as well, in case my hands get sticky and I'm not near a sink or if I need to freshen myself up. These are 'Vanilla Drop' wipes that I picked up in H&M.

Like most girls, I carry a handcream. At the moment I'm using the Molton Brown Rhubarb and Rose one that came in one of my Birchboxes - it smells divine! I'm also carrying my Sleek Brow Stylist for on the go arch touch-ups, and the Urban Decay Naked eye pencil, which is so useful because it has a shimmery champagne shade and a black one.

I love Zara's rollerball perfumes to keep with me and at the moment I'm using their 'Oriental' scent, which is gorgeous - like a honeyed cashmere with a peppery kick. It sort of just smells expensive and lovely. And then I only carry one lip colour these days, which changes depending on what I'm using. Today its one of the Barry M Gelly Hi-Shines in 'Capella', which is so long-lasting and really pretty.

Essentials Pouch

I know what you're thinking - what's with all the pouches, Sarah? A pouch in a pouch in a pouch. Its like a never ending pouch Inception! But I have a thing about cute little zip-tops and they keep everything clean and organised.

This one is from ZPM and it has this retro fabric that's beyond twee but sort-of fabulous at the same time. Inside are just some medicine chest essentials -  I always keep aspirin, a sachet of cold and flu powder, a Hello Kitty plaster (mature, I know!) and some eye drops, because I use a VDU all day and you can get really tired eyes. I also keep my headphones in here, just to stop them getting tangled up and broken at the bottom of my bag.

You know you're offically old when you carry emergency painkillers, but you never know when you or a friend will need them!

Sunglasses

Last but not least, sunglasses are a handbag essential even in rainy Britain! I always carry them with me in case I'm driving and it gets really sunny.

At the moment, the pair I'm carrying are an old pair from River Island, sort of an aviator style but with white enamel top rims - they're one of my favourites. Alwys prepared for sunshine or showers!

So that's what's in my bag at the moment. I can't believe I've finally done this post. I do love reading them so if you've done one, please post the link below. And if not, consider this your invitation!